[Dave]

On Frank's prodding, I finally saw the Dawn of the Dead remake. I liked the first one but expected very little out of this redo. Frank kept saying how awesome it was, so I finally borrowed it. It was 10x better than anything I could have possibly wanted. Watched it twice and with the commentary. Didn't care about most of the extras, but I did like the headshot doc.

Not crap.

[Chad]

Not crap, but I'm only a fan of the newer zombie movies.

[Frankie Pitt]

I voted "Not Crap" because it's not. Also because, having lent Dave the DVD, it would be silly of me to vote otherwise.

I really didn't think I'd love this movie as much as I do. After seeing the theatrical cut, I thought it was okay, but with a few annoying plot holes and (what seemed at the time) bits of sloppy storytelling. Still, I'm a zombie geek, so I bought the director's cut DVD. Thanks to new/replaced footage, all of those holes were filled and things made sense. It's also gorier, if that's your thing.

Been craving a sequel ever since, and although Zack Snyder had plans for a zombie companion piece, I won't hold my breath. But for those of you with access to torrent sites and such, I highly recommend a British mini-series called Dead Set (the premise is basically that the zombie outbreak occurs in the thick of a taping of the Big Brother reality show). Whether intentional or not, it serves as a sequel. Same types of fast moving, aggressive zombies. Same visual style. Same pacing.

As for the Dawn of the Dead remake, I have to confess, I like it a little bit -- just a little bit -- more than Romero's original. Blasphemy, I know.

[Dave]

He's just producing the sequel, right?

Two things:
I don't think it's in the movie, but in the extra news footage on the DVD there's a woman from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) addressing reporters. Behind her in big jumbo official letters? Center for Disease etc. Without the 's'. I guess they lost one of the centers during the first wave.

In the theatrical version, did they have the video footage from the boat or was that only in the director's cut?

[Frankie Pitt]

Actually, yeah. He was producing the follow-up, Army of the Dead, but hadn't committed to directing yet. Script was by some other dude...Joby Harold. As far as I know, the project is on indefinite hold (though if AMC's series adaptation of The Walking Dead is a success, things could change).

I never noticed that CDC thing. Could be a mistake, but it might also be a thing where the real CDC didn't want their name/logo used. Maybe...?

The boat footage from the end of the movie, all the stuff that ran during the closing credits, was part of the theatrical cut.

[Dave]

Frankie Pitt, on 12 November 2009 - 04:56 PM, said:

the real CDC didn't want their name/logo used. Maybe...?

Government agency. All they can do is prevent filming in their agency buildings. They can't stop the use of their name. Center/Centers is a common enough mistake.

Oh, man, I forgot to tell you today. That scene when the two buses are leaving the mall? There's a wide shot of the buses surrounded by an ocean of zombies. I shouted, "awesome," out loud. To myself. I might have made a fist pumping action too.

...and yet I can't get excited about Starship Troopers. So fickle.

[Anticelebrity]

It's not bad for a Sunday afternoon film. A sequel could be good in a corny kind of way.