Ferocious Beginning; Downhill From There!

Rating: Null/10 (26 October 2004)

Why remake a good movie? (Oh! the money...duh!) Personally, I'd like to see more movies that WEREN'T done right the first time get remade.
My expectations were a little low. Then the movie starts!...and Hey! there's hope after all. A creepy beginning that gets sca-aarr-rry! OK! I can live with 'super-zombies' if this quality is maintained. Unfortunately, the opening is the best part.
For any film to succeed ya gotta have something called characterization. And except for Sarah Polley and (the always reliable) Ving Rames; everyone else is snoresville. There's just too many characters filling up space and not enough quality writing to justify their being there. Where's the acting? The shock or panic? They seem to be just running thru their lines as if they can't wait for "lunch is here" to be announced.
Even in horror movies, a certain logic has to prevail to make the surrounding apocalypse feel believable. This has holes large enough for a fleet of semis. It feels like everyone was so impressed with themselves that they were somehow part of horror history with their involvement with a 'Romero Dead Remake' that the logical details were forsaken for shock sake. And this list of plot holes are too long to take up time to start listing.
Conclusion: Stick with the original and rent for curiosity sake. Not without merit, but it just didn't work for me...I'd rather watch a scary movie the scares!