Dawn of the Dead

This review is for the Blu-Ray version of the Collector's Edition of 'Dawn of the Dead' released by Shout! Factory in 2017. *****IMPORTANT***** For anybody looking at this for the first time, this is a remake of the original movie made by George Romero in the 70's. If you are a fan of the original, I'd suspect that you would at least like parts of this movie if not the whole thing. Like any movie that is being remade, there will be a lot of things fans of the original do not like. That is pretty much the case for any remake or adaption of a book from a much loved story. BLU-RAY: For the theatrical version, the print is made from a new HD master derived from the digital intermediate archival negative. For the Unrated version,there is a new HD master derived from the digital intermediate archival negative with HD inserts. I watched the unrated version. I'm not sure how the original looked but this version looks excellent. The colors are very bright. It looks as if the contrast has been turned up and some of the darker area's are hard to see. But overall I like the look. EXTRA'S: This collector's edition is loaded with extra's and gets 5 stars for them. They are: DISC ONE – Theatrical Version: I admit it, I didn't watch the interviews on Disc One but I watched all of the extra's on Disc Two... for a review, just look below... • NEW Take A Chance on Me – an interview with actor Ty Burrell • NEW Gunn for Hire – an interview with writer James Gunn • NEW Punk, Rock & Zombie – an interview with actor Jake Weber • NEW Killing Time at the Mall: The Special Effects of Dawn of the Dead – an interview with special makeup effects artists David Anderson and Heather Langenkamp Anderson • Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by director Zach Snyder and producer Eric Newman • Theatrical Trailer • Still Gallery DISC TWO – Unrated Version: • Audio Commentary with director Zach Snyder and producer Eric Newman • Splitting Headaches: Anatomy of Exploding Heads - This is exactly what it says it is. It is about a 5 minute documentary on how the special effects team made the exploding heads. • Attack of the Living Dead - This featurette highlight's 6 of the most important zombies in the movie and how and why they were hired for their parts. • Raising the Dead - A short featurette on the make up artists and the many extra's who worked in the movie. It talks about the different types of zombies as well as how many people were needed for the job. • Andy’s Lost Tape - This is a fictional video recording made by Andy. He's the guy who was in the building across the street from the mall. He makes the tape with the premise that he's recording his thoughts for a book. This is very well done. It incorporates all the scenes involving him in the movie. He is taping over a previous tape of his wife and daughter from the year before. It lasts about 16 minutes. • Special Report: Zombie Invasion - This was very well done. It's almost like a mini 21 minute movie. This is shot from the point of view of the viewer watching a newscast. You have a reporter who updates you and some video clips from out in the field by investigative reporters just like you would see if the zombie apocalypse was actually happening. While watching this, I was thinking to myself that this sort of reminded me of World War Z by Max Brooks and sure enough you see some interview clips with Brooks in these extra's. • Undead and Loving It: A Mockumentary - This is an entertaining fictional 'Making of' documentary of this movie. In it, the zombies are assumed to be real and are being hired to act in this movie. The production team complains about the needs of the zombies and the zombies complain about wanting to get better parts in movies. • Drawing the Dead featurette • Storyboard Comparisons • Hidden Easter Egg PLOT/SUMMARY: If you are purchasing this collector's edition then you have likely seen the movie. If not and you are new to this movie, I will give a very brief summary. The zombie apocalypse hits a small city and a group of people end up taking refuge a shopping mall. Unfortunately when they get there, there are 3 mall security people who don't trust them and take their weapons and lock them up. Eventually they get loose and turn the tables on the security guards with the help of one of the security guards who takes their side. Their only communication is with a person across the street from the mall. They communicate by holding up signs. After a few days another group of people show up at the mall and join them. One of the newcomers has a boat and a plan is hatched to escape the mall and head to a hopefully deserted island. COMMENTS: First off, I know I am nitpicking with some of my complaints. I get it....if things were logical we wouldn't have a movie. But I don't agree with that statement. I can think of lots of ways to make a zombie movie that would be logical. -Why did they have to go and ruin the end with the scenes during the post movie credits? They should have just left well enough alone or at least let the movie have a somewhat happy ending. -I can't believe the survivors wanted to leave the mall. I can't think of a better place to be all things considered. They have everything they need to live. In addition, there was a gun shop across the street. They had plenty of food. Granted they would run out eventually but why rush? They could have slowly picked off the zombies until they were all gone. -I thought that the pregnant girl disappearing for all that time would have raised some suspicions.. -I didn't like how the security cop turned from being a bad guy into a good guy. His change was just too radical. -I think the guy in the store could have basically eliminated all the zombies if he tried. CONCLUSIONS: I think if you are a fan of the genre then you should watch this movie. I get it... if you like the George Romero's original then you might not think this one is so great. But if you look at it objectively, say... as if the original never was made, then I think that most people would say that this version is pretty good. Ultimately I was entertained, that's what this is all about, isn't it? RATINGS: PLOT: 7/10 or 3 1/2 stars. I wasn't thrilled with the changes. EXTRA'S: 10/10 or 5 stars - Everything you could want is here... and then some... SFX: 8/10 or 4 stars. For the most part, I thought this was pretty good. THE NEW ENDING: 2/10 or 1 star - I hated it, the credit sequence made it worse OVERALL: 9/10 or 4 1/2 stars which I'm raising to 5 stars - Ending be damned, I was entertained.

