Cinepals - DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004) Reaction & Review!

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

Achara and Jaby dive into the iconic zombie thriller, "Dawn of the Dead" (2004), a remake of George A. Romero's classic, where a group of survivors take refuge in a shopping mall, battling to stay alive as a devastating zombie outbreak engulfs the world. This film is directed by Zack Snyder & written by James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy series & Slither), & also stars Sarah Polley (Go & My Life Without Me), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction & Mission: Impossible series), Jake Weber (U-571 & Medium), Mekhi Phifer (8 Mile & ER), Ty Burrell (Modern Family & The Incredible Hulk), Michael Kelly (House of Cards & The Adjustment Bureau), and Kevin Zegers (Transamerica & The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones). Watch our cutdown reaction on Youtube at https://youtube.com/@cinepals or become a Patron and watch the full episode along with us https://www.cinejump.com ~CINEPALS~ YouTube: @CinePals Insta: https://instagram.com/TheCinePals Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCinePals

Senna. Pals. What's going on, y'all? We are watching John of the Dead, the Sacks. Sack Snyder film, let me... Sack Snider! The Zach Snyder film. I have never seen this, the Charles never seen it, but I've always been curious.

What? Did you see it? No, I thought, when you said Sack, it sounded like snack and... You got excited about food. Snack Snyder. Sorry. We're definitely grown-ups. Okay. Here we go.

That was really, really fun. Nothing else. Okay. Wow. What a wow. We are. Jeez. You know, I really, really enjoyed that for a movie that hit all of the zombie tropes.

Let's just say I could predict a lot of stuff, right? Because it was following the tropes really well. But it was doing it while having. a really fun, engaging story with characters that we cared about. And so I thought this was a blast. I really, really liked this movie a lot. Yeah, I had fun with it. I didn't feel connected to the characters as well as I did early on in the film.

You know, like I felt like I was getting to know the characters, like Ving Rhames and the lady. I should just pull up the IMDB here. There was like a certain amount of development that was happening and then it sort of just went away at a certain point. And it was like, full on zombie movie, here we go. No, just all action, action, action, action. Action, action. Which is fun because it was fun. It was still, it definitely made me uncomfortable in the right ways, you know.

I mean, you have George Romero in there and James Gunn, you know, combining their forces to create a compelling zombie drama. Well, I guess the original story was by George A. Romero, right? And then James Gunn probably updated it. I haven't seen the original, so I don't know, because I'm sure there are Easter eggs. And it said there that they had some of the original cast in there as well, which was really cool. But I just thought the story was really, really fun. So George Romero didn't actually work on this one? It's just James Gunn did all the work of just basically remaking it, rewriting it.

Well, because I saw he was credited as a writer in the credits. But obviously, the original story is George A. Romero, right? I mean, you guys correct me if I'm wrong. Oh, anyway. Yeah, the 1978 screenplay, George A. Oh, gotcha. And then James Gunn. I thought it was a very, very compelling zombie drama, you know,

which definitely made me flinch and react in strong ways, which is, you know, the desired effect of a film like this. I thought that, yeah, definitely was scary and unsettling in the right ways. Yeah, I'm not okay. Like, my poor heart is still like, whew, I need a minute. Yeah, it was very interesting to watch early Zach Snyder, you know, before he blew up. Is this before 300? Yes.

Oh. Yeah. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, 300 KM. in 2007. Zach Snyder did this in 2004, 2006, two years later. Oh, so, yeah, this is before. Yeah. Wow.

Okay. Yeah. Well, I guess you're right. It doesn't really have a lot of that stuff that we've come to associate with Zach Snyder, like a lot of that super slow-mo. Yeah. It wasn't really that here. But I thought this was such a, like, great, tight zombie horror.

Yeah. For sure. You know, like, it was just really, really engaging throughout and really, really scary. I really liked our main characters, too. Even though some of them were super frustrating. Maybe what I was hoping for from this, you get in the Walking Dead. But, you know, you start out with our main lady. You know, you get to know her character, her family, what she does for living, blah, blah, blah.

And the only thing that, you know, carried forward was the fact that she's a nurse. But there was no sense of loss expressed on her part. Well, yeah, because she started to really like the other guy. Well, it never came up that she misses her husband, she misses her daughter, or anything like that. Like, that never came up. Right. And I think that that was a bit of a missed opportunity because we had Ving Rames constantly asking about what's over the hill, you know, like where his family is. Like, is anyone alive?

