Dawn of the Dead (2004)

	Director: Zack Snyder
	Starring: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer
	Run Time: 92 mins
	Certificate: 18
	Rating:

Plot
Nurse Ana wakes one morning to find that the world has

Review
As soon as I heard they were remaking George A. Romero's masterpiece Dawn of the Dead, I was immediately kicking up a fuss, saying that such a classic film shouldn't be touched. And after "enduring" Tim Burton's re-imagining of Planet of the Apes, I figured that we were in for a right mess of a horror film, especially knowing how much butchering and watering down that studios practice today. Why can't they leave classics alone? If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

I'm happy to say that Dawn of the Dead is not only a brilliant remake but it's potentially one of the best horror films to come out of the Hollywood machine for years.

Having watched it for the first time, I realised I was completely wrong for having built up so much hate towards it. Apart from the title, this has absolutely NOTHING to do with the original. It's like a stand-alone film which starts as if the dead are rising right there and then, not taking it up a few years from Night of the Living Dead like the original did. No characters are the same and nothing they do is the same. The only link to the original is that some of the original cast make cameo appearances but that's it. In fact if they hadn't called it Dawn of the Dead, then comparisons with Romero's original would be few and far between. Thus because there are few similarities between the two, you can watch this film without knowing what is going to happen. So just forget the original. Forget it ever existed when you watch this. Gone is the social commentary - this is just an action/horror flick and makes no bones about it.

Dawn of the Dead begins with a bang. We get the set-up scenes in which suburban America is all happy and nicey-nice. Then when the characters wake up the next morning, the proverbial has hit the fan and everything has gone horribly wrong.

This remake ups the numbers count for our human survivors and whilst some of them are more or less pointless (the gay old man, the horny blonde chick), the script does a decent job in giving the rest something worthwhile to do. It would have been easy for the main cast to turn their characters into one-dimensional walking zombie fast food but they don't. Sarah Polley

Jake Weber is the most underrated actor here, bringing a likeable and real "everyman" side to his character. The scene in which he's recalls what job he was best and worst at before everything happened instantly gives him more characterisation than an entire film could have done. Mekfi Phifer goes on a bit of a rollercoaster ride as the desperate father-to-be who wants to make sure that his unborn child is given all of the advantages in life that he didn't have and will go to any lengths to ensure that. Cue one of cinema's most gruesome pregnancy scenes. Ving Rhames does what he does best - acts big and bad ass. There is some warmth and respect underneath the power and bluster and his touching long-distance bond with the guy stranded on the roof across the street is one of the highlights of the film. Arguably with only a few lines of dialogue via a walkie-talkie and the constant use of a whiteboard to communicate, it's the guy who is stranded who becomes one of the film's most defining characters.

The film starts off quickly and doesn't really pause for breath until the survivors reach the mall. The moment where Ana leaves the house to be confronted by the apocalypse is chilling and the camera slowly pans upwards to reveal more of the city with cars ploughing into one another and buildings burning. More characters are introduced and it's the ones we meet to begin with who will be the main focus of the film. Sarah Polley is believable as the nurse who loses her husband and everything she has early on in the film. Vang Rhames adds some heavyweight power to his role of the cop who believes dying would be preferable to staying alive. Jake Weber as Michael provides the level head needed to cool things down later on and mention goes to Mekhi Phifer who portrays Andre, the father-to-be, with such selfishness towards what is happening now that it endangers the rest of the survivors. His emotional rollercoaster towards his pregnant wife and unborn baby is a touching sub-plot which could have been developed more. Also touching is the character of Andy, a sole survivor who lives on top of the gun store across the parking lot from the mall. He doesn't actually say anything for most of the film but manages to win over the crowd when he and Kenneth build a long-distance bond - when he finally turns zombie it's a big pity because the guy had balls to last on his own. The mall isn't really used as much as it should be here: there are only a few scenes of the survivors getting what pleasure they can out of the meaningless items left to their disposal. The gore elements of the film are about as bad as one would expect from a major studio picture, possibly even pushing the boundaries in the process. We never see the zombies ripping people apart and eating them but there is plenty of heads being blown off and people getting hacked with chainsaws to satisfy the gore hounds. Stay tuned right until the very end of the credits though: switch off early and you'll have a totally different outlook on the film than you would having sat and watched the credits roll.

Verdict
It's never going to replace Romero's original but Dawn of the Dead does update the story to a modern age and does so with a