Dawn of the Dead Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)April 12th, 2004
Dawn of the Dead
Matinee with Snacks
Zombie movies are not for everyone. That said, I truly believe that those people who do love zombie movies will LOVE this remake of Dawn of the Dead. It's fun, scary, witty, nerve-wracking, gory, exciting, and jam-packed with sly commentary. And it's nowhere near as bloody and violent as Passion of the Christ.
I am deeply ashamed to admit that I have not seen George Romero's original 1978 film with its flavor of consumer lemming commentary. Seems to me that this Dawn effectively uses the homogeneity of modern America to pay tribute to that film. If they hadn't told you it was Milwaukee, WI, you would never know where they are by the suburban and retail clues, which is the point of course - the United States of Generica is turning us all into zombies. But more immediately and more importantly, the bite from a really fast-moving, bitey bitey zombie does it! The slyness here is more confined to funny soundtrack ironies and appropriately- named (for the film's purposes) mall businesses.
The film begins slowly, deliberately, almost 1970's slow, and when the inevitable mayhem ensues (don't worry, you don't have to wait long), the camera work is interesting and different. Where you'd think a tight shot would be used, director Zack Snyder and DP Matthew F. Leonetti (Dead Again) uses a long shot, and vice versa. It's mildly disorienting just by being different. However, by the time we (and even the characters) have become acclimatized to the horror, the shooting style is more mainstream.
Anyone who has ever struggled to maintain walking speed in a dense crowd, or been driven mad by the general mulish obliviousness of the Great Unwashed will love witnessing all kinds of secret revenge fantasies against these undead extras being played out on screen. I used to avidly play Area 51 (a shooting arcade game with mutants) and I watched a full play cycle of the first Resident Evil for Playstation (zombies amok in a sealed environment), and I came out of this movie with the same glorious, sick, but pleasant adrenaline rush. Those who have had that rush know what I mean. It's packed with peanuts, stuffed with action, well-acted, and so scary it's fun. 28 Days Later, while not strictly a zombie film, never found the joy in its rage-infected bugaboos, although that film pioneered the "hey they can move as fast as me" zombie movement, used very effectively in this film as well. Dawn of the Dead gets the joy as well as its parodic 1980's predecessors did, but with the scariness back in.
Notable performances are Jake Weber (Michael), Sarah Polley (Ana), Michael Kelly (CJ), Mekhi Phifer (Andre) and especially Ty Burrell (Steve) is hilarious in the role that would have gone to Bruce Campbell 10 years ago. The soundtrack is a hoot, including Tree Adams' muzak contributions, and the end credits are chilling and kind of nervous-laughter funny. If you haven't seen it by now and you have the slightest inclination to do so, you won't go wrong. It's a pip! If this would be your first zombie movie, you're not going to be disappointed.
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These reviews (c) 2004 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
