Review #145: Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Zack Snyder (Director): 300 (2006), The Watchmen (2009)

Sarah Polley (Ana): Go (1999)

Ving Rhames (Kenneth): Day of the Dead

Jake Weber (Michael): The Cell (2000), U-571 (2000), Medium T.V. series

Mekhi Phifer (Andre): I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Shaft (2000), 8 Mile (2002)

Ty Burrell (Steve): Evolution (2001), National Treasure 2 (2007), Incredible Hulk (2008)

Kevin Zegers (Terry): Wrong Turn

Lindy Booth (Nicole): Wrong Turn

Boyd Banks (Tucker): Jason X

Michael Kelly (CJ): Man on the Moon (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Invincible (2006)

Kim Poirer (Monica): American Psycho 2 (2002), Decoys 1 (2004) & 2 (2007)

Justin Louis (Luis): Saw 4

Matt Frewer (Frank): Supergirl (1984), Spies Like Us (1985), Max Headroom (1985), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), Lawnmowerman 2 (1996), The Watchmen (2009)

Jayne Eastwood (Norma): The Santa Clause (1994), My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), Chicago (2002), Hairspray (2007)

Tom Savini (The County Sheriff)

Trailer:


Plot:

Director Zack Snyder gives us a new take on George Romero’s cult classic Dawn of the Dead. This new version takes place in modern day Wisconsin. A global epidemic happens around the world as the dead come back to life and attack the living; thus turning them into the walking dead also. A group of survivors in Milwaukee take refuge in a local shopping mall.

The survivors barricade themselves in the mall as they wait for help from the government or whoever else is out there. Catastrophic reports flow in from news casts and day by day zombies flock to the outside of the mall pounding on the doors to get in and feed on some human flesh.

Pretty soon the survivors realize that no one is coming to help them, and they decide on their course of action. Initially they hold up in the mall believing that they are okay, but as supplies run low and cabin fever sets in, the group decides they need to leave the mall and try to find a new home.

Villain:

The Dawn remake features the fast moving zombies as the film’s main villain. The move to switch from Romero’s classic slow moving zombies to the rabid super charged cheetah speed zombies that 28 Days Later featured two years earlier was a bold move. Initially I was skeptical about the move, but as it turns out in the end…it turned out fabulous!

The change in the look of the zombies was a brilliant move. It was the first indication that the movie wasn’t going to be a “cut and paste” of the original. That’s good, because I wasn’t a big fan of remakes at the time anyway. I didn’t want a cheap generic rip off of the original, which at the time, the original was held up to a great standard in my book.

Back to the zombies…okay, they’re fast moving. So what’s the big deal? I like to just think of them as wild animals who want to feed on flesh. It’s called primal instinct. I know that I’ve referred to them as super zombies, but they’re nothing genetically enhanced. They don’t fly or knock down walls, they just move fast with a purpose…to feed.

Cast:

Honestly I never thought I would like a cast in a zombie movie better than I did in the original Dawn, but I was wrong…again. The original Dawn featured four main characters for the whole movie the remake has a whole bunch of colorful characters that made the remake that much better. I’ve debated this amongst myself for years, but the remake’s cast has surpassed the originals.

Despite the overall dark theme of the movie, the cast of Dawn of the Dead showed the audience light. The cast worked well together there was members you wanted to hate and members that you rooted for. Snyder did an excellent job in casting and portraying these individuals.

Leading the cast is Sarah Polley who portrays Ana, a hard working area nurse. The film starts off following the everyday life of Ana as she comes home after working a long shift at the local hospital. The initial outbreak hits the next morning leaving her to narrowly escaping her zombie turned hubby. After series of events which puts Ana through an emotional rollercoaster at the beginning of the film leading up to the point where she meets up with Kenneth and the rest of the group.

Ana displays the typical qualities you would expect from a nurse, caring about other humans, good decision making and being smart. She quickly becomes one of the group’s leaders and somewhat becomes a tough chick bad *ss in the end…but not in the “I’m the ultimate warrior all of the sudden” way. The film is good at making Ana tough, but staying within respectable boundaries of what typical everyday humans can do.

Kenneth (Ving Rhames) is a local Milwaukee police force sergeant who was on duty
during the outbreak. To say the least, he was already packing some firepower to help him fence off some zombies. Kenneth plays a “cool cat” as he remains quiet and reserve for the majority of the film. He is just the total bad *ss of anything he touches, from Pulp Fiction to whatever, Ving Rhames is just the poster child of being a super cool dude. Kenneth is the remake’s equivalent to Peter from the original.
Kenneth initially wants nothing to do with the group held up in the mall. He has a brother in the service and believes he’s at a military stronghold named Fort Pastor. Kenneth wants to abandon the group and head for Fort Pastor to be with his brother.
Unfortunately Kenneth realizes over time that with all the zombies crawling and roaming around the streets, that getting to Fort Pastor is going to be impossible.

After realizing his hopes of seeing his brother again has gone down the drain, Kenneth forms a unique friendship with Andy (a gun shop owner trapped on his roof across the street) and takes on a more serious approach with the rest of the group.

Michael is the remake’s version of Roger, but cooler. Michael is the typical “Average Joe” anyone can relate to. He has a calm outlook at things and is wise in making decisions. He has that touch of vulnerability and past of being “burned by women” to him which makes his eventual relationship with Ana heartwarming. Jake Weber (Pictured right) plays Michael.

