Dawn of the Dead 2004

Greetings all! Today's tale is one of Mystery, Romance and intrigue! Ooops sorry wrong blog. Today's tale is one of death, death and more death. Today's flick is the Zack Snyder "remake" of Dawn of the Dead. You can view the trailer Here. This film was given 4.5 stars on Netflix and 7.4 on IMDB.

We start off with a nurse that is over her shift yet still around the hospital because of jackass doctors who don't listen to their nurses. To  all the nurses out there," isn't that some bullshit!" Anywho she finally makes it home and has some hot shower love making with her hubby. Fitting, considering she will never see him alive again. What's this? The neighbor girl has had her lips bit off and attacks poor hubby tearing his jugular vein. Ana tries in vain to stop the bleeding and get 911 on the phone but nope " all circuits are busy". HEHEHEHE.

Ana just happens to get lucky enough to see her husband turn into one of the undead and barely manages to escape his attack. She crawls through the bathroom window to find her neighborhood in shambles. Total chaos, hell even her neighbor is pointing a gun at her. But ooops he gets a nasty shock.

She makes it to her car and eventually the freeway where she sees naked zombie women(WTF?) and a blocked road filled with the dead and dying and those being eaten. It should be noted that these are not your typical slow moving zombies. They run! I mean fast track run! Eventually she manages to get off road only to run into a tree. Those crazy women drivers geesh. After coming to and realizing  she has not become lunch for a random tree roaming undead she meats bad ass Kennith played by none other than Ving Rhames

Without much discourse or communication they wonder down the road to meet three other survivors who are heading to,,,guess,,You know you want to. Ok fine, I'll tell you. They are heading for the mall. You happy now? Good, fuck you and keep reading.

Once in the mall, they start about by making sure there are no undead lurking about. ( good move). It appears as though the zombie outbreak happened before the mall opened so only the random zombie is scuttling about. Once they dispatch those they run in the mall security who basically treats them as inmates. It isn't until Terry played by Kevin Zegers of the AirBud series basically goes mutiny on the rest of the security crew that the rest of the cast is treated as equals. 

The Leader of the security crew CJ (Michael Kelly)starts out to be a real pain in the ASS but turns into a pretty decent and important character in the film. As more survivors arrive. They start to turn the mall into a pretty big home. Hell they have all they need. Only one small hitch to all this. Their in an infected member of the group. Not only is she infected but she is 9 months pregnant and ready to drop any day. This cant be good. and the way this plays out is cold blooded. All the while the zombie horde surrounds the mall. Hundreds possibly thousands on all sides.

Kennith makes friends with a guy who is trapped in his gun and ammo store. How convenient. Guns and ammo and a live person. To amuse themselves, they play games such as Hollywood squares and fuck each other. Hollywood Squares is a pretty simple game. Pick a zombie that looks like a famous person and let Andy blow their heads off.

Once it has become clear that hanging around the mall waiting to die off one by one, they make a plan to escape. This plan includes picking up Andy and getting on a boat to try and reach an island. Somewhere where the infection has not spread to. Even up to this point we still are not made privy to what caused the outbreak or if their is a cure. Andy unfortunately has been bitten and Kennith does the honors of blowing his head into little pieces. They load up on guns and ammo and get into their pimped out, Zombie proof shuttle buses and head off into the city hoping to make it to the marina. 

On the way their, one of the shuttles overturns and kills almost all of it's occupants. Oh well, less to worry about. Ana has taken a shine to her salesman turned Zombie killer Micheal. They eventually make it to the marina, but at a high cost of life and their are still surprises to come. Michael can't go with them and stays behind to watch the sunrise. 

The ending credits are interlaced with movie segments and first person shots from a camera. Eventually they do find an island, but not what they expected. This movie does not have a happy ending as we would hope. I find that in all Zombie movies we want a happy ending. We want to know that their is hope for humanity, but alas, this is not the case. 

I think one reason Zombie movies and the whole Zombie genre has proven to be as long lasting as it has is the simple fact that the world has gone to shit. We expect something to happen and soon. Yet we are to scared to face the real threats to our society so we make up Zombie outbreaks to cleanse and restart society. 

The gore in this movie is not over powering but it proves to be very lifelike and at times very disturbing. The characters are well developed and the story plays out well. Don't watch this movie and expect it to be like Romero's DOTD. But I would definitelywatch list as a stand apart Zombie flick.

I give this movie 4.5 severed thumbs. And Remember,

I watch this shit so you don't have to!
Shane

	Sarah Polley	...	Ana
	Ving Rhames	...	Kenneth
	Jake Weber	...	Michael
	Mekhi Phifer	...	Andre
	Ty Burrell	...	Steve
	Michael Kelly	...	CJ
	Kevin Zegers	...	Terry
	Michael Barry	...	Bart
	Lindy Booth	...	Nicole
	Jayne Eastwood	...	Norma
	Boyd Banks	...	Tucker
	Inna Korobkina	...	Luda
	R.D. Reid	...	Glen
	Kim Poirier	...	Monica
	Matt Frewer	...	Frank
	Louis Ferreira	...	Luis (as Justin Louis)
	Hannah Lochner	...	Vivian
	Bruce Bohne	...	Andy
	Ermes Blarasin	...	Bloated Woman
	Sanjay Talwar	...	Doctor Rosen
	Kim Roberts	...	Cora
	Tim Post	...	Reviving Doctor
	Matt Austin	...	EMS Technician
	Philip DeWilde	...	EMS Technician
	Colm Magner	...	Armed Neighbor
	Luigia Zucaro	...	Naked Woman
	Geoff Williams	...	Metro Bus Driver
	Mike Realba	...	Maintenance Man
	David Campbell	...	Squished Zombie
	Philip Mackenzie	...	Thrashing Zombie (as Philip MacKenzie)
	Laura DeCarteret	...	Washington Politician
	Georgia Craig	...	Anchorwoman
	Tino Monte	...	Istanbul Reporter
	Chris Gillett	...	Older Anchorwoman
	Derek Keurvorst	...	Scientist
	Dan Duran	...	Confused Reporter
	Neville Edwards	...	CDC Spokesman
	Sandy Jobin-Bevans	...	CDC Reporter
	Natalie Brown	...	CDC Reporter
	Liz West	...	CDC Reporter
	Blu	...	Chips the Dog
	Scott H. Reiniger	...	The General (as Scott Reiniger)
	Tom Savini	...	The County Sheriff
	Ken Foree	...	The Televangelist