Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Dawn of the Dead

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Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 03-18-2004, 01:14 PM:

Famous Players Metropolis, Burnaby BC, 3/17/04, Cinema #1, Dolby Digital in THX house.

Well I haven't seen the original, so I cannot compare the two and say which one was better. But I really enjoyed this movie. The cast did a good job as well as the SFX people. This is the type of movie to watch with a large young crowd.

Just make sure to stick around for the credits.

Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 03-19-2004, 12:32 AM:

This was the scariest movie I've seen in a LONG time. From beginning to the end, the whole thing really freaked me out. Luckily I saw it with other employees so we had fun laughing at it.

I really felt bad for Andy. He was cool.

***SPOILER***

The chess scene and the shooting celebrity look-alikes were hilarious.

It was cool how they retrofitted the shuttle buses.

I did find it boring at a few parts but I managed to schedule my potty breaks then. [Smile]

The sfx was awesome and the cast did great.

definately a must-see with people movie

4/5

Posted by Jason Thode (Member # 1854) on 03-19-2004, 03:16 AM:

It was a decent scare flick. Good special effects, lots of gun play and blood, and were good to go. *SPOILER* The Zombie Baby scene was a little messed up but added a good touch of gore. [puke]

And yes what happened to Andy was sad he was cool.

All I really have to say as for handling the zombie problem, a flat bed diesel truck with a quad mounted pair of fifty cal machine guns, no more zombie problem [thumbsup]

. Jay Leno and Burt Reynolds better be running if they see me [Big Grin]

(when you see the film you will understand, so go see it all ready)

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 03-19-2004, 10:26 AM:

It was good. It reminded me of 28 days later. The ending wasn't very good, it pretty much ruined it.

3.5 out of 5

Posted by Don Anderson (Member # 397) on 03-19-2004, 11:25 AM:

I guess that none of you ever saw the original. Anyone want to comment about if the remake was better than the original? By the way, no mall by that name in Wisconsin!

Posted by Christopher Duvall (Member # 284) on 03-19-2004, 05:23 PM:

The movie just plain rocked. Since I have seen both there are some differences. The story was changed a bit which seems to be a given on remakes. However, the biggest differences were in style.

1. The original was much, MUCH gorier. Much gorier. Did I say gorier?
2. The remake was very slick and well produced.
3. The original had a gritty documentary feel.
4. The remake had more of a edgy feel to it in dialogue. We can thank MTV for that.
5. The remake was shot or post produced with a very high contrast and the color timing done with a subtle sickly yellow/green hue put over it.
6. The remake had incredible tight editing. Most of today's younger viewers will find the original slow and a bit dragging. Thanks yet again to MTV.

Overall, a very fun popcorn flick if you can hold it down. [puke]

It should do very well despite the R rating.

One final note...It was really nice to see some of the original cast members in the remake such as Tom Savini.

I give it 2 severed heads on a pike.

Posted by Andrew Duggan (Member # 1302) on 03-20-2004, 01:11 PM:

I'm an insane fan of the original Night/Dawn/Day movies, so I was really skeptical about this one, but I saw it last night & was pleasantly surprised. I really liked the cast & it was a very well made, well planned movie, unlike so much of the usual horror garbage studios are putting out lately.

The soundtrack - Brilliant!

Posted by Dino Panagiotopoulos (Member # 1579) on 03-20-2004, 05:08 PM:

I totally agree with Andrew on both points but the one thing that bothered me about the film was that it jumped right into the violence right away without really explaining what the heck is making these people act that way.....was it a virus, full moon? Other than it was very well done and was very impressed with the sound mix.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-22-2004, 06:00 PM:

Signature Pearl Highland #12 SRD

I caught the film yesterday afternoon. Although it has been years since I saw Gorge Romero's original film and remember enjoying it very much, I thought this one was just as good. The first of the original trilogy, "THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD" scared the pants off of me but when it was remade in color, it sucked big time. With "THE DAWN OF THE DEAD", I was very glad the producers were able to avoid a lot of gore and still produced a very scary remake of the original film. As mentioned earlier, I did not like the alternate ending that played during the credit roll. I prefer it to end before the credits started to roll. By the way, what's with the red lettered credits? They were so dark, it was very difficult to read.

-Claude

Posted by Wolff King Morrow (Member # 2226) on 03-23-2004, 03:59 AM:

I'm a long-time horror fan and watched the original when it came out (I was just a little kid too). Getting to email and receive a reply from Tom Savini was one of the coolest things I got lucky to have happen on the Internet.

Anyway, I also was pleasantly surprised. This movie was WAYYYY better than 28 days, which in retrospect was not so good a movie as it was hyped to be. And did anyone else notice there was more chainsaw gore than in the Chainsaw movie remake? Yeahhh, that's why this movie rocks!

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 03-23-2004, 12:16 PM:

My teenager daughter and her boyfriend saw it this past weekend and loved it. We have the original on VHS and they watched that before they went to see the new one. Gore fan that she is, she really enjoyed the new version.

Upon her, and all of your, recommendations I plan to take my gore-fan wife to see it (her name is DAWN btw!)

Thanks for letting me know about the dark red credit graphics. When we get it at our 2nd run house I'll remember that. We usually light the screen with red lights as the credits roll, so that might make them disappear altogether so I'll keep an eye on that.

Posted by Dino Panagiotopoulos (Member # 1579) on 03-23-2004, 02:00 PM:

The dark red text on the credits isnt all that bad. Its supposed to be the effect of blood being washed away and it looks pretty good in my opinion. Just make sure you watch it in a nicely lit house.

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 03-28-2004, 12:20 AM:

Count me in as one of those original Dawn of the Dead fans who liked this movie too. It is nice to see a remake not ape the original, but at the same time deliver. This could have been very easily the fourth movie in the "trilogy". I actually wish they did to escape the stigma of a remake. I mean very few of the young fans are seeing this because they remember the original. So why even mess with the title.

This is easily a better remake than the bland Texas Chainsaw Remake which was more like a by the numbers nine inch nails video. They varied the look from tiem to time preventing any monotony from setting in . The cast was not boring.

My only quibble was the ending. A little abrupt. Also, while Ilike the first half of the end credits, the last few frames are just closeup of dead zombies showing up in split seconds annoying me. They should have just kept advancing the story all the way to the last credfit.

I wonder if that was really Sarah Polley or some naked body double in the shower scene. Nice to see some T&A injected back in the horror genre even if there should have been more in the mall camcorder scene.

Posted by Jonathan Worthing (Member # 803) on 03-29-2004, 03:22 AM:

On Saturday night on channel 4 we had a sneak preview (The first 9 Minutes)

First impressions were good, Fast moving with slick direction.

I am looking forward to seeing it in full.

This is the first time I can remember a TV preview like this. It is very affective.