Rating: 
Summary: dawn of the dead
Review: The most exiting zombie movie of this millenium past,and present!
Rating: 
Summary: Classic, Scary Camp film
Review: One reviewer stated that because this film is a comment on consumerism (especially for the late 70's when this was made) and because this film has alot of gore doesn't make it a good movie. True. These are just a few things in this movie people delight in (really, I don't know why) and these are not the things that make this a good or bad movie.Overall this movie is meant to do one thing: Scare you and make you have fun while it scares you. And if you let it (like you should let any movie do what it tries to do...suspension of disbelief folks, it's a wonderful thing) you will be scared. And yes, you will have fun with it. Many shots and scenes here have fear in them. ie: zombies pouring into the elevator with their hands stretched to the camera; Flyboy caught in a zombie game of hide and seek in the boiler room; a harrycaritina(sp?) zombie coming for a lone and unarmed Fran, etc. But there is a deeper sense of fear at work here. One that really makes people remember this movie as a good fright fest. In this (as well as Romero's 2 other zombie flicks) the dead do not crawl from their coffins and up through 6 feet of dirt, there are no skeletons among them, and the only way to kill them is to destroy their re-animated brains. Truely, IF zombies were to rise and take the earth (but of course they won't) I'm positive that it would be just as Romero visioned it. Also, with these movies the theme of surival horror is at it's peak. This isn't the vampire story where you must kill the master to restore everything, this isn't Evil Dead where you must only survive the night. In this world, no matter where you run, no matter how many you kill, and no matter how long you survive, you will NEVER be free from the zombies. One last thing, Romero's three movies give their own reason why it's happening, and NO ONE can shake a stick at these reasons. Radiation from space for example, we don't even know everything about earth let alone from space. Of course I don't believe such a thing will happen, but like I said, No one can say for a FACT that this CAN'T happen... People say this film is full of bad editing...not true, Romero likes his audience to experience the shot rather than see it. That is why there are alot of quick and odd timed cuts that give this film a strange sense of pace. Movies of today don't do this. Which is why someone may consider the editing of this film bad. But it's not true. And the campiness of this film is not to be denied! How can we hold camp AGAINST a movie when it sets out to find camp in the first place?! A very good film!
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Summary: Best Zombie Movie Ever!
Review: This is the best zombie movie ever made!It manages to be scary and funny at the same time!The zombies are hilarious in some scenes,but can be very nasty in others-like in one scene a guys intestines are getting eaten out while he is still alive!NASTY!So when you watch it do not eat anything and I hope you have a strong stomach!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, as his films usually are, but...
Review: ...where did this film take me, as a viewer? Nowhere. When I rented "Dawn of the Dead," I expected a horror masterpiece of epic proportions; one that I would be talking about for years to come, like all of the critics whose reviews I had read, which detailed a film so violent and ahead of its time that it would deeply affect anyone who actually could stomach the film's running time. The film started out interesting enough. There was a roller coaster ride of violence that began with a police raid on a building that was infilterated by zombies. Heads exploded from shotgun shells, necks were bitten, chunks of flesh torn away from limbs... All well and good. The make-up effects looked acceptable, and I was interested in the characters. But then the film lost me. The survivors in this film head for the mall, and they attempt to seek shelter from this supposedly unstoppable force of zombies. Now, I can understand why dozens of these things coming at you would be a threat, but in this movie they look like grey people and nothing more. They plod around aimlessly and rarely seem to have any objective. We see them destroyed wholesale in all sorts of ways, but yet they never seem to illustrate any threat until they have one person cornered. I wasn't scared by them at all, yet I persevered in watching this movie because I was expecting some sort of terrifying pay off that made all of this so-called sophisticated satire and gore worthwhile. I never got it. The pay off didn't come, and I turned off the TV feeling cheated. "Dawn of the Dead" could've been something magnificent if only George Romero had bumped up the pace at which the zombies attack, shortened the movie by about twenty minutes, and didn't so blatantly try and hit us over the head with the satire stick. A little subtlety would've helped too. "Dawn" missed so many opportunities it could've capitalized on that, to me anyway, it's nothing more than a series of misthrown darts that struck so far away from the bull's eye you'd need an RV and a ten day supply of food and water to retrieve them. Now, I know that many people who have seen this movie think of it as a masterpiece of the genre, and how dare I sully the good name of such a good director, but I just didn't see what this movie had to offer in the entertainment category. Sure, there are some laughs and some moments of genuine tension, but they don't make up for an overlong script, stretches of silence that have no point, mediocre acting, and hundreds of grey people that do nothing more than wander up the down escalator, which is why I give the film 2 stars. Seriously, if these zombies can rip open a man's abdomen and rip his intestines out like they were tearing through plastic wrap, why can't a whole group of them break through a window? I found myself asking that question one too many times during this film. It's a true masterpiece of disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Are you people insane?
Review: My God, this movie was awful. Bad acting, brainless dialogue, innefective makeup, and some of the worst editing I've ever seen. How this movie could have so many fans is mind-boggling. I guess it's good for a couple of laughs, especially when it comes to the head-exploding scene. But otherwise, this is lacking in both wit and actual fear. It's a trashy type of film you see at around 2 in the morning with a pizza in your hand. Just because it claims to be a satire on consumerism doesn't make it a good movie. Just because it had gore doesn't make it a good movie. This film has nothing going for it.
