*Much* better than the original

Rating: 8/10 (29 March 2004)

For all the hype it gets from its small but devoted cadre of fans, the original Dawn of the Dead is really, really cheesy. A mall with a gun shop and tons of ammo in it? A few zombies that move slow as molasses in winter? A helicopter that can take them outta there whenever it gets too dangerous? Where's the terror in that? Most of the movie is spent playing around in the shopping mall.
Not so with the current version. The zombies here are mean and *fast*--and there are zillions of them. The terror and despair are real--as is the drama. Everything is precisely calculated and has its reason. Characters change as they live under the strain of balancing compassion with survival. Unlike the cardboard cutouts in the earlier version, these are real people confronted with an unimaginable horror. Some respond better than others, but both the action and the character development make sense and ring true. Even the music is far superior to the original. This is a masterpiece that has borrowed little more than the title from the original--and a good thing too.