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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
75
24 City
66
Adoration
74
Afghan Star
48
Alien Trespass
56
American Violet
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57
Away We Go
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
62
Big Man Japan
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55
Brothers Bloom, The
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx
Call of the Wild
63
Cheri
62
Cherry Blossoms
63
Dead Snow
65
Departures
18
Downloading Nancy
58
Easy Virtue
70
End of the Line, The
77
Every Little Step
64
Examined Life
80
Food, Inc.
38
Gigantic
56
Girl from Monaco, The
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
87
Gomorrah
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Great Buck Howard, The
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx
Home
82
Hunger
91
Hurt Locker, The
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
81
Il Divo
54
Is Anybody There?
71
Jerichow
58
Julia
74
Lemon Tree
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
40
Limits of Control, The
42
Little Ashes
64
Lymelife
50
Management
57
Merry Gentleman, The
66
Moon
35
New York
62
Not Forgotten
xx
Offshore
78
O'Horten
64
Outrage
40
Paris 36
54
Pontypool
71
Pressure Cooker
52
Quiet Chaos
83
Revanche
67
Rudo y Cursi
86
Seraphine
65
Sex Positive
70
Shall We Kiss?
77
Sin Nombre
59
Sleep Dealer
74
Song of Sparrows, The
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
82
Sugar
84
Summer Hours
61
Sunshine Cleaning
28
Surveillance
42
Tennessee
63
Tetro
64
Throw Down Your Heart
80
Tokyo Sonata
63
Tokyo!
70
Tony Manero
74
Treeless Mountain
88
Tulpan
74
Two Lovers
83
Tyson
83
U2 3D
60
Under Our Skin
69
Unmistaken Child
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
22
What Goes Up
45
Whatever Works
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Dawn of the Dead
Universal Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for pervasive strong horror violence and gore, language and sexuality
Starring
Sarah Polley,
Ving Rhames,
Jake Weber,
Mekhi Phifer,
Ty Burrell,
Michael Kelly,
Kevin Zegers,
and
Michael Barry
A remake of the 1979 horror classic.
| GENRE(S): |
Action
|
Drama
|
Horror
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
James Gunn
George A. Romero (1978 screenplay)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Zack Snyder
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: October 26, 2004
Video: October 26, 2004
Theatrical: March 19, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
100 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Don't leave before the final frame -- if you're still breathing.

83
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
Tense, bloody, funny and smart; lacks original's conscience, but it's still a surprisingly gritty remake.

80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
The movie has many of the elements that made the first "Dawn" so darkly entertaining.

80
Empire
Chris Hewitt
A welcome surprise, containing more bona fide scares than Romero's vision, while paying grand lip service to the old master. Truly worthy of that famous title.

80
Los Angeles Times
Manohla Dargis
Good zombie fun, the remake of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead is the best proof in ages that cannibalizing old material sometimes works fiendishly well.

80
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Yes, it's essentially a remake of a sequel, albeit a sequel that happens to be one of the greatest horror movies ever made, but it more than surpasses the original.

75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Romero's satire is largely replaced by a sardonic gallows humor (the zombie-shooting contest is as funny as it is grotesque), but otherwise it's a bloody entertaining zombie apocalypse.

75
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
There was no burning need for a remake, but this one is respectful of its predecessor. It incorporates the technology and acquisitiveness of the intervening quarter century since Romero's vision. It even features a metrosexual, something unheard of in 1978.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
It's silly, witty and good-natured, not scary so much as icky, and not horrifying or horrible but consistently amusing.

75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Faster, leaner and more compact than the original. Dumber, too, but that's almost always the case with remakes.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
David Hiltbrand
This film plays out like one of those trigger-happy video games -- it's all cranial splatter. Word to the squeamish: Dawn of the Dead merits a very hard R rating. The depictions of violence are exceedingly graphic.

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
My only complaint is that its plot flatlines compared to the 1979 version, which was trickier, wittier and smarter. Romero was not above finding parallels between zombies and mall shoppers.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Calling this version of Dawn of the Dead a remake is applying a misnomer. It's more of a re-imagination.

75
Premiere
Aaron Hillis
An amply entertaining tale of survival terror, fully realizing the epicness of Romero's vision by infecting every wide-angled overhead shot with as many computer-generated cadavers as possible, and bridging tense moments with a laugh-aloud, plucky wit.

75
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
Dawn of the Dead may depict the end of the world as we know it, but rarely has watching doom proved such a kick.

70
Film Threat
Jim Agnew
First time director Zack Snyder has done an amazing job of creating a sense of doom and dread while sprinkling it with some wicked humor and amazing music.

67
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Snyders film isn't likely to be considered a classic 20 years down the road like Romero's film is, but it's a winningly extreme episode in the ongoing adventures of Zombie and Harriet. (And stick around while the end credits roll: The film isn't over 'til it's over.)

63
USA Today
Mike Clark
Overall, this Dead is zippier than 1995's retake on "Village of the Damned" and somewhat less junky than the recent remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

60
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
It is, like most, an unnecessary remake, but the new, digitally boosted Dawn of the Dead brings it on with a 10-minute overture that might be the most upsetting tin-can apocalypse modern movies have ever seen.

50
Dallas Observer
Gregory Weinkauf
Sensational yet sadly unsatisfying.

50
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
The movie is weak on attempts at survivalist philosophy (anyone bit by a zombie is likely to become one). Even the religious overtones feel tinny and unpronounced.

50
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
The new version has its share of disturbing moments, but writer James Gunn and director Zack Snyder have stripped away the social satire of the original and put little in its place.

50
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
The new Dawn of the Dead moves along with speed and slick visual style, but it's soulless and anonymous as -- well, a shopping mall.

50
The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
When there's a whole mess of zombie killing to be done, who cares about reflective writing or that time-wasting element of suspense?

50
Variety
Scott Foundas
More palatable than "Texas," Dawn also seems even less necessary, given how effectively the original was reworked last year in Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later."

50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
This time the script makes scant metaphoric use of the mall. In fact, metaphors are generally in short supply here. Scares too.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Horror buffs will find plenty of split-second suspense and in-your-face carnage, while others will scramble for the exit as quickly as the characters race away from their apocalyptic foes.

50
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
A buzzed-up gloss on the original, it's entertaining -- if fundamentally shallow.

50
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
It's mindless entertainment, so take it or leave it.

38
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
Despite a big budget, lots of technical flair and a good cast headed by Sarah Polley and Ving Rhames, it's mostly a bloody mess.

30
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
The eventual video game is bound to be a lot more fun -- and less slowed down by bad dialogue -- than this "Dead."

20
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
Swarming with zombies on both sides of the camera, the film is unrelentingly relentless, leaving no room for original director George Romero's wry satire on consumerism or his slow-paced, creeping undead.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 105 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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