A great zombie movie sounds like an oxymoron; the two words practically don’t belong together. I’ve been a fan since “Night of the Living Dead” and was very energized when they finally began to catch on in the 2000s. That gradually turned to disappointment as one low-budgeted, incompetent film after another was released. I stopped counting when I reached 100, but I’m sure I’ve sat through at least half as many more since then. In all that there are only a very few that can be called great but this is one of them. This 2004 film is a remake of the great 1978 original of the same title and I won’t even try to compare them. They have similar plots with survivors escaping to a shopping mall during a sudden zombie outbreak but differ after that. All I can say is that both are good and well worth seeing if you are into zombies. This was fairly well-budgeted, even after Universal got cold feet and cut budget because the didn’t think there was an audience for zombie movies. (It ended up making back four times its budget just in movie theater tickets). It’s well-written, and even though the characters are mostly “types”, they seem authentic and they change and grow, some developing heroic traits as events unfold. The actors are all committed to their roles and play them seriously, without irony. The level of acting here is far above what you usually find in the zombie and horror genre. These people were already professionals and the fact that most went on to many other projects is no surprise. Ving Rhames is, of course, a terrific heroic warrior, as Kenneth. Sarah polley as Ana goes from terror-filled victim to competent member of the group. Jake Weber (who I remember as a scheming bad fellow in “Meet Joe Black”) makes an effective leader. Kevin Zagers and Lindy Booth make a nice young couple. Everyone else is good too, and it’s funny to see Ty Burrell (Modern Family dad) playing a sleazy rich guy who Ana eventually calls “a total dick”. What really makes the film is, director Zack Snyder. This, believe it or not, was his first feature film after only directing music videos. How he got the job I don’t know, but he was the right guy for it. He has since become a major director and though some don’t care for his DC Comics-Justice League movies, those are plot issues rather than style. Right from the beginning he has everything. Pacing, camera angles, editing, storytelling, lighting, setting up scenes, well-chosen music - it’s all there. There is so much going on, but it all flows smoothly without looking like a bunch of director’s tricks. The film has one of the great horror/action openings of all time that runs about eleven minutes before the opening credits. A quiet beginning at work with only a few hints of anything going on, a ride home to a loving husband and peaceful suburb then turns on a dime into a series of quick jolts and developments that are as fast as they are unexpected. The harrowing opening before the credits is beautifully framed by two almost identical overhead shots of the suburb with its circular streets: one peaceful and very ordinary and one of complete chaos. There are jump scares, a couple good fake-outs (where the camera seems to be setting you up for one thing and something totally different happens), good montages and the often shown Zombiegeddon scene of the tricked-out buses (parking shuttles) trying to plow through a parking lot jammed with angry zombies. The zombies here are of the fast and ugly variety and are always a serious threat. Every aspect of this film works.it’s an amazing film from a first-time director. This is truly a must for fans of the genre.. A