Dawn of the Dead (1979)

Are you ready to get down with the sickness? Movie logic dictates that you shouldn't remake a classic, but Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead defies that logic and comes up a winner. You could argue that George A. Romero's 1978 original was sacred ground for horror buffs, but it was a low-budget classic, and Snyder's action-packed upgrade benefits from the same manic pacing that energized Romero's continuing zombie saga. Romero's indictment of mega-mall commercialism is lost (it's arguably outmoded anyway), so Snyder and screenwriter James Gunn compensate with the same setting--in this case, a Milwaukee shopping mall under siege by cannibalistic zombies in the wake of a devastating viral outbreak--a well-chosen cast (led by Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer), some outrageously morbid humor, and a no-frills plot that keeps tension high and blood splattering by the bucketful. Horror buffs will catch plenty of tributes to Romero's film (including cameos by three of its cast members, including gore-makeup wizard Tom Savini), and shocking images are abundant enough to qualify this Dawn as an excellent zombie-flick double-feature with 28 Days Later, its de facto British counterpart. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

This film is held in regards as the zombie "Bible" by most avid zombie fans, and rightfully so.

Taking the concept of NOTLD one step further. I would consider this one of the most important film of the 70's.

I'm not sure when this film was premiered in 1979, that the world was ready for such a thing. The Violence(allthough it looks horribly fake by todays standards) was extremely graphic. The atmosphere throughout the movie is open, but confined at the same time.

This film is held in regards as the zombie "Bible" by most avid zombie fans, and rightfully so.

This particular version of the movie, while a little more expensive, is the way to go, with different versions of the movie, and the DOTD graphic novel, you cant beat it with a stick.

9/10 September 8, 2008

human satire at it's finest. at its bloody finest, that is.

i have watched this romp of a movie at least 100 times. this is romeros masterpiece.the thing that gets me is how above average the acting is. not oscar calliber of course. but for the genre, very very good. romeros style in editing is also unique. is cut and paste style works well with the anxiety of the film. the opening in the news room with the blood red carpeted walls, is definitly a forshadowing of the violence to come. imediatly your swept into the struggle for sanity as everyone in the news room is confused and filled with anxiety with what is happenning. and people struggling to comprehend there role in all of this, the basic survival insticts are taking over[just like the zombies instinct to feed and stay ,alive? well, dead alive anyway.and our 2 heroes in military garb. one black and one white and one tall and one short spring on the seen in a apartment buiding slum full of alive and dead people. this is where you either check out, or say holy crap. this is going to be one for the ages.the nutjob coligue spews racial profanity lookin to kill all the dead and alive he can. he kicks open the door and boom there goes a head exploding. brain matter every where. then here comes the african american zombie , to unite with his wife or girfriend, she embrasses him as he bites a 3 inch hunk of flesh of of her coller bone area then bites a hunk of her arm, with blood spewing out.[the blood is a cartoonish bright red color enhancing the comic book effect], if you havent lost your lunch by now things calm down as the 2 hereos join up with the newsroom man and woman.for a helicopter ride to the monroeville mall.this was the first 20 minutes, the rest of the movie is basically an action adventure film. on the way to the mall you get the requisit hillbilly rednecks [complete with hippy folk music] having a blast playing target practice with the walking dead [i love this segment, this is a rehash of a similar scene from 1968's night of the diving dead. then a pit stop at the small local airport where another zombie , we'll call frankenstein zombie,smeaks up on our little white guy but of course the helicopter blade chops off the top of his head.nice touch from special effects master tom savini. to round this out, basically the adventure in the mall is the meat and potatos of the movie, this is where the social satire is most effective, aren't we all a lot like those zombies when were at the mall. take a good look next time your at the mall. one of my favorite scenes is when the biker gang is rampaging the mall, and there at jc pennie i assume ,and one biker dude picks up a tv , and the another biker dude says hey man, what the hell you gonna watch on that. he then throws it down and drives a sledge hammer through the picture screen,[another satirical comment from romero about television]the grand finally of the movie is a gory good time.total mayhem with only 2 of our 4 escaping to live another day. i love this movie . now i know this isnt the godfather or raging bull, but it is an enertaining rollercoaster ride of movie, and this divi max dvd is killer , perfect picture and great dts sound ,and the commentary with romero ,his wife cris and efects guy ,tom svaini is also worth repeated listens, what i would have given to be one of those zombies, they were paid hardly anything,only free meals and the right to say they were part of one of the greatest cult classics ever made.how much fun ,did they have. no dvd collection is complete without it. remember if your squemish you will have to suffer the first 20 minutes and the last 10 minutes. but when you think about it ,the gore on csi isnt much better. August 17, 2008

Horror and splatter at its finest!

This is a very entertaining movie off the bat. But the ultimate edition has different versions with bonus footage! It is definitely "icing on the cake" as they say. So with the bargain you're getting here at Amazon, do yourself a favor and pick this up today! August 15, 2008

Quality

First off, this is not, I repeat: NOT the extended cut of the film. Why? i don't know. Possibly to steal more money from us later on.

But none the less, it's quality. Great HD picture and fantastic sound. August 5, 2008

Finest Zombie Movie So Far, Ultimate Edition Indeed!!!

- Sure 'Night Of The Living Dead (1968)' Started It All, and its a close second to be the greatest.

- Sure 'Dawn Of The Dead (2004) Remake' is a good action-packed film, I can't deny that, probably the best (and only) good Horror Film remake of this time out there.

- Sure 'Shawn Of The Dead (2004)' is funny as hell, maybe the most clever horror comedy since "Return OF The Living Dead"

- But more than sure 'Dawn Of The Dead (1978)' Is the best zombie movie so far, as a fan of the outtathagravewalkingcorpes flicks, having seen most of them, and owning all the above mentioned, there's no argue George A. Romero was at is peak here: Clever setting, interesting characters, cool effects (for the time, of course), and what it's most pretentios but yet so awesome: intelligent and believable plot that works both as an slowpaced action gory film and a criticism on society consumist and violence nature set in the apocalypse.

PROS: Anchor Bay has done an excellent job giving the movie what it deserves: Excelent package, 2 full lenght documentaries (you won't need anything else), interesting commentary tracks, a printed comicbook preview, all the versions of the film with audio variations including original mono, and some other minor but good extras for completist such as posters, trailer, on-screens promo material & bios, etc.

CONS: The only flaw I can see here is the lack of subtitle tracks, not only in languages such as spanish, french among others, but even not an english track is a great miss.

VEREDICT: If you are or want to become a Zombie movie fan (or Horror fan) you shouldn't live without this set, it's the best version you'll ever get, and if they happen to release a new one, I don't know what the h-ell could it include not represented in this set. July 31, 2008

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