OK, Quiet Friday, time for a sneaky afternoon movie.
Dawn of the Dead is a remake... usually I hate such things, unless the original (1978) really sucked, but George Romero remaking his own film had to have gravitas so I gave it a look. Also Tom Savini show's up in the movie as the 'cool mother' on the news broadcast (And as "Burt Reynolds" I think, uncredited). Plus this was always my favourite of the 'Dead' movies so it had to be done.
The opening was suitably icky with some brilliantly done angles looking out over the horizon at distant fires, city wide devastation and a high speed crash happening just below. I couldn't tell what was real and what was CGI which is I guess the ultimate aim of such tech. During the credits (And later in the film) there was use of stock footage from all kinds of real world disasters and rioting / disturbances which gives this a genuine 'end of the world' feel. Chaos, chaos, then there is the pristine perfection and peace of the shopping mall. Complete with instrumental Mu-sac playing 'Don't Worry be Happy' in the background.
It doesn't last long of course before we end up with a nice mix of everything that is good and bad about humanity locked in together. This is never going to end well, even without the madness beyond the walls. Max Headroom is there too by the way! ;-)
The result is a blood filled mixture of death, gore, resurrection heroics, sacrifice, sleaze, death, and all the best bits of your usual Zombie movie, with a twist... these monsters can run, no more Scooby Doo speed differential nonsense. You will recognise the plot if you've seen the original but there is enough different to have you wondering what will happen next.
Tom Savini doesn't do the make up special effects as he did in the original but don't worry there is still an uncomfortable realism to the yucky bits since the rest of the industry learnt from him! If you didn't know, Tom was a combat photographer in Vietnam and attributes much of the realism in his work to the horrors he saw and photographed there. I've added a wiki link above if you want to read about this under recognised hero of the horror genre.
In summary if you like Zombies, you will like this. It's as good as they come; but oddly I still rate Shaun of the Dead as the best all round entertainment Zombie movie. Not often a spoof steals a Genre.
Dawn of the Dead is a remake... usually I hate such things, unless the original (1978) really sucked, but George Romero remaking his own film had to have gravitas so I gave it a look. Also Tom Savini show's up in the movie as the 'cool mother' on the news broadcast (And as "Burt Reynolds" I think, uncredited). Plus this was always my favourite of the 'Dead' movies so it had to be done.
The opening was suitably icky with some brilliantly done angles looking out over the horizon at distant fires, city wide devastation and a high speed crash happening just below. I couldn't tell what was real and what was CGI which is I guess the ultimate aim of such tech. During the credits (And later in the film) there was use of stock footage from all kinds of real world disasters and rioting / disturbances which gives this a genuine 'end of the world' feel. Chaos, chaos, then there is the pristine perfection and peace of the shopping mall. Complete with instrumental Mu-sac playing 'Don't Worry be Happy' in the background.It doesn't last long of course before we end up with a nice mix of everything that is good and bad about humanity locked in together. This is never going to end well, even without the madness beyond the walls. Max Headroom is there too by the way! ;-)
The result is a blood filled mixture of death, gore, resurrection heroics, sacrifice, sleaze, death, and all the best bits of your usual Zombie movie, with a twist... these monsters can run, no more Scooby Doo speed differential nonsense. You will recognise the plot if you've seen the original but there is enough different to have you wondering what will happen next.
Tom Savini doesn't do the make up special effects as he did in the original but don't worry there is still an uncomfortable realism to the yucky bits since the rest of the industry learnt from him! If you didn't know, Tom was a combat photographer in Vietnam and attributes much of the realism in his work to the horrors he saw and photographed there. I've added a wiki link above if you want to read about this under recognised hero of the horror genre.
In summary if you like Zombies, you will like this. It's as good as they come; but oddly I still rate Shaun of the Dead as the best all round entertainment Zombie movie. Not often a spoof steals a Genre.
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