Dawn of the Dead

[Grimm]

Anyone deciding to check it out?  I missed the first 10 min thing they had on USA this week.  I hear it pretty bad ass.  Now if they just mad a movie with Ninja's and Zombies.  That would own...

[Bunk]

Ask and you shall recieve:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=4351

I think I would personally skip this one though.

I just bought the Romero original of Dawn last night on dvd, havent seen it in about ten years, so Im looking forward to it.

[Neph]

Defiantly going to check this out, it's been a while since we had some serious zombie/horror flicks. Last one was what... 28 Days Later?

I watched some of the original yesterday, but fell asleep at night due to St.Patricks day shenanigans. Damn you Alexander Keiths!!

Also, with most horror buffs saying Romero is god, how could you NOT want to see this (and the original trilogy).

[Arydon]

I saw the first ten minutes during the airing of Final Destination on USA.  I didn't really see more than what the trailers show, but it looked interesting. I haven't seen anything overly negative about the film yet. I've read a lot of comparisons to 28 Days Later.

I need to pull out the classic Romero films and get myself re-zombie-certified.

[Exsultate_Jubilate]

I'm greatly looking forward to zome zombie action. I have no great expectations of being blown away by these kinds of movies, but they are always good for a lark.

[schild]

Here's my feelings on the original - take it or leave it. I enjoyed it but it just didn't hold up over the years for me.

http://www.f13.net/index2.php?subaction=showfull&id=1079405603&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&

[Numtini]

Dawn of the Dead wasn't a zombie flick, it was a dark comedy about societal issues.

[Disco Stu]

Dawn of the Dead wasn't a zombie flick, it was a dark comedy about societal issues.

Where are your sarcasm tags?

[kaid]

I am a sucker for zombie flicks and I plan to see this one on monday. Heheh I even dragged poor alluvian to see house of the dead and this movie cannot possibly be worse than that.

kaid

[Daydreamer]

I think Im going to see it tomorrow (today?) after my finals just so I can name each zombie after a sleep deprived, caffine-empowered classmate, beginning with myself.

[Soliae]

I even dragged poor alluvian to see house of the dead and this movie cannot possibly be worse than that.

kaid

I don't think it's possible to make a movie worse than House of the Dead.

I, too, dragged a poor soul to see it...didn't hear the end of that particular bit of bad judgement for quite some time.


~S

[Hanzii]

Anyone deciding to check it out?  I missed the first 10 min thing they had on USA this week.  I hear it pretty bad ass.  Now if they just mad a movie with Ninja's and Zombies.  That would own...

"I kick ass for the Lord"
Forget ninjas, karate priests rule.

... and Schild, that "review" of the original, just made me hate you even more.
oh and, I disagree with what you said.

[Bunk]

Hmm, well schild, your review link seems to be borked.

I just watched the original Dawn of the Dead last night, first time I'd seen it in about 15 years.  I think that I would generally agree with you, it was good, but not as good as I remembered.

I think I just grew bored during the middle act, which really had no purpose other than showing us that the main characters were going stir crazy.  It just kind of dragged on.

I'll still recomend to anyone to see it again, even if just for nostalgia sake.

One thing that did blow me away though - during the final act, when the motor cycle gang appears, I suddenly blurted out in surprise "Holy shit, thats Sex Machine!"  Points to anyone that knows what I'm talking about.

[Rasix]

One thing that did blow me away though - during the final act, when the motor cycle gang appears, I suddenly blurted out in surprise "Holy shit, thats Sex Machine!"  Points to anyone that knows what I'm talking about.

From Dusk till Dawn? :)

[Bunk]

Yea, same guy.  Tom Savini. Turns out hes actually the main makeup guy behind Dawn of the Dead as well.  He also has a cameo in the new Dawn.

[Glamdring]

Forget this zombie flick.  The only one you need concern yourselves with is 'Shaun of the Dead'.

[HaemishM]

Tom Savini rocks. I have an autographed pic of him from "From Dusk til Dawn" somewhere in my place. A friend of mine got it for me while at a video convention a few years ago.

