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Thread: Just watched Dawn of the Dead 04 again....

  1. #46
    through another dimension bassman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DjfunkmasterG View Post
    and we are trying to change yours good sir.

    ROTLD is a funny film. It is sharp, funny, has good pacing, and is decently written for a zombie comedy.
    HAHAHA!

    Not really. I still don't think they meant for it to be a comedy. When they realized how bad it was sucking, they decided to start telling people "oh yeah....uh....it's a comedy!"

    Besides, comedies are supposed to make you laugh. All ROTLD does is make me cringe.

  2. #47
    POST MASTER GENERAL darth los's Avatar
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    As a matter of fact ROTLD is in my top 5 zombie films along with the original trilogy and Dawn 04'.
    FEAR IS THE OLDEST TOOL OF POWER. IF WE ARE DISTRACTED BY THE FEAR OF THOSE AROUND US THEN IT KEEPS US FROM SEEING THE ACTIONS OF THOSE ABOVE US.

    I DIDN'T KILL NOBODY. I DIDN'T RAPE NOBODY. THAT'S IT. ~ Manny Ramirez commenting on his use of a banned substance.

    "We kill people who kill people to show people that killing people is wrong" ~ Unknown

    "TO DOUBT EVERYTHING OR TO BELIEVE EVERYTHING ARE TWO EQUALLY CONVIENIENT SOLUTIONS: THEY BOTH DISPENSE WITH THE NEED FOR THOUGHT"

    "All i care about is money and the city that I'm from, imma sip until I feel it, Imma smoke it till' it's done, I don't really give fuck and my excuse is that I'm young,and I'm only getting older, sombody shoulda told ya, I'm on one !"

  3. #48
    pissing in your Kool-Aid DjfunkmasterG's Avatar
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    ROTLD plays for the #1 spot in my top 5. It fights with Romeros DAWN every once in a while. Since I recently watched DAWN again, it took over as number 1, but I am looking to pop in ROTLD soon, so I see a change on the horizon.
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  4. #49
    Team Rick MinionZombie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DjfunkmasterG View Post
    ROTLD plays for the #1 spot in my top 5. It fights with Romeros DAWN every once in a while. Since I recently watched DAWN again, it took over as number 1, but I am looking to pop in ROTLD soon, so I see a change on the horizon.
    All time top five, or zombie top five?

  5. #50
    POST MASTER GENERAL darth los's Avatar
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    I believe it's zombie top 5. Atleast for me it is.
    FEAR IS THE OLDEST TOOL OF POWER. IF WE ARE DISTRACTED BY THE FEAR OF THOSE AROUND US THEN IT KEEPS US FROM SEEING THE ACTIONS OF THOSE ABOVE US.

    I DIDN'T KILL NOBODY. I DIDN'T RAPE NOBODY. THAT'S IT. ~ Manny Ramirez commenting on his use of a banned substance.

    "We kill people who kill people to show people that killing people is wrong" ~ Unknown

    "TO DOUBT EVERYTHING OR TO BELIEVE EVERYTHING ARE TWO EQUALLY CONVIENIENT SOLUTIONS: THEY BOTH DISPENSE WITH THE NEED FOR THOUGHT"

    "All i care about is money and the city that I'm from, imma sip until I feel it, Imma smoke it till' it's done, I don't really give fuck and my excuse is that I'm young,and I'm only getting older, sombody shoulda told ya, I'm on one !"

  6. #51
    Twitching fartpants's Avatar
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    i know its not a popular idea but i really liked Dawn 04

  7. #52
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    My second post and it's another review...sorry...But it says everything I want to say about Snyder's remake.

    I was rather excited when I first heard about a "Dawn of the Dead" remake, partly because I was pleasantly surprised by Tom Savini's 1990 updating of "Night of the Living Dead" (also reviewed), which against the odds actually turned out to be pretty good.