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Summary: REQUIRED VIEWING FOR ALL HORROR FANS
Review: I have to say that seeing "Dawn of the Dead" after 20 years have passed has taken a bit of the shock appeal away from this film. As a 9-year old kid, I thought it was the epitome of gore & horror. But having grown older and wiser, it's not really an all-out gorefest zombie doomsday film. It's really a dark-humored social slap at a materialistic society. But it's a great film beyond any shock value. If you're looking for rotting, disgusting, worm-filled zombies, you'll be let down. Other than a handful of particularly gruesome corpses, the majority of zombies look like stagehands who were beaten with effects supervisor Tom Savini's grandmother's powder puff kit. For the most part, they hardly look menacing. The real engine that drives this film is the storyline. Right at the outset, we are shown a society that is overrun by the living dead. An assault team gets their ranks decimated by zombies in a battle at a housing project, and two of the men end up in a news helicopter with a reporter and her pilot. They travel to an airport to refuel, battle more zombies, and finally make it a suburban shopping mall. This is where all of the plot elements come together and really shine. Our four main characters set up shop inside the mall, clearing it of all the walking dead and making a nice little pad for themselves. They loot, pillage, rob, and live the good life in their new-found haven. But in the end, greed and materialism costs them dearly. It's well-done black humor. "Dawn" has all the classic elements of the zombie genre: sharpshooters impaling zombies between the eyes; dashing and darting around hordes of the slow-moving monsters; entrails being ripped out and eaten; chunks of flesh being ripped out of arms,legs, and necks; and those unfortunate enough to be bitten by the creeps turning into cannibalistic undead themselves; even an annoying Hare Krishna zombie! Romero takes a broad slap at a greedy society, pompous scientists, grating reporters, trouble-making lowlifes, and a general public who, even in undeath, flock to the shopping mall like so many sheep. Very clever undertones to the storyline. While I can't agree that "Dawn" is the ultimate horror film(that mantle, IMHO, belongs to John Carpenter's brilliant masterpiece "The Thing"), it is a true classic in it's own right. Do yourself a favor and get the director's cut, and follow it up with "Day of the Dead" & "Return of the Living Dead", the next two outstanding films in the series. From the original "Night of the Living Dead", up through "Return of the Living Dead", the series truly is the strongest in the zombie genre.
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Summary: Check your blood pressure.
Review: Simply the best horror film of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Will the real Dawn of the Dead please stand up?
Review: This has to be one of the best zombie movies ever made. When this film first came out I was 12 and I wanted to see it so bad but because of its violent content I had to wait until it came out on video. I showed this movie to a young zombie lover recently and all he could talk about was how cheap the movie looks. This kid just didn't get it. What makes this film so great isn't the blood or gore or even the zombies, it's the characters, the storyline, and George Romero's superb direction. While watching this with my little friend, he also talked about how unscary the film is. I had to explain that this film isn't the "horror movie" that everyone thinks it is. This is a satire about commercialism. Who are the real brain deaders? The zombies or the survivors who fight fo possesion of the shopping mall? As for the DVD, I would go ahead and get it. It's the only version of the film available now(I have at least 4 different versions in my collection). It's not much on extras or picture and sound quality but I think it will do until late 2001/early 2002. This is when Anchor Bay is "supposed" to be releasing a very special edition on DVD. Hopefully it will have different cuts, trailers, director and cast commentaries. I would LOVE to see this film released on DVD in a deluxed package. It deserves it. Anyway as I said before, this is really the only version available now in the USA. Go ahead and grab it if you want and keep your fingers crossed for later this year.
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Summary: The last great film of the 1970s?
Review: What is most extraordinary about 'Dawn of the dead' is its sheer scope and ambition, its Bunuel-like world-view given the space and size needed for its subject, no less than America. Where 'Night of the living dead' burned with a late 60s political urgency, 'Dawn' pessimistically ushers in the Reagan years of zombie consumerism and idiotic militarism. Of course, the great American genre is the Western, and Romero plays merry havoc with it here, as his 'good guy' frontiersmen set up camp against the various Indians who try to blast them out of it. The apparent stylistic self-indulgence conceals an astonishing formal discipline, and the apparently 'plain' style produces moments of surprising beauty. Shocking, brutal, disgusted, cynical, savage, satirical, but above all very, very funny.
Rating:
Summary: Still not the definitive version but buy it anyway
Review: The theatrical version has always been the best version of DOD. It is a faster smoother cut with a far superior soundtrack. I still cant decide which music I like better in one case (the scene where they first fly into the mall). Even though a few of the Zombie gore scenes are missing the atmosphere is still much stronger. I would recomend any true fan to have both US versions of the film. The previous Anchor Bay two sided version has its advantages too. Its the longest unrated version available and the sound recording and picture are slightly better (still mono though). This 138 minute version is no longer available unfortunately but you will find plenty of them up for grabs on ebay.com. Thats how I got mine. Down to the theatrical DVD. The extras arent very impressive for a start. Id like to have seen more of the Argento scenes as I still havent seen ZOMBI (European version). Also I would have liked a commentary or at least an interview of some sort. Elite entertainment always deliver great versions of classic films but Anchor bay are slacking a bit at the mo. The second very dissapointing aspect of this disk is the sound. It is recorded in a very linear mono track. Allot of the time the music goes low then high again. Also during the final Zombie battle at the end, you will notice mistakes in the sound recording. It Skips ever so slightly. You will have to listen carefully to notice these errors though so dont get too worried. Still I have got over these problems now and I worship this DVD and film. I would recommend this to any Dawn of the Dead fan. Ive heard rumours of a special edition but this wont be until 2002. No way could I wait that long. My advice is to buy this version or the old flipper long version and enjoy it. There both as good as each other. Now I just hope I can find a version of Zombi on ebay. Actually im gonna check ebay now.....
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