CJ is the mall’s lead security guard. He’s in command of a few other security guards when the group shows up at the mall. At first he is reluctant in letting the group take refuge with them, but eventually lets them in. He is out to protect numero uno, and doesn’t care for any outsiders in fear of letting the “wrong ones” into the mall. CJ’s character starts off the film by being a prick, but after time in some lock down, he comes around and is one of the film’s heroes.

Steve is the group’s dick head who everyone knows is eventually gonna “get his” in the end. Steve comes from a background of money and has little interest in helping anyone but himself. He is emotionally weaker than most in the group and a coward when it comes to facing danger. Every horror film needs this character and Steve was Dawns.

Mekhi Phifer’s character, Andre, was quiet the surprise for me. Leading up to the film, he was headlined as one of the cast’s top actors. Going into the theater I had totally different expectations out of his character. I thought he would be some super cool dude that would kick some serious *ss. Instead his character came out as a self-centered, idiot you wanted to die. In the end, I was cool with that.

SFX/Gore:

Another category which the remake has a leg up on the original is in the film’s special effects. Of course the remake has the benefit of being treated to state of the art special effects due to the technology around. Let’s be frank, special effects in the late 70’s come nowhere close to the sh*t we do now a days.

It was awesome seeing zombies get their heads blown off with bullets properly. Now that sounds pretty demented doesn’t it? But my point being, it’s great seeing special effects on the slaughtering of zombies look realistic like it should have.

The group does share their own A-team moment down in the mall’s garage as they “reinforce” some parking shuttles into a pair of pretty bad *ss vehicles. It’s probably the inspiration for Land of the Dead’s Dead Reckoning, not as cool or bad *ss looking, but a worthy idea. Once again, I like to say that’s the type of sh*t that needs to be done in a zombie apocalypse.

TNA:

Dawn’s remake goes 4 for 4 by capturing this category over the original. Let’s cut to the chase here. Original had one…decent looking chick, while the remake has…1…2…3…4 smokin’ hot chicks. Lindy Booth (Pictured Left) and Kim Poirier go head to head for the film’s top hottie. It’s a close tie, depending on whether you like blondes or reds.

The interesting part of the film is how Sarah Polley evolves into a super hottie by the end. My friends and I refer to this as the Polley Effect. She starts off the film by looking like: a 6 out of 10 on the scale of hotness. The film progressively continues on and by the end of the film you’re staring at her like she’s a 8 or 9. Wow. It’s a film where a chick gets hotter as the film goes longer. Puzzling…but nice. Sarah pictured below.

T.Gun’s Take:

The Dawn of the Dead’s remake is hands down one of my favorite horror movies of the past twenty years. I thought the original could never be topped, but I was wrong. Snyder delivered a homerun.

I admit there was a lot of excitement when the film first came out, but even I didn’t think that it would surpass the original in superiority. I was just hoping that it would be something worthwhile, decent and possibly a fun ride. Basically I hoped to get my money’s worth. The TCM remake had just started the new wave, and at the time, I was less than impressed. So I made a pact to myself with a set of expectations of this film…just give me something fun to watch.

I left the movie theater in astonishment. It was better than the original! It was new and improved. Dawn’s remake was slick and sleek. This is how you remake a classic movie…or any movie…if it had to be remade.

The remake is better than the original in my opinion, but by a slight margin. I didn’t think it would be possible, but Snyder managed to make it better. The film’s pace was awesome it reminded me of Empire Strikes Back. A lot of action off the bat, and then some time to take a breather, followed by an action packed ending.

Snyder also took a page out of Romero’s book and made the characters in the film likable. Instead of typical horror movie casting of disposable, “insert type” of characters, Dawn had a strong cast of characters who the audience could relate to and bond with. There were a lot of key emotional moments in the film that made this film that much stronger.

If there were anything that struck me the wrong way it would be two scenes. The first was when the group first got in the mall and was checking it out. Andre was wandering the halls and came across an exit. A zombie came running up and smashed into the window without breaking it. Andre remarked, “Shatter-proof glass.” That irked me a little bit. Really, he’s a window expert? That is kind of cheap and generic to explain something important in the film. It’s totally minor in the grand scheme of things.

The second thing isn’t a knock on the film, but more of a…I can’t believe they went there. For anyone who has seen the film, they might agree with me. It was the zombie baby plot line. It was kind of unnecessary but on the other hand, it was very bold and they handled it in the classy way you could. It took a HUGE pair of brass balls to present that past the studio exec.’s. I wasn’t completely against the idea…I just thought it might have been an unnecessary road to travel down.

Those two story points didn’t set with me real well, but they both are relatively insignificant in my view of the whole movie. I just wanted to mention them because I feel that they are the only two reasons that kept this movie from being perfect. It’s close to perfection, but not all of the way there.

Overall, this remake is a great film to see if you are any type of horror movie fan. Even if you’re not, it’s still a fun, action-packed ride to witness. Bravo! Well done Mr. Snyder! Congratulations to giving us dignity with a remake of a classic film.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened on March 19, 2004 and made $59 million at the box office ($26.7 opening weekend)
-Ended the Passion of Christ consecutive weeks at #1
-James Gunn (Slither director) wrote the screen play
-Matt Frewer (Frank) starred in the 80's sensation, "Max Headroom"
-Filmed at Thornhill Square Shopping Centre in Thornhill, Ontario
-The word “zombie” is never used in the film
-Was the 1st movie ever to broadcast the first 10 minutes uncut on network television five days before its nationwide release (USA Network) – And I saw it!