    I've loved the 1978 G. Romero version of "Dawn of the Dead", sequel to "Night of the Living Dead", but it was getting somewhat long in the tooth and starting looking horribly dated...a major problem with many classic 70's movies. So, the updating of a genre classic seemed to be a good idea and timely. The plot seemed to be the same, the characters were being played by non-stars and the early stills looked promising.

    Then the bad news started to seep in. Romero didn't give his blessing, `nobody' director Zack Snyder was at the helm and he had also decided that his living dead were going to be able to run the hundred yard dash without a hint of difficulty. None of which bode well. In fact, the remake was looking more and more like a cynical attempt to cash in on a famous eye-catching title and a cheap re-visioning of Romero's script instead of actually creating a new one.

    The James Gunn script (Michael Tolkin and Scott Frank were brought in for rewriting) of the new "Dawn of the Dead" follows Romero's quite closely; a group of human survivors of an unexplained apocalypse seek refuge in a huge mall complex as the recently dead start returning to life with an horrific desire to feed on living flesh. It may sound a bit thin, but in Romero's hands it was the middle section of a running series and he used it as a stinging critique on American society and its indulgent consumerist excess.

    Snyder's film dispenses with Romero's sly swipe at consumerism though. The super new 'American' malls of 1978 had become so commonplace, not just in the States but also in most parts of the Western World that such a comment from that angle would have been redundant. In fact the Thornhill Square Shopping Centre in Ontario was considered old fashioned. It was torn down after shooting wrapped. Of course consumerism is still a large part of modern human life (probably more so than in 1978), but a mall these days is nothing new. In fact the mall motif is used in Snyder's film because he probably couldn't think of anything different other than the set-up provided by Romero.

    Where both versions succeed however, is in grimness which is an essential element in any zombie apocalypse movie. Romero's version has liberal doses of humour (some of it silly like the ineptly handled pie-fight sequence) to relieve the tension and the slowness of the piece. But Snyder wisely abandons putting in slapstick, in favour of more considered humour as in the scene where the survivors and the isolated Andy (Bruce Bohne) in the gun store across the street, relieve their boredom by shooting zombies that look like famous celebrities: "...Rosie O'Donnell! tell him to shoot Rosie!" It's funny, but grim, because the celeb zombies are searched for among thousands of other hungry walking corpses waiting outside in the streets below. It's a vision of the breakdown of social norms and structure. The original version presents this breakdown too, but in a more subtle way. Humanity slowly turns off the lights of offices in the city and melts into darkness as the survivors steal a TV station helicopter and learn to begin surviving on their own in the grim new reality. In many ways Romero's more studied and slower film presents a more realistic breakdown of social order than Snyder's fast paced vision.

    But Snyders worst 'sin' in his magpie remake is his misguided tinkering with Romero's take on the living dead. Whereas Romero's favourite monsters are a slow, rotting, shuffling horde whose sheer number and relentless advance is very much part of their creepy menace, Snyders zombies are like Linford Christie or Ben Johnson. They have no problem racing at 25MPH toward their victims. There are some who find this particular addition to "zombie attributes" exciting, but I found it to be a completely ridiculous. Snyder's living dead possess the muscular strength needed to run at sustained speeds but they cannot break the windows of a shopping centre to get to the human flesh inside. I can suspend belief enough for the idea of the dead coming back to life and wanting to eat flesh, but I draw the line at them running all over the place without any difficulty at all. They are, after all, re-animated corpses and should be subject to some sort of difficulty in movement. The worst offender of these new super strength zombies is the legless corpse who attacks the heroes in the underground carpark. It's a haphazard attempt at a cheap shock and it doesn't work.

    On the plus side, Snyder's film has better make-up effects and more accomplished gore. Of course, Tom Savini was at the cutting edge of horror makeup in 1978 and there have been many advances made in makeup effects (a lot instituted by Savini himself) and many have been incorporated into David Anderson's special effects crew for the movie, I'm sure. However, as Snyder admits himself, Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" is gorier.

