Shaun of the Dead DVD & Dawn of the Dead DVD
There's good news and bad news from this pair of modern Zombie flicks.
The good news is that 2004 produced the best yet horror film directly inspured by George A. Romero's classic Zombie trilogy - the masterpiece of which is often considered to be Dawn of the Dead. The bad news is that it is the British comedy Shaun of the Dead that completely eclispses the Hollywood remake. Shaun of the Dead feels closer to Romero's film in spirit and execution while the only two things the remake has in common with the original are Zombies and a shopping mall.
Shaun of the Dead, the brain child of Spaced creators Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, is a pants wettingly funny take on the Zombie theme. Pegg's Shaun faces a London chock a block with re-animated corpses and figures what better way to get back with the girlfriend who'd just dumped him then by saving her from the Zombie hordes. As funny as Shaun of the Dead is it does pack it's fair share of shock and gore plus one of the most emotionally wrenching scenes in Zombie movie history. The script is flat out brilliant - the kind of script that destroys other would be film writers because they know there is no way in hell they can compete with the talent that created it. The cast is supurb and the direction polished without being showy.
Not only is Shaun of the Dead the best Dawn of the Dead remake it's also the best british Zombie movie - outpacing the earlier and highly over rated 28 Days Later with ease.
The Dawn of the Dead remake, on the other hand, is a total mess. It continues one of the saddest traditions of Zombie films - the second rate cast. Usually the use of low budget thesps can be forgiven in genres such as this but the new Dawn of the Dead is full of actual name actors - not huge names but still - and yet they can't compete with their no-name predecessors or the comedians of Shaun of the Dead. Of course the script gives them little support - to someone unfamiliar with the original this Dawn of the Dead must seem like just another mediocre survival-horror fllick - but to those of us who know the source material it is a boring, misguided failure.
How do you screw up the script to a direct Dawn of the Dead remake? It's been out for a couple of decades - how can you not improve on it? Any random fan boy who'se ever read a copy of Fangoria could have produced a tighter, smarter, scarier script. What a waste...
The director shows a bit more promise but the Zombie effects are a joke - even the Zombies of Shaun of the Dead - not it's strongest feature - are far superior than the losers on display here.
There is something worse than Dawn of the Dead though - the bonus features on the DVD are embarrassingly inept.