great zombie movie sounds like an oxymoron; the two words practically don’t belong together. I’ve been a fan since “Night of the Living Dead” and was very energized when they finally began to catch on in the 2000s. That gradually turned to disappointment as one low-budgeted, incompetent film after another was released. I stopped counting when I reached 100, but I’m sure I’ve sat through at least half as many more since then. In all that there are only a very few that can be called great but this is one of them. This 2004 film is a remake of the great 1978 original of the same title and I won’t even try to compare them. They have similar plots with survivors escaping to a shopping mall during a sudden zombie outbreak but differ after that. All I can say is that both are good and well worth seeing if you are into zombies. This was fairly well-budgeted, even after Universal got cold feet and cut budget because the didn’t think there was an audience for zombie movies. (It ended up making back four times its budget just in movie theater tickets). It’s well-written, and even though the characters are mostly “types”, they seem authentic and they change and grow, some developing heroic traits as events unfold. The actors are all committed to their roles and play them seriously, without irony. The level of acting here is far above what you usually find in the zombie and horror genre. These people were already professionals and the fact that most went on to many other projects is no surprise. Ving Rhames is, of course, a terrific heroic warrior, as Kenneth. Sarah polley as Ana goes from terror-filled victim to competent member of the group. Jake Weber (who I remember as a scheming bad fellow in “Meet Joe Black”) makes an effective leader. Kevin Zagers and Lindy Booth make a nice young couple. Everyone else is good too, and it’s funny to see Ty Burrell (Modern Family dad) playing a sleazy rich guy who Ana eventually calls “a total dick”. What really makes the film is, director Zack Snyder. This, believe it or not, was his first feature film after only directing music videos. How he got the job I don’t know, but he was the right guy for it. He has since become a major director and though some don’t care for his DC Comics-Justice League movies, those are plot issues rather than style. Right from the beginning he has everything. Pacing, camera angles, editing, storytelling, lighting, setting up scenes, well-chosen music - it’s all there. There is so much going on, but it all flows smoothly without looking like a bunch of director’s tricks. The film has one of the great horror/action openings of all time that runs about eleven minutes before the opening credits. A quiet beginning at work with only a few hints of anything going on, a ride home to a loving husband and peaceful suburb then turns on a dime into a series of quick jolts and developments that are as fast as they are unexpected. The harrowing opening before the credits is beautifully framed by two almost identical overhead shots of the suburb with its circular streets: one peaceful and very ordinary and one of complete chaos. There are jump scares, a couple good fake-outs (where the camera seems to be setting you up for one thing and something totally different happens), good montages and the often shown Zombiegeddon scene of the tricked-out buses (parking shuttles) trying to plow through a parking lot jammed with angry zombies. The zombies here are of the fast and ugly variety and are always a serious threat. Every aspect of this film works.it’s an amazing film from a first-time director. This is truly a must for fans of the genre..