    Also in the movies favor is generally good acting from all concerned. Sarah Polley (as Ana) deserves special mention as she is in nearly every scene and carries her character well and Jake Weber (as Michael) also does a good turn as the quiet unassuming member of the group. Ving Rhames (as Kenneth Hall) plays himself again and most of the others are there really just to make up numbers, but do a good job.

    Other highlights of Snyder's version is an exciting helicopter shot opening and great end credits using a "Blair Witch" style handheld camera sequence, although the inclusion of Disturbed's - 'Down With The Sickness' is annoying and further sends the 2004 film down the MTV route. In fact the end credits present scenes that are far more terrifying than anything that actually makes it into the film's main running time.

    Zack Snyder's "Dawn of the Dead" is not a bad film overall and it's certainly a worthy entry into the 'Living dead' cannon, but it suffers from a number of mis-steps and ideas that could have / should have been dropped in the first place, like the ridiculous zombie childbirth and the running corpses themselves...and where Romero's long script and running time leaves the viewer satisfied at its end, Snyder's film seems rushed at its end. It feels clipped as if the film had been mercilessly cut down from a much monger project. As a result I was left wanting and unsatisfied at the conclusion.

  8. #53
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    Quote Originally Posted by bassman View Post
    *looks at Skippy's avatar and scratches head*

    I use the avatar as a reminder as to how horrible it really was...it reminds me every day...and as a little joke as well

  9. #54
    pissing in your Kool-Aid DjfunkmasterG's Avatar
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    As I have said many times I enjoy DAWN 04 over LADN, hell even Diary was better than LAND, but honestly we may all need to come to the concluson that Romero peaked at Creepshow. Basically everything else he has done since then is pretty much just late night fodder for the masses.

    While DAY of the DEAD is a good zombie film, and arguably the most accomplished of his first three ,it doesn't retain the sentiment and warm feelings that fans get from Night and DAWN.

    I like any Romero fan wanted to see the man do something great with LAND of the DEAD, but the outcome was a failure of epic proportions when compared with other zombie films he directed and Zack Snyder's 2004 remake of DAWN of the DEAD.

    The big questions is... can Romero get his spark back with 2009's "Of the Dead"? Lets hope so, but from what has been seen so far it doesn't look too good.
    ALWAYS BET ON DEAD!
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  10. #55
    through another dimension bassman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DjfunkmasterG View Post
    While DAY of the DEAD is a good zombie film, and arguably the most accomplished of his first three ,it doesn't retain the sentiment and warm feelings that fans get from Night and DAWN.

    You're gonna need a bigger boat.....

  11. #56
    POST MASTER GENERAL darth los's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DjfunkmasterG View Post
    As I have said many times I enjoy DAWN 04 over LADN, hell even Diary was better than LAND, but honestly we may all need to come to the concluson that Romero peaked at Creepshow. Basically everything else he has done since then is pretty much just late night fodder for the masses.

    While DAY of the DEAD is a good zombie film, and arguably the most accomplished of his first three ,it doesn't retain the sentiment and warm feelings that fans get from Night and DAWN.

    I too find diary and dawn 04' more watchable than land. I can't quite put my finger on what it is though. Part of it was having established hollywood stars in it. It just detracted some of the feeling of hopelessness. I'm like "look it's dennis hopper, I just saw him in an insurance commercial and now he's a dictator". It just didn't feel real, like the part was his own. We could have plugged a number of actors into his role (as well as other roles) and there wouldn't have been much difference. Imo, when you have virtual unknowns in your film, those characters are theirs. Could you really picture someone else playing Rhodes? I sure some one else could have done it but they're just not Joe Pilato. He is incomparable in that role. The same can be said for most everyone in the film.