And I thought that was actually very interesting. As a, just a character thing, like, every time he checks in on that from new people, it's always bad news. Right. And he had to sort of console himself, you know? Just in terms of character stuff, I thought that was cool. and we never got that from her. And so she sort of faded to the background as the movie progressed. And that was the one thing that bothered me about the film.

Because, like, they had so many interesting people and personalities playing off of each other. And I thought that was fun. Yeah. I think they could have even done more with that if they wanted to. I just wish they did more than she's a nurse in doing, like, in precarious situations, like when the big lady was on the bed. Yeah.

And we all know. We have inside knowledge. We've seen zombie movies. We all know where that's going. And she's like, close. to it. I thought that was actually well played because like her hand is right by the mouth. She's listening. Yeah. Even with the guy with the Russian wife, like same kind of deal.

Like he kissed her on the lips. It's like, what if she bites his mouth? And so it put ideas into our mind. And it was, that was effective. I just wanted it to be as effective character-wise for her. It just felt like in a way she kind of got fridged as a character, like where she just wasn't important until the third act. Yeah. She got sidelined a little bit for sure. but I think that is also due in part to the fact that we had so many characters and then like partway through when the new characters arrive. Yeah.

It's like, oh, now there are even more people to pay attention to. And then like Ty Burrell, I love him. And he did such a great job as being that just nasty, smarmy, asshole type guy. Yeah. And so you hate him, but you love to hate him. And so he just kind of takes the spotlight a little bit. It's completely in contrast to what we see him do in modern family. Modern family.

Yeah. But you're right. Like, he's such a good actor. He immediately dislike him. I don't even remember the girl he was like sleeping with in the movie. Yeah. I honestly didn't even remember her showing up as part of the group. She just, she was there.

She was part of the group. And then she didn't really have much to do. No, she was just naked. Yeah. Some of the female characters They were just kind of there hanging out And Nicole was annoying a little bit But I get it, you know?

Like people love their pets I love my pets I don't have any pets currently But I did love my pets But I don't know if I would freak out The way that she did If I could see that I could see that happening in real life

I could see that I feel like Kristen would I don't know Maybe she would But I can totally I can totally see someone doing that I've heard of people doing wild things Because pets are family members.

Yeah. I get it. When their pets are in need, like, I knew a girl who, you guys have to forgive me because this is going to make me look bad. But there was a girl who was interested in me. We went out or something, and she told me that she didn't have a car right now. And I'm like, why? And she said, she gave it up.

She sold it so she could have money to pay for her pet surgery. And I'm like, that's commendable. But, like, that's just a lot for, like, at that time in my life. Right. Even today. Like, today, even if I met someone today, who did that, I'm like, that's awesome that you are that loving and have that much empathy, but that's just a lot for me to, like, I couldn't do that.

If my car gets me from point to point, meaning, like, to work, especially if you live in Los Angeles where there's no public transportation that's really effective. Yeah. I mean, I guess you have Uber or Lyft, but you need a car. To give that up, which is my means of paying my bills, she's totally the kind of person that would do that and run out. Your dog is your family method. Yeah, your dog is everything.

Obviously, that's not a mindset that I have, but it's a mindset that I can recognize and totally buy into. And so when I'm frustrated with her in the scene, I'm like, I'm frustrated because it feels so real. That's a moment that felt real. I just wanted a moment where someone was like, Nicole, not cool. There was no time. I know there was no time. No, everyone was focused on looking at the situation. So she got lucky because, you know, I feel like she deserved a telling off in that moment. Like, you just jeopardized a whole bunch of us. Plus, we lost two people. Yeah. What was really lucky was that the truck started up. haven't been hitting that ignition every two weeks or once a week, you know?

If you don't do that, your car just stops, like, statistically, like, your car is not likely to start. The battery's dead if you don't keep starting it up. I hadn't thought about that. I thought about it while watching the movie, but I was like, it's fine. It's helping with the drama and to escalate things. What do you think it means now that at the end of the movie, they reached the island or whatever and it's full of zombie?

I think it was just giving you the opportunity for a sequel. That's it. Oh, okay. Because I thought it was just kind of this bleak ending where it's like, it sucks. Everything sucks. The whole world is dead. I don't think it was giving you a don't look up ending. I think that it was keeping it open ended insofar as you didn't actually see what happened to anybody.

