For the record, I think the original Dawn of the Dead is probably the best zombie movie ever made, so when I went to see the remake, I didn’t think that it would even compare. I left the theater with a meh feeling. There were some really good parts to it, but those parts were drowned out in just a lot of blah.

But here’s the funny thing … I found myself spending a lot of time, trying to wrap my head around two big issues.

First brain burner … how the hell would you get the dude off the roof of the building? I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent on this problem. I don’t buy the dog food delivery service nor do I think using the sewers was a good idea. There is a better answer. Being trapped in a mall, It’s not like they don’t have the resources. I brainstormed one method of using container truck to drive alongside the building so the dude can jump on the back of it, but I don’t remember seeing such a truck in the movie. Another idea involved of somehow connecting rope between the two buildings so food could be ferried across.

Second … what the hell was the deal with Ving Rhames cut arm? Do you remember how he fought the zombie in the fountain. There was a shot with his arm getting slashed, followed by another shot of zombie blood getting splashed into the fountain, followed by another shot of Ving arm getting dunked. The implication being … Ving Rhames is destined for zombiehood. Yet, he never became a zombie. Did I miss something? I had him pegged for flesh munching because there was such a focus on his bandaged arm, but nothing ever happened with it. I concluded that maybe the studio cut out some alternative ending, but I’m guessing here.

Now that I vented … I got to say, I really did dig the opening credit sequence for the movie although I wasn’t too keen on the end of the movie. I know I’m gonna have to trade in my zombie-club card, but there’s only so many bodies being cut in half with chainsaw that I can see before I get gore wearied.

In any case, if you did enjoy the movie, there’s a great trivia page over at IMDB. I got a kick out of this nugget:

For the scene where Ana stitches Kenneth’s wounds, the director hired a real nurse for the close-ups. She misunderstood the director’s directions to go deeper and inadvertently punctured Ving Rhames’ skin and stitched the prosthesis to his arm. He didn’t say anything until after the scene was done filming and the director thought the blood was merely “a really good effect”.

Good stuff!

Dawn of the Dead Trivia (imdb.com <- new window)