Zack Snyder's 2004 remake of the landmark 1978 George Romero zombie film "Dawn of the Dead" is an example of how to do a remake correctly. Essentially it takes the basic concept of survivors during a zombie apocalypse taking refuge in a shopping mall but outside of that does its own thing. While the Dawn of the Dead remake is not as great of a film as the original, it is still well done and a lot of fun for zombie/horror fans. Universal originally released the Dawn of the Dead remake on blu-ray back in 2008 in what was dubbed as the "unrated director's cut" adding about 10 additional minutes which turned out to be a slight misnomer due to one instance of additional nudity being blocked out strangely enough by CGI blood on a windshield. (I have also read reports that there were also some blurring effects used in some other additional scenes too supposedly.) The disc was single layer featuring the film in a VC-1 encoded transfer with a somewhat low bit rate staying in the low 20's/upper teens for the most part. Image quality was quite good at the time due to Universal did not slather the film with digital noise reduction (DNR) like they were very prone to do around that time. The only extra brought over from the DVD edition was the commentary track which made it frustratingly impossible for fans to get rid of their DVD version. Scream Factory decided to give the film some collector's edition attention in 2017 as a 2 disc blu-ray release. Technical specs are as follows: DISC ONE: Theatrical Version NEW HD Master Derived From The 2K Digital Intermediate NEW Take A Chance On Me – An Interview With Actor Ty Burrell NEW Gunn For Hire – An Interview With Writer James Gunn NEW Punk, Rock, & Zombie – An Interview With Actor Jake Weber NEW Killing Time At The Mall: The Special Effects Of Dawn Of The Dead – An Interview With Special Makeup Effects Artists David Anderson And Heather Langenkamp Anderson Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary By Director Zach Snyder And Producer Eric Newman Theatrical Trailer Still Gallery DISC TWO: Unrated Version NEW HD Master From The 2K Digital Intermediate With HD Inserts Audio Commentary With Director Zach Snyder And Producer Eric Newman Splitting Headaches: Anatomy Of Exploding Heads Attack Of The Living Dead Raising The Dead Andy’s Lost Tape Special Report: Zombie Invasion Undead And Loving It: A Mockumentary Drawing The Dead Featurette Storyboard Comparisons Hidden Easter Egg With fresh new AVC encoded 2K scans, image quality on the Scream Factory release does show some improvements in all areas though it is not at all a night and day difference. Due to the extremely stylized nature that the filmmakers used throughout, it is kind of tougher to gauge what has been improved if you do not have both the Universal and Scream Factory editions on hand such as I do to compare. One important thing is that the strange bit of nudity censorship that I mentioned above has been done away with so this is truly the uncensored director's cut on disc 2. Due to each disc now being dual layered, the bit rate has been increased around 35 mbps which gives the image more room to breathe. Detail is better, colors are more natural and better saturated, contrast and black levels improved and overall the movie looks a bit more film like overall. The HD inserts used in the unrated version blend in seamlessly. All extras from DVD releases have been included this time out with the addition of several exclusive new extras. Fans will be thrilled at the hours of extra content to wade through with Scream Factory's edition in addition to both cuts of the film being included as well from a completionist angle. You can also flip around the sleeve to have the original cover art as I felt the newly commission art was pretty bad and bland. Scream Factory does exemplary work with their collector's edition of the Dawn of the Dead remake. Highly recommended and well worth upgrading from the Universal disc without question.