I saw the first 10 minutes during the USA Final Destination thing. It looks fucking great! My fiancee and I just keep staring at each other and yelling "BRAINS!" over and over again in anticipation. I don't think I've seen the original, as I'm not really a huge "Living Dead" fan. But I can sink my teeth into a good popcorn zombie action flick.

[Hanzii]

Yea, same guy.  Tom Savini. Turns out hes actually the main makeup guy behind Dawn of the Dead as well.  He also has a cameo in the new Dawn.

Turns out?
What, are you guys 15?

Somewhere I have Scream Greats, Vol. 1: Tom Savini, Master of Horror Make-up, which I think Fangoria made. But not signed. Haemish wins.

[Bunk]

Sorry Hanzii,  I was just never much of a gore fan.  I don't think I've read a Fangoria since I was about twelve, which puts that over twenty years ago.

But hey, I'm trying to learn.

And Sex Machine was the best character in Dusk til Dawn.

[Matt]

Dawn of the Dead wasn't a zombie flick, it was a dark comedy about societal issues.

Where are your sarcasm tags?

Perhaps I'm missing your sarcasm tags, but Numtini is correct. Dawn of the Dead was a spoof of rampant Western commercialism and over-consumption. Mindless suburban hordes mobbing the local Wal-Mart, etc.

--matt

[schild]

Dawn of the Dead wasn't a zombie flick, it was a dark comedy about societal issues.

...part commentary on consumerism, and part zombie-flick...

[Daydreamer]

Just got back from seeing DotD a few hours ago.

Good points, in descending order:
-The Celebrity Look-alike Scene
-Mixed montage of faked news footage with recordings of real life protests, set to some catchy 60s protest song.
-Two chase-cam scenes in the beginning (small things, but well shot)
-First Zombie Road-Kill Sequence (arrival of the delivery truck)

Bad points, in descending (ascending?) order:
-Dropping the best bits from the original
-Sudden, unexplained character reversals
-The Zombie Mother/Daughter scene (Rotten.com, eat your heart out)
-A-Team Rip-off Montage

Edit: Overall, an slightly above average summer popcorn flick.  B-.

[Alluvian]

I am a sucker for zombie flicks and I plan to see this one on monday. Heheh I even dragged poor alluvian to see house of the dead and this movie cannot possibly be worse than that.

And you will rot in hell for that you sick freak.

You can't drag me to Dreamcatcher though.  And I know I am safe because there is no way you would watch that again.

I probably won't watch Dawn of the Dead till it hits the cheap theatres.  Just recently saw kill bill and am very glad I waited.  Half a movie does not get my full ticket price.  It wasn't a bad movie, but it was only half of a good one.

If it gets RAVE reviews here I might see DotD in the first run, but it seems pretty limp so far.

[HaemishM]

I absolutely fucking LOVED Dawn of the Dead.

I never see movies at full price anymore, as most of them just aren't fucking worth it. DotD would probably have been. Sure, it's light and airy, a popcorn flick with lots of squishy bits thrown about. Plot is paper-thin.

But damnit, it was FUN. It was well-shot, well-directed, and well-paced. Unlike deconstructionist-themed (or is it post-modernist?) movies like Scream, which seem all too smug about their ability to make fun of their genreness, this one never bothered with that. It just took the genre for all it was worth, without any smugness or shame. Good genre fiction doesn't try to artificially transcend its genreness, it just goes with it. This did, and did it well.

I'll have to rent the original to see its social commentary. This didn't have anything approaching social commentary, it was just trying to be fun.

[Hellfire]

2 thumbs, way down.

It was the first of the summer popcorn flics with no redeemable value beyond swiping a few bits from your wallet and a few irrecoverable hours from your life.

Passion of the Christ is likely a better walking dead flic than this piece of trash.

[Rei]

2 thumbs, way down.

It was the first of the summer popcorn flics with no redeemable value beyond swiping a few bits from your wallet and a few irrecoverable hours from your life.

Passion of the Christ is likely a better walking dead flic than this piece of trash.

Everyone else in this thread disagrees with what you said.

