Movie Review: Dawn of the Dead

I saw part of the remake of Dawn of the Dead before on TV but I never saw the original. My friend Sean and I watched it the other day.

Director George Romero is one of the most famous names in horror movies and his zombie movies were huge box office hits. Dawn of the Dead was made on a budget of $650,000 and made an incredible $55,000,000 at the box office. Filmed in the Pittsburgh area, specifically Monroeville Mall, it also has a local touch to it.

The movie is slow to start but a large portion of that is because the movie explains what zombies are as well as the basics to killing them. The concept of zombies was not widely known at the time so this was necessary for audiences back then. I know plenty about zombies so while I found it boring and unnecessary, it was definitely relevant for people back then so I’m not taking points off for that.

The character development could have been better but it’s not bad.  Because there are only four main characters, development has to be there or the movie suffers, and Romero does a good job for the most part with the characters. I didn’t feel like I got to know who Francine was at all, but I didn’t care for her character much in the first place. Nonetheless some more character exploration would have been nice.

The effects could also have been better but for a movie made in 1978, they’re acceptable.

Once again, if you’re new to my blog,  I’ve always ranked movies on a scale of 0-100 (I don’t know why, I just always have). Here’s the grading scale.

 90-100  It’s a great movie and definitely one worth buying. (Iron Man 3, World War Z, 42, Just Go With It)

80-89   It was a pretty good movie and definitely one worth seeing, but it doesn’t quite scratch my top ten percentile. (Man of Steel, Monster-In-Law, White House Down, Jobs, The Truman Show)

70-79   It’s okay but I’ve seen better. It has its moments, but it has its flaws, too. (Sharknado, The Usual Suspects, 21 Jump Street, Escape Plan, Captain America: The First Avenger)

60-69   It’s got plenty wrong with it but I still got enjoyment out of this one. (Pacific Rim, The Long Kiss Goodnight)

50-59   This movie isn’t intolerable but it’s not blowing my mind either. I’m trying really hard to get some sort of enjoyment out of this. (Road to Perdition, Total Recall, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Along Came Polly, Aliens)

40-49   This movie is just mediocre. It’s not doing anything other than the bare minimal, so morbidly boring that sometimes I’m actually angry I watched this. (Patriot Games, The Great Gatsby, Pitch Black, Alien)

30-39   Definitely worse than mediocre, the 30’s ironically define the 1930’s, full of depression, lack of accomplishments, poverty and just so dumb. (The Contract, Pride and Prejudice)

20-29   What did I just watch? Cliches, stupidity, nothingness, did I mention stupidity? Just…wow. (The Sum of All Fears)

0-19      Watching this movie resulted in one or more of the following: seizure, loss of brain cells, falling asleep/unconsciousness, feel you wasted your time/day, accomplished nothing for you, left the movie knowing less about it then you did going into it, constantly asking yourself why you came to see this movie, or near-death experience. In short, staring at a wall was just as entertaining as watching this movie. This movie deserved a sticker or a label that said, “WARNING: EXTREME AMOUNT OF SUCKAGE.” (Midnight Cowboy, Dark Fury, Alien 3)

My score for Dawn of the Dead: 75.

This was a groundbreaking movie for the zombie genre and Romero’s work in doing so cannot be overstated. The special effects could have used some work and some of the decisions the characters make are very questionable. The entertainment factor could have been better as well because while I didn’t hate this movie by any means, I also didn’t love it.

*SPOILER ALERT* IF YOU DON’T WANT THE MOVIE SPOILED, STOP READING!!!

*SPOILER’S EDITION*

Roger is an idiot in this movie and despite police training, does not show professional competence in the field nor does he grasp the severity of the situation until he’s bitten and realizes he’s going to die. I really didn’t care what happened to him.

According to Romero, zombies still have their memories when they die, something I don’t agree with but that is a zombie facts argument not a slam against the movie. However, when Stephen dies, he immediately heads to the fake door that the group put up so that intruders wouldn’t be able to get to their residence. Zombies have no brains so that coupled with there’s no way a zombie could think that fast causes problems for me. Roger gets bitten and doesn’t turn for like a week even though I’m pretty sure the widely held belief on the turning period is 24 hours.

It’s got some flaws, but for being the first zombie movie, it’s pretty good.

 

Movie Review: World War Z

My brother and I have been looking forward to this apocalyptic zombie flick for a while now so to say I was expecting a lot from this film would be a true statement.

You’re thrown right into the action with this film. Director Marc Foster wasted no time discussing an elaborate back story or giving us an in-depth personality evaluation of the family. Foster knew the audience didn’t need this so he simplified it by basically saying, “Hey, here’s a family and the father, Gerry Lane (Pitt), he’s ex-military. And action!”