    Now, while it's indisputable that dawn and night elicit warmer feelings from people, they are far from the best films, day is. It's not campy. It's actually plausible and they effects are better than land's, a movie made 20 years later mind you, which is a tribute to savini and nicotero. No wonder those guys are rock stars. If i could show one of GAR'S zombie films to a person for the first time and not want to turn them off to the genre with inconsistencies, inferior effects and zombie pie fights Day is the one I'd go with.




    FEAR IS THE OLDEST TOOL OF POWER. IF WE ARE DISTRACTED BY THE FEAR OF THOSE AROUND US THEN IT KEEPS US FROM SEEING THE ACTIONS OF THOSE ABOVE US.

    I DIDN'T KILL NOBODY. I DIDN'T RAPE NOBODY. THAT'S IT. ~ Manny Ramirez commenting on his use of a banned substance.

    "We kill people who kill people to show people that killing people is wrong" ~ Unknown

    "TO DOUBT EVERYTHING OR TO BELIEVE EVERYTHING ARE TWO EQUALLY CONVIENIENT SOLUTIONS: THEY BOTH DISPENSE WITH THE NEED FOR THOUGHT"

    "All i care about is money and the city that I'm from, imma sip until I feel it, Imma smoke it till' it's done, I don't really give fuck and my excuse is that I'm young,and I'm only getting older, sombody shoulda told ya, I'm on one !"

  12. #57
    Team Rick MinionZombie's Avatar
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    Day effin' rocks both the balls and the cock - it's an awesome movie - and I have fond memories of it when I first came across it (not literally, just mentally ), and I bet there's an absolute boat load of folks out there who love Day of the Dead very much.

    Still, what you say about Yawn, Land and Diary are your opinions ... just fancied making that really obvious statement.

  13. #58
    POST MASTER GENERAL darth los's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MinionZombie View Post
    Day effin' rocks both the balls and the cock - it's an awesome movie - and I have fond memories of it when I first came across it (not literally, just mentally ), and I bet there's an absolute boat load of folks out there who love Day of the Dead very much.

    Still, what you say about Yawn, Land and Diary are your opinions ... just fancied making that really obvious statement.
    Day was actually the first GAR film I saw and at age 7 no less !!!



    But yes those are just my opinions. But let's not get it twisted I'm speaking in relative terms. Land blows every other zombie film out there away save for the trilogy and even though I like it less than diary, rotld and dawn 04', out of respect for the master, I put it on level ground with them.




    FEAR IS THE OLDEST TOOL OF POWER. IF WE ARE DISTRACTED BY THE FEAR OF THOSE AROUND US THEN IT KEEPS US FROM SEEING THE ACTIONS OF THOSE ABOVE US.

    I DIDN'T KILL NOBODY. I DIDN'T RAPE NOBODY. THAT'S IT. ~ Manny Ramirez commenting on his use of a banned substance.

    "We kill people who kill people to show people that killing people is wrong" ~ Unknown

    "TO DOUBT EVERYTHING OR TO BELIEVE EVERYTHING ARE TWO EQUALLY CONVIENIENT SOLUTIONS: THEY BOTH DISPENSE WITH THE NEED FOR THOUGHT"

    "All i care about is money and the city that I'm from, imma sip until I feel it, Imma smoke it till' it's done, I don't really give fuck and my excuse is that I'm young,and I'm only getting older, sombody shoulda told ya, I'm on one !"

  14. #59
    pissing in your Kool-Aid DjfunkmasterG's Avatar
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    Don't get me wrong, I like DAY, I just feel that his work was more up to snuff pre-DAY. Day is still one of the best zombie films made, but lets face facts he isn't doing what he should be doing with his series.

    It is almost like he is deliberately destroying it.
    ALWAYS BET ON DEAD!
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  15. #60
    through another dimension bassman's Avatar
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    How was he destroying it with Day? Because it had a dark tone instead of Dawn's lollipop adventure-fun? I don't see that as destroying anything. He just made a different film. Why make a film like Dawn all over again?


    If anything, Day is closer to Night than Dawn. A good way to close out the trilogy, imo. And it's always been my favorite of the three...

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