This is one of my all time favorite movies. It just came out at a perfect time for me for whatever reason. Is it the best movie every made? No. Is it wildly entertaining and very well done? Absolutely. I got this because it was on sale. It's the exact same guts as the earlier 4K release, this just comes in a steelbook. Same extras, same 4K presentation, there's nothing new here. As a completist, I had to swoop it up. Glad I did because it went from $25 to $60 to gone in the span of a few days after I purchased it. Great movie!

Zombies...the living dead...is there a more misaligned population segment in Hollywood monsterdom? Perhaps, but on the scale of sheer numbers, they seem to represent the largest group. In general, they're not evil, malicious beings, but only doing what their limited instincts command them to do...eating the flesh (and sometimes brains) of the living, and when I say living, I mean humans, as they seem not too interested in lesser forms of life like polecats, porcupines, or plankton. And there's that whole thing of transferring their `undeadness' (I sometimes get a cold from a co-worker, and I find that highly annoying, so I wonder how much worse it would be to catch the death in the same way) to those of us who find themselves in the awkward position of being viewed as a hot lunch for these ravenous creatures, there by propagating the species, if you will. And let's face it, even if we could work around that whole thing of them wanted to eat our flesh, there's still the issue of rank, flatulent, rotten, putrid, decaying flesh to deal with...also, these creepy, cadaverous automatons suffer from a severe lack of personality, focused solely on the intent of fulfilling their need for our warm, juicy, tasty fleshy parts, inhibiting any attempts to open up a meaningful, personal dialog...oh well, they sure can make for some entertaining viewing... In essence, The Dawn of the Dead (2004), directed by Zack Snyder (S.W.A.T.) is a remake of George Romero's 1978 film of the same name, and a pretty good one, at least in my opinion. The film stars Sarah Polley (eXistenZ), Ving Rhames (Out of Sight), and Jake Weber (Wendigo). Also appearing is Mekhi Phifer (8 Mile), Ty Burrell (Black Hawk Down, Michael Kelly (Unbreakable), Matt `what the hell happened to my career' Frewer (Max Headroom) and special effects artist/director/stuntman/actor Tom Savini (From Dusk Till Dawn). The film, set in Wisconsin (that's all we need...zombie cheese heads) opens pleasantly enough, with Ana (Polley), a nurse working in a local hospital emergency room, returning to her suburban home to meet her husband/boyfriend (I'm unsure which). They share some intimacies and then retire for the evening. Seems like a pretty good ending to a normal day...enjoy it while you can, as the morning brings forth a whole boatload of bad mojo (and zombies). As the film progresses, a small group of survivors, including Polley, Rhames, Weber, and Phifer, make their way to a local shopping mall, seeking refuge from the insanity that has ensued, as the epidemic of the dead spreads quickly. The local, still-living population is ripe for the picking, as they are still unaware of what's actually happening, and the nature of the disease, virus, or whatever...tensions run high as personalities clash and more information becomes available, and those not infected begin to understand the reality of what's happening, and also their new place on the food chain. Haphazard plans are formulated and tossed about, but how do you escape from something that's everywhere? No...this becomes an exercise in survival, and a seemingly futile one at that. Is this the end of the human race? Are we destined to become zombie chow for the ever-growing legion of the undead? It's a zombie nation, and we're the minority... I did have fun watching this film, and thought it was done well, despite certain changes from the original. The direction from Snyder was slick, fast paced, and engaging, showing he's certainly a capable director, able to take an established storyline and infusing a certain amount of creativity, keeping most of the relevant parts, losing the outdated material from the original, while maintaining a level of respect from whence the story came. I did feel the production lost a little bit of heart from the original film (the group here never really seemed to gel as well as those in the original), focusing more on high-tech special effects rather than the character driven elements of the story, resulting in sometimes 2 dimensional characterizations (CJ the gun totin' hick, Ana the bleeding heart liberal, Michael the somewhat logical pragmatic) that you really couldn't care for if they lived or died. I thought the actors did reasonably well, but I felt they probably had little to work with, and ultimately wasted at times, which is a big difference for me from the original. There really weren't any standout performances, but I did like the guy who played Steve (Burrell), the ever-sarcastic pessimist always handy with a smarmy comment. His part was small, but memorable. I suppose the biggest difference between this film and the source was the speed of the zombies (who look really excellent, by the way). I think most of us are used to the shambling, doddering, slow as all out undead, ones we could easily evade, unless their numbers were too great. Not so here as the creatures moved extremely fast, showing excellent mobility and agility. This goes against what I would think of how a dead person would move, especially once rigor mortis begins to set. I suppose this was done to heighten the tension, which it tends to do, but it seems entirely uncharacteristic. I prefer my zombies to amble about, rather than running around like hyper children hopped up on Pixie Stix and soda pop. I did like the special effects a lot, especially those of a grand nature (do kerosene tanks really explode like small A bombs when fired upon?) Gore hounds will find sweet spots throughout, but I was a little surprised at the overall lack of visceral material (what there is is pretty intense). The widescreen picture looks excellent, and the Dolby digital audio is clear and sharp, pretty much what I would have expected from such a recent release. Included are scads of extra features, listed here adequately enough so I won't do it again, but I did find them entertaining and worthwhile. All in all, I thought the effort was really good here, albeit superficial. Cookieman108

