well worth the price of admission for me

Rating: 9/10 (21 March 2004)

Not a "remake" so much as a "revision" of Romero's famous original. While some of the more appealing elements of the original are gone (like most of the "mindless mall rat" aspect of the zombies), and others of the original rules are bent or broken, I'd still rate this as the best zombie movie since, well, the last Romero-inspired film (Day of the Dead).
With a bigger budget, bigger stars, and bigger effects, the movie is somewhat more of an action film than the original Romero series...and that worked quite well for me. My own personal rating of a flick like this depends heavily on the creep factor, the adrenaline factor, or a combination of both...and as far as I was concerned it delivered.
Could this movie (and last year's far more turgid 28 Days Later) signal the revival of the true horror flick? Well, yes, it could. I personally found it refreshing to have zombies that moved fast -- and the nature of the film is powered up by that notion. Imagine BlackHawk Down crossed with the original Dawn of the Dead. There are a number of big, fast-paced, grab-your-attention-and-don't-let-go sequences that had me gritting my teeth in both tension and enjoyment.
Final analysis -- there are only a few obvious improvements that could have been made, I'll go see the flick again for a second round of enjoyment, and I'm already looking forward to the eventual DVD release. Two thumbs up (that's all I'm equipped with).
(Oh yeah...did I mention? All the blood looks =real=, as do virtually all of the gore effects, a rare event in any horror film).