A great zombie flick that stands on its own

Rating: 9/10 (19 March 2004)

Title: Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Ving Rhames, Sarah Polley, Jake Weber, Michael Kelly
Tagline: When theres no more room in Hell the dead will walk the earth.
Review:
Going into this movie I was allready going in with the mindset of "this is not really a remake" so I wasnt really ready to compare every single scene or line of dialogue to Romeros zombie classic. I was just here to see yet another zombie flick thats came about thanks to the glorious revival of the zombie flick.
The end of the world has come, chaos has started to spread and the dead are coming back to life! A group of people get together and in order to survive the chaos thats going on in the world, they decide that its a good idea to lock themselves up in a nearby mall.
I was very impressed with this film, I was to tell you the truth expecting to be a little dissapointed. I wasnt expecting a really really good zombie film but thats what I got anyways! Yup, you heard me, this one was good!

Lets see where do I start? Oh yeah...a kick ass opening that goes for the jugular! I was thinking to myself "they better do a good opening sequence and blow my mind" well, those first few minutes were great! The set the mood for the film. Hey! Its the end of the world! People running on the streets, cars crashing, choppers flying around, buildings burning...this was the beginnings of the fucking apocalypse and I devoured every last single second of it! Ok so we got a good opening...did the rest of the movie stay as good? Hell yeah!
We get some interesting characters to hang out with here. Ving Rhymes was a bad mofo you didnt want to mess with and a lot of his lines where some of the ones that got the most reactions from the crowd. We also get what I like to call "zombie food" characters. They are day for one reason alone...to be eaten by the undead. Heh...therefore aside from a few outstanding characters youll get a few cardboard ones.
What I liked the most about this here flick was that the characters you thought youd end up hating you actually ended up liking...and vice versa. You feel like you want the "white trash" dude to die...but then you kind of warm up to him. You think that the smart guy will end up being the weak guy...in fact ends up being a strong character. The movie was different in that way.
It was also different in the sense that the zombies are wild and crazy...they are not Fulcis or Romeros slow movie zombies. These are more like the infected people we saw in 28 days later. Savage and with hatred in their eyes. Though slow moving zombies are the traditional way to go, I have to admit that I found these fast moving zombies to be more of a threat which helped make the movie more intense.
It has some really original moments that really cought me off guard, like I said this movie just took me by surprise. Theres some stuff involving a pregnant mother which I thought was handled properly. It could have gone the wrong way...but thank got it was subtle yet effective.

Also the movie has some touching moments. Its not a film devoid of human emotions or feelings, its actually got some nice moments in there in which you see that the characters care for each other, they show their humanity amongst all the crazyness, I thought that was a nice touch.

Then we have the ending...ok Ill just say this. The last 20 minutes of this movie should not let any real horror movie/gore hound down. The last scenes where amazing in terms of delivering the goods gore wise! Dont get me wrong, the rest of the movie is great it has gore...but they saved the best for last. This movie is not a PG-13 "safe" type of horror movie. Oh no, this ones not afraid to go for what we zombie loving horror fans want....gore and lots of it. So Gorehounds should be pleased, theres just enough gore to keep us happy. Two words...chain saw.
In conclusion, Id say this was an unexpected treat. I was expecting a semi good, slightly dissapointing rehash of Romeros flick...but what I got was a solid zombie flick. Its solid I tell ya! Its got everything youd expect from a good zombie movie and a few unexpected surprises. This ones going to be a good addition to my zombie movie collection!
Rating: 41/2 out of 5