Dawn of the Dead

Universal Studios presents

Starring: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer

Directed by: Zack Synder

Rating:***1/2

Plot: When hell exceeds its limit and has no vacancies the dead will walk the earth. Sadly for a group of strangers who basically witness zombies killing and destroying everything. They have to hide in a mall and get along and fight off zombies until they can find away to escape the carnage. Running zombies ensue.

Acting: Now you might be amazed but this movie actually has talent in it. Sarah Polley is a woman who can't decide what type of actress she is stars in the film. All I can remember from right now is that movie Go she plays Ana a nurse who witnesses zombie action first hand when her husband turns into one. Ana is the type of character you would normally see, the kind nurse like woman but Polley places some spunk into the character giving her some wit which I really enjoyed. The rest of the cast was decent. Ving Rhames plays a cop who just likes to hold a shot gun, he does a great job at being a bad ass like in every movie he is in. Jake Weber plays some regular Joe nobody who starts to fall for Ana but he has to deal with zombies in the mean time. His character lacks of any back ground or substance. Then we get Mekhi Phifer who is a young man married to a Russian girl and she is about to have a baby and that is all he cares about. There are another groups of actors in the film but it is pointless to mention them since their characters really don't mean anything in the movie. See the one problem with the film is they actually put together a great cast and had great actors but never used them in the end which really frustrated me. On a side note, the actors playing the zombies did a terrific job.

Directing/Writing: This movie starts off fast never really leaving the audience any time to adjust or wait for the horror because it comes fast. We get a moment of Ana being at home and having sex with her husband in the shower, but next thing you know it is zombie jihad and everything goes to hell. I haft to admit the first ten minutes of the film is amazing and sets you up fine for the rest of the film. We get a zombie child and great destruction scenes, plus one of the best opening credit sequences ever. After that the movie moves fast and then moves very slowly. The number one problem for the movie is it actually just had too many good ideas in it. So many side stories that the movie feels stuffed and even rushed just to get some of them on screen. We get stuff like three security guards who are mental and take command of the mall, a truck loud of people come to the mall and bring all their problems with them. We have zombie babies to gun fights its really too much. To me some of the best stuff in the movie had nothing to do with the zombies. There is about maybe a ten minute sequence where are group of survivors have some fun in the mall, checking out shoes, having sex and even having a dinner. My favorite side story in this movie had to deal with a character named Andy. He owns gun shop across from the mall and he and Ving Rhames character become good friends and they only contact each other by writing on boards. There are just some absolute brilliant moments between these two characters and I was loving it. All of this though lead to the fact that we never really get to know these characters because all of a sudden zombies sneak in through gates and what not and as characters start to die off the audience just doesn't care. Also the violence is hard core in this film, if you didn't like The Passion of the Christ for violence, stay away from this movie. We get several zombie's getting heads blown off by shot guns or whatever. We get chainsaw action to the legs and chests of zombies, fire and stabbings, this movie basically has everything for a guy. I mean I guess this movie may be a date movie because it has some cheap thrills but the scares are not really there for me. So to me this film is a total guy flick with the gun action and the quick scenes of sex. I mean it has dude written all over it. Now yeah I must give my opinion on the running zombies. Many people say this film has ripped off 28 Days Later which was totally over rated. It 28 Days Later though it made sense of why they were running because they were not really zombies but really "infected" people. In this film they are zombies and they should act dead, instead they act like wild animals. I mean to some running zombies would be scary, but to me being surronded by thousands of lerking dead bodies and you know you can't escape, that shit is scary. Some wild spitting crazy thing running around looks more goofy than scary. So I did believe that was a lacking point in the film. Also if you have them run have them be more of a threat. In this film they are just as easy to shoot as one's standing still.

Overall: It's good horror filled fun. Go see it with some friends and get freaked out. Goes it go down in all time horror list, hell no I've seen scarier movies on sci-fi channel but it is fun. This movie had the pieces but just didn't know exactly how to put them altogether in the end. Just bring back the slow zombies, that is all I ask.