[Alluvian]

Who Rei?  You mean Haemish?  Because he is the only one with a positive review in this thread.  Schild liked it on the other thread.  Daydreamer gave it a 'meh' at best.  So here you have three opinions:
Love
Meh
Hate

And you are calling 1 of the three the minority?  Real logical.  I have not read the other thread in the we distort forum, but your comment means nothing in this thread.

[koboshi]

Who Rei?  You mean Haemish?  Because he is the only one with a positive review in this thread.  Schild liked it on the other thread.  Daydreamer gave it a 'meh' at best.  So here you have three opinions:
Love
Meh
Hate

And you are calling 1 of the three the minority?  Real logical.  I have not read the other thread in the we distort forum, but your comment means nothing in this thread.

 I loved it.

There now most of us agree.  So get off your fucking stump!

And yes, before you came in people liked it for the most part (schild raved).  It's a movie where you get what you've been asking for.

For years summer blockbusters have been made from shitty scripts and bad actors.  Yet everyone who watched them said, "Hey this is what I like", or at least that's what they said to the studios every time they bought a ticket.  So, finally a film was made to make you realize you in fact you hate it.

This movie does not try to create empathy for the characters,  it doesen't bore you with scientific exposition, nor does it draw you along with anticipation of the end, no, it just is.  The film is basically security camera footage; the story isn't there, but everything that happened is. (There are references to the security camera POV throughout)  But what is interesting about this film is that it isn't a blockbuster movie it's a high budget Indie/art house/avant guard Film, with a capital F.  The movie did exactly what I was supposed to do.  It gave you everything the trailer promised, explosions, guns, girls, zombies, stars and more. And yet it left you with nothing. No moral, no conclusion, no satisfaction. It's exactly what you should get from a purely graphic movie.  Yea, it's a nine buck practical joke, but you asked for it.

[kaid]

Okay I went to see this last night and it is a really good fun zombie flick. No zombie flick will be  high cinema but it was enjoyable and it was well shot.

The first 10 minutes with the arial view of the carnage that is striking the area is very impressivly done and the rest of the movie is quite good.

Also if you go to see it stay till the end of the credits if you leave when the movie is over you get one impression of the ending but if you stay you get another. This is the only movie in ages that I actually stayed at through the credits.

Kaid

[Alluvian]

There.  NOW a consensus is forming.  But to look at four people, two liked, one was luke warm, one hated and say the one who hated it is out of his mind because EVERYONE else agrees it is great is silly.  Everyone in the thread agreeing was TWO people at that point.  One technically because schild was not in the thread with his review.

I don't know if I can trust Kaid after that House of the Dead debacle, heh.  My wife is out of town in a weeks or so for a few days so I will probably check it out at a maitnee.  I usually agree with Kaid on movies.  We both agree House of the Dead SUCKED but he still was responsible for my being there.

[kaid]

Ok come on wuss you liked the ps1 graphics that popped up ever once in a while in house of the dead just admit it!


Kaid

[HaemishM]

There were a number of shots in this movie that I thought were exceptionally well-composited. One of them was in the beginning, when chick is driving away from her house and the camera draws back to this wide landscape shot of the road and her little car on it. A van or ambulance comes careening down a perpendicular street, slams into a car and rolls over into a gas station which blows up. It was just such an interesting viewpoint shot that it stood out in my mind, and there are a number of well-done shots like it.

Sure, it didn't have much plot, but I'd watch it a hundred times again before I'd ever watch such "Oscar fare" as the English Patient. It was a visual feast. It was well-directed, well-acted and paid off everything you should have expected from the movie.

[Cyberpilgrim]

Great zombie flick with the misfortune to be named a "remake"
It stands well on its own two feet

[Jain Zar]

I'm a big fan of the original.  This new one was ok, but little more than an action film with zombies in it.  Isn't half the film the original is, unless you like lots of action with little characterization or plot.  It might collect new players for my upcoming All Flesh Must Be Eaten game though.

[Alluvian]

Sounds like most would have liked the movie better if it didn't bother trying to pretend to be a remake.

Similar to how I would not mind the upcoming I, Robot movie if it was not named I, Robot.