Great remake!

Rating: 9/10 (18 July 2004)

The 1978 version of George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" was an extremely gruesome film about zombies invading a shopping mall. This of course was the sequel to Romero's 1968 B&W cult classic "Night of the Living Dead". Both movies were very good in a series that would eventually end with the final film of the series, 1985's "Day of the Dead", which couldn't equal the first two films. Then in 1990 came the awful remake of "Night of the Living Dead", a movie so bad because it was almost the exact same movie as the original (except that it was in color). Now the second movie in the zombie series has been remade, and was a surprise! I actually liked this new version better than the original 1978 film.
The 2004 version of "Dawn of the Dead" pretty much has the same plotline as the earlier movie (zombies roam the countryside, and several survivors barricade themselves in a shopping mall), but unlike the "Night of the Living Dead" remake, this one isn't exactly the same as the 1978 version. This newer version is different. Here are three comparisons between the two films. 1) The zombies in the 1978 film moved slow; in the 2004 film they move faster. 2) Only four survivors barricaded themselves in the shopping mall in the original movie; there are more than four people who become trapped in the mall in the remake. 3) The human villains in the original were a motorcycle gang; the human villains in the remake are the shopping mall's security guards. I could go on and on about this all day, but let's move on to the other aspects of the film.
This new version has better actors than the original. The original movie had pretty much unknown actors in the principal roles, but the remake has a couple of familiar faces. Sarah Polley, who started out as a child actor in Terry Gilliam's 1989 fantasy "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" and then grew up in movies like 1999's "GO", is excellent as a young nurse who helps fight off the flesh-eating zombies. Ving Rhames is equally good as a cop also trying to fight for survival. Jake Weber ("U-571"), Mekhi Phifer (TV's ER), Kevin Zegers (the "Air Bud" films) and Matt Frewer ("Honey, I Shrunk the Kids") round out the exceptional cast. Zack Snyder directs from a screenplay by James Gunn, and Snyder made a movie remake that's better than the original (which is rare in the movie industry). There's plenty of gore, action, laughs, and good performances (not necessarily by everybody; there are a few supporting characters that I could have done without). If there was one thing that I disliked about the remake of "Dawn of the Dead", it is the final credits sequence, which I thought was kind of ridiculous. And not to mention incompetently put together, which made it very distracting. But aside from that minor quibble, this is for the most part a terrific remake. And yes, it's very gruesome.
2004's "Dawn of the Dead" rocks!
****1/2 (out of four)