To my surprise I really liked "Dawn of the Dead," even in this no holds barred unrated director's cut. Like many others I considered George A. Romero's original version of "The Night of the Living Dead" to be the classic low budget horror film of all time and I also have a strong sense of affection for the original version of "Dawn of the Dead," with its wry commentary on American consumerism. So I was wary of a remake, especially given that director Zack Snyder was a feature film novice and writer James Gunn wrote both of the Scooby Doo movies. But by the end of this film I was grooving to "Down with the Sickness" during what is one of the most unsettling end credits ever. This had to be one film where everybody stayed in the theater until the light came on and then thought twice before they went outside to their cars, especially if they went to the late show (like a true horror fan ever goes out before dark to see a movie). The basic story is the same as the original. A group of people fleeing from the zombies get into a shopping mall, where they find another group of people, security guards, who are not really happy to see them. So they have to hole up in the mall while the number of zombies outside trying to get in grows and grows. Ana (Sarah Polley) a nurse meets up with Kenneth (Ving Rhames), a cop. They then find Michael (Jake Weber), Andre (Mekhi Phifer), and his pregnant wife, Luda (Inna Korobkina). They barely get into the mall ahead of a small group of zombies and then butt heads with CJ (Michael Kely), and his and his sidekicks Terry (Kevin Zegers) and Bart (Michael Barry). Later on a truck shows up driven by tough lady Norma (Jayne Eastwood), Frank (Matt Frewer) and his daughter Nicole (Lindy Booth), sexy Monica (Kim Poirier), smartass Steve (Ty Burrell), and good ol' Tucker (Boyd Banks). Basically the movie is divided into two parts. Most of the movie the group is just trying to keep things together inside the mall. Then in the final act they make a break for it. The best bits are in that first section and what helps during the great escape attempt is that these people are not too stupid, which is quite an accomplishment for a horror film where stupidity often runs rampant. In the mall there are two intense scenes, the first involving the decision to kill one of their members who has been bit, and the second involving Luda going into labor (yes, what happens then is even worse than you can imagine). In between there are some moments of black comedy as they find way to kill time and kill zombies. Across the street at Andy's Gun Shop poor Andy (Bruce Bohne) is on the roof, all alone, able to communicate with the mall rats by writing messages on boards. There is some nice pathos with Andy to go with the black comedy of the games he plays with his new friend Kenneth. Of course, there are also a couple of memorable muzak moments involving grotesque irony. Because this is a 2004 film the zombies have to be seriously upgraded. Forget the lumbering ghouls of the original films, because these zombies are not only faster but not as stupid. There are also a lot more of them and the film has a couple of chilling shots and sequences where we get to see wall to wall zombies (or the entire parking lot of the mall filled with zombies at night). I approve of the changes because it allows Snyder to up the pacing and the horror. There is also a corresponding upgrade of what the living at able to throw at the dead that would make ol' Hank Hill pretty happy. Add to this the effective use of the "Aliens" rule, which is that as long as what you are shooting with your big gums are not human, you can blow them to bits and the blood and gore does not really count. You know what special effects are like today and there are enough zombies getting blown away for everyone to find one or two demises that appeal to their inner warped little child. Fortunately the three principles, Polley, Rhames and Weber, are all decent people, even in the face of the end of the world as we know it, so you do not feel like you are wallowing in the depths of human degredation (besides the flesh eating zombies). However, given what works in the film several of the DVD bonus features are pretty lame in comparison. There is "The Lost Tape" that reveals Andy's terrifying last days and basically turns that interesting character into a joke. Equally painful is the "Special Bulletin" segment, where nobody comes closer in terms of performance or effectiveness to what we get in the opening credits as bits and pieces of information about the collapses of society flash by. In contrast, the beginning of "Raising the Dead," where we see a hundred extras lined up in zombie makeup, is better than those other two bits. Then we get the director and prosthetic makeup designer David LeRoy Anderson delineating the differences between Stage 1, Stage 2, and Stage 3 zombies in terms of makeup that makes it seem like a totally reasonable way of approaching the universe. There are other features on the special effects (e.g., "Splitting Headaches: Anatomy of Exploding Heads") and a commentary track with director Zack Snyder and producer Eric Newman where they both seem rather pleased with the result, and while this remake of "Dawn of the Dead" is a lot slicker than its competition in the 21st century zombie movie category (to wit, "28 Days Later"), it does have its moments.

snyder classic amazing remake of a classic

Wow.. this movie turned zombie lore on its’ head! Fast moving zombies…. ???? Scary thought…no more shuffling along zombies …..!!!!

La disfruté bastante!

Simplemente genial dentro de su género y por supuesto imprescindible. Muy buen debut de Zack Snyder, un directo que hasta ahora no me ha defraudado en ninguna de sus películas por lo peculiar de su estilo. Y respecto a la calidad de este blu ray edición alemana, que confirmo que trae castellano, pues decir que está a la altura de la película. Para aquellos que se asusten más que de ésta de la horrorosa estampa de calificación por edades, confirmarles que parece ser que los alemanes hacen carátulas reversibles para evitar el trauma visual. Tengo ya varias ediciones de Alemania e incluyen este detalle que se agradece, es decir que se queda la portada tal y como la veríamos en nuestra versión nacional. Compra obligada para los amantes de este tipo de films sin duda y para mí la mejor de zombies de lo que llevamos de siglo XXI. Saludos de Cayetano...

Wie beschrieben,guter preis,gute qualität

Blu ray edizione tedesca con audio Italiano. Bel film, remake di Zombi, ottimo cast e sceneggiatura, lo consiglio a questo prezzo, la versione Italiana costa troppo.

Goede remake