Dawn of the Dead on DVD (2004)
When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth.....


I usually like to start off with a tagline of my own making but you cannot top this signature line first said in the 1978 George Romero classic "Dawn of the Dead." Now let me say first off that I did not veiw the "Unrated Directors Cut" of this film but rather the regular theatrical version. So this review is strictly for the movie and features of the regular edition. Before I start the breakdown of this film let me state that I watched this movie once a day, from start to finish, three days in a row. I have never done that before but this movie never gets old.

So you are Ana(Sarah Polly), a run of the mill nurse at the local hospital. The boss keeps you late and you have some unimportant banter with a co-worker before heading to good ol' suburbia where you fall into the arms of your loving husband. Isn't that sweet? Anyway you are awoken the next morning by the neighbor girl coming into the room and TAKING A CHUNK OUT OF YOUR HUSBANDS NECK, thus starting a trend of some of the most elaborate kills in any movie ever. Anyway as her husband dies and suddenly wakes up craving human flesh, things don't look good for Ana. She heads out the window and into her car where she see's the entire neighborhood in chaos. She drives and crashes her car as the opening credits roll. This is how every movie should start off before the opening credits. Anyway she come to in her car only to have police officer Kenneth(Ving Raymes) point a shotgun at her face. They soon ralize they both aren't zombies and team up when they run into more survivors. Michael (Jake Webber) and Andre(Mikhi Phifer) provide great acting during this and inform Ana and Kenneth that they are heading to the mall. So they break into the mall and meet security guards CJ(Michael Kelly), Terry(Kevin Zegars), and Bart(Michael Berry). They decide to share the place and before you know it more zombies are killed before heading to the roof. They see hoardes of zombies heading their way and spot a man on top of the gunstore roof. His name is Andy(Bruce Bohne) and he is pretty much screwed also. Anyway before I break down every single scene of this movie I will stop here. The rest of the movie includes finding more survivers led by the great acting of Ty Burrel as Steve, battle tank like mall shuttles, a zombie baby, celebrity sharp shooting, and lots and lots of zombie gore.

51. Why did I just say a random number? That is how many impalings, gunshots, and explosions were done just to the heads of zombies. Yes I actually watched the movie and tallied the number of headshots.... Oh the money wasted on Psychologists.. Anyway that does not even include the amount of limbs blown or torn off but just the head count of the movie. The gore effects in this movie looked terrific and most of all, believable. The movie actually made me believe that I was watching these people try to fend of thousands of zombies. The dialogue was great and this movie had that kind of sarcastic humor that I love. In other words, this movie was funnier than most movies billed as "comedies."

Now many of you might be die hard fans of the original DotD and may be thinking to yourself "they can't improve on a classic movie like this." If that is the case then you are probably in the same group that didn't like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. You are wrong about both movies, they are better than the originals. This movie isn't so much of a remake as it is a re-telling of a similar story. This time out there aren't any bikers or helicopter pilots in the mix or that pesky two and a half hour runtime. Now I loved the original but I felt it went on a bit too long and nothing seemed to happen. The ending payed off but the journey was too long. This movie makes the entire trip worth it without ever stopping to get gas. DotD '04 hits you with everything it has and never lets up, even when the credits roll it keeps hitting you.

The special features on the disc I watched has a 30 minute "making of" documetnary and deleted scenes with commentary so you find out why they were deleted. The best part of the features is a toungue and cheek, almost campy, "documentary" of Andy in his gun store during this whole ordeal. The disc also has commentary on the main movie.

Anyway this movie is the zombie movie. This movie has set the bar so high that it shall not be reached for a very long time. Let's face it, "28 Days Later" sucked and America needed a pick me up from the zombie franchise. If not for this movie America might not have been blessed with the British "romantic comedy, with zombies!", "Shaun of the Dead." That is another movie that I highly recommend to anyone reading this. I feel I am rambling so I shall end it with the same way I began...

When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth...

Final Score
5/5