Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 American action horror film directed by Zack Snyder and written by James Gunn. It is the remake of George A. Romero's 1978 film, and stars Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer.

Plot
When her husband is attacked by a zombified neighbor, Ana (Sarah Polley) manages to escape, only to realize her entire Milwaukee neighborhood has been overrun by the walking dead. After being questioned by cautious policeman Kenneth (Ving Rhames), Ana joins him and a small group that gravitates to the local shopping mall as a bastion of safety. Once they convince suspicious security guards that they are not contaminated, the group bands together to fight the undead hordes.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Ana is a decent protagonist.
 * 2) Kenneth is an awesome secondary lead.
 * 3) Andy is a very memorable minor character.
 * 4) The atmosphere is luckily just as dark and eerie as the original.
 * 5) The scares, death scenes, and disturbing moments are still very effective at all.
 * 6) Great musical score by Tyler Bates.
 * 7) The gore effects are very well done.
 * 8) The sets and zombie designs/makeup are very well crafted.
 * 9) Much like the original film, the comedic moments are pretty well done.
 * 10) The story is pretty decently written, as it retains the basic plot of the original, but it doesn't completely copy it, and there are some welcome changes and differences, which leads to the shocking moments being pretty effective.
 * 11) Neat cameos from some of the cast members of the original.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Most of the other characters are pretty generic.
 * 2) The fast-running zombies can be a turn-off for some people.

Reception
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes offers the film a 75% approval rating from 187 critics and an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's consensus reads: "A kinetic, violent and surprisingly worthy remake of George Romero's horror classic that pays homage to the original while working on its own terms.". The film also has a score of 59 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 37 critics indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore during opening weekend gave the film an average grade of "B" on a scale ranging from A+ to F.