After leading his family to a navy aircraft carrier, the captain tells Lane he needs him to find a cure. When Lane refuses, the captain says “you search or you and your family are getting kicked off.” Obviously we can guess what Lane chooses to do, but this choice leads into a character connection with the audience.

It’s very important that a character connection is opened with the audience so early, because similar to After Earth, no one is in this film very long aside from Brad Pitt. Everyone around him seems to die or leave. This can be a major problem if you can’t relate to the main character, but Pitt does such a great job with this role that I’d be surprised if you didn’t connect with him. It takes a great actor to basically carry a movie on his shoulders, but Pitt made it look easy.

The action scenes are pretty intense and that’s without blood and guts being all over the screen. That’s a testament to how good these scenes were, not a testament to the constant criticism of “no blood/guts, not a good zombie movie”. My adrenaline was pumping throughout.

The movie was very suspenseful. At some points I was at the edge of my seat and at other points my hands were in front of my mouth because I was unsure what would happen next. After each moment I would breathe a sigh of relief, only to be startled by something I never saw coming.

I will warn you that the zombies in this movie are not slow like in the typical zombie flick. They are incredibly fast, so fast that at times I will admit I was questioning myself how Brad Pitt was outrunning them when on-screen it looked like he was barely jogging. While I think zombies would be slow if a zombie apocalypse were to occur, it didn’t bother me too much that the filmmakers decided to change things up a bit. Sometimes spicing things up leads to great new ideas and audiences are always looking for something new.

Once again, if you’re new to my blog,  I’ve always ranked movies on a scale of 0-100 (I don’t know why, I just always have). Here’s the grading scale.

 90-100  It’s a great movie and definitely one worth buying. (Iron Man 3)

80-89   It was a pretty good movie and definitely one worth seeing, but it doesn’t quite scratch my top ten percentile. (Star Trek Into Darkness, Now You See Me, Man of Steel, Monster-In-Law)

70-79   It’s okay but I’ve seen better. It has its moments, but it has its flaws, too. (Oblivion)

60-69   It’s got plenty wrong with it but I still got enjoyment out of this one.

50-59   This movie isn’t intolerable but it’s not blowing my mind either. I’m trying really hard to get some sort of enjoyment out of this. (The Hobbit, After Earth, Road to Perdition)

40-49   This movie is just mediocre. It’s not doing anything other than the bare minimal, so morbidly boring that sometimes I’m actually angry I watched this.

30-39   Definitely worse than mediocre, the 30’s ironically define the 1930’s, full of depression, lack of accomplishments, poverty and just so dumb. (The Contract, Pride and Prejudice)

20-29   What did I just watch? Cliches, stupidity, nothingness, did I mention stupidity? Just…wow.

0-19      Watching this movie resulted in one or more of the following: seizure, loss of brain cells, falling asleep/unconsciousness, feel you wasted your time/day, accomplished nothing for you, left the movie knowing less about it then you did going into it, constantly asking yourself why you came to see this movie, or near-death experience. In short, staring at a wall was just as entertaining as watching this movie. This movie deserved a sticker or a label that said, “WARNING: EXTREME AMOUNT OF SUCKAGE.”

My score for World War Z: 91.

Despite going against the grain of popular zombie movies, World War Z kept me entertained throughout. Brad Pitt was as good as ever and took the burden of being the star actor, supporting actor(because there isn’t really anybody else) and producer of this film like a boss. The filmmakers brought a new idea for a zombie movie to the big screen and I loved it.

*SPOILER ALERT* IF YOU DON’T WANT THE MOVIE SPOILED, STOP READING!!!

*SPOILER’S EDITION*

Real quick, I’d like to reiterate how suspenseful this movie really was. Like at the end, let’s be honest people, Gerry Lane sucks at walking! Kicking over Mountain Dew cans in the middle of an empty floor and later on stepping on all the big pieces of glass! I wanted to jump out of my seat and start screaming at him I was so into this movie.

My only complaint with this movie occurs during Lane’s visit to Jerusalem. The city is entirely safe with giant walls protecting the whole city. Life in Jerusalem is just as it was before the outbreak. However, some people have the great idea of turning on a microphone and singing their lungs out. What?! Haven’t any of these people read about basic zombie survival tips? I don’t know if this movie was meant to be like no one knew anything about zombies prior to the outbreak or not, but for a second let’s assume that’s the case. It took the zombies at least a minute and a half to pile onto each other climbing that wall. Why didn’t Lane say something? You think he would have noticed the obnoxious singing while trying to hold an important conversation. This scene was necessary to move the plot forward so it wasn’t a huge deal to me, but I was still like, “Wow, Israel, you guys make huge walls around your city because you’re smart as hell and then get swarmed by zombies because you’re dumb as hell.”