You just saw the camera. The camera's POB of zombies coming at the camera. Oh, true, true, true. I just assume that they all die. To a certain extent, that's a spinning top ending, like you decide. Overall, I thought it was a quite compelling adventure, and it had a lot of great moments and a lot of interesting action that was fused in there with the chaos. Yeah, it was really slickly done, I think.

It was just so tight, so cool, so entertaining, so scary, and I love the music choices as well, because it was just really tongue-in-cheek, very appropriate choices, I feel, and so it has like a great balance between, like, I'm talking about the movie. as a whole, not just the music, but it has a great balance between being scary and having action, but then also being, like, funny and irreverent as well. I guess it would have been cool to have maybe fewer characters

that you could get to know better. Because when, like, Norma, the old lady died, I didn't really care about her. No. You know, and that's the one thing that was, you know, when I watched Train to Busan, you know, it's like I cared about the characters when they were getting hurt or dying or whatever.

It's like, it mattered to me. And so here, at a certain point, they just kind of become canon fodder. And that's the only thing that bothers me. Yeah. It could have, it's like it had all the ingredients to go beyond just having people for canon fodder is ultimately what I'm saying. Like, it was all there. But then maybe the movie would have been too long, I guess. Maybe.

Yeah. Yeah. But the guy who stayed behind at the end, is played by Jake Weber. Did you hear his accent at all? I did. He was really good, but I only heard it break, like, at the end or something at one point. Well, the way he speaks of an American accent almost reminds me of Hugh Jackman. It's like a similar, I don't know what it is, but because his accent slipped a couple times, it's almost like I could never unhear his accent.

And so I just wish that he just went for some kind of European act. Like, it's, where is this set? In the Midwest somewhere. Oh, okay, we'll never mind then. We don't make it to the Midwest, okay? We only go to the coastal cities. I'm talking L.A., New York, San Francisco. Maybe Austin.

Yeah, maybe now, Austin, Texas, yeah. Austin's been a place for a while. Maybe I'm just, like, too analytical. But sometimes when I hear certain actors who I know are foreign doing an American accent and they're not doing it as good as the guy from Walking Dead. Carl! Girl!

Yeah, like his accent is perfect because I had no idea he was foreign, right? Like, some actors can just nail it so well that it never slips. But sometimes it's like, I hear it. I'm like, I can't unhear this guy. It's really hard, I feel, and I notice this more during emotional moments, you know, like when you're screaming and shouting and crying or something like that, the accent slips. That's forgivable. You're focusing on the emotion of the moment.

And so I don't mind it as much when I hear that. I definitely kind of pick up on it a lot of the time, but I think it's okay. Everyone's just trying their best, you know? Yeah. I mean, what matters more than anything is that in the moments of, of. like quiet emotion, I think he delivered. He definitely did. Like, he definitely, he had the vibe that was necessary.

And, like, even the scene in the bus when, uh, I guess he held her hand in that moment in the bus or something like that, it was like, it was a sweet moment. Surprising. Like, I wasn't expecting that in this movie. You know what I mean? Yeah. I was expecting full on making out or something else. And it went to something like very kind and gentle.

I was like, oh, shit, okay. Yeah. That was cool. Unexpected. And then at the end, it was a sort of like bookend to the same thing where he's like, he's holding her hand. his hand before he lets her go. It was actually really sad.

It was really sad. And it was helped by the fact that he's a really good performer. I just wish that he had more time with the ex. I'm sorry. I have a mere cat brain. So I'm like, oh, there's that accent. There's that accent again. You know what I mean?

Interesting. Yeah. We lost Mikai Pfeiffer, him and his family. You know what? Like, I understood that. I completely understood it. Because, like, he was so desperate to, like, keep his family as long as he could. Because he had, they established in the bathroom.

He was like, I just want to give them something better. And he was so bent on that mission, he lost sight of, I guess, any sense of reality. Right. Yeah. I think I was just really upset because to me, in that moment, it felt like... Selfish? You know, well, it felt like he was just focusing more on the baby and less on his wife and her well-being and comfort and everything. But then upon deeper thinking as much as I could do in that moment, I was like, okay, I can see how maybe.

Maybe he would give up on the wife because it's like, well, I can't save her anymore, but maybe I can save the child. Because there is always a turning point in a situation like that where you're like, do I focus on saving the life of the mother or the life of the child? And I guess we could say that in that moment, it had crossed over into the area of, well, now we're focused on the child and helping the child have a chance at life. Yeah. So. I really liked Ving Rhames in this movie, though. Yeah. I think he did a great job, just performance-wise.

For me, he pretty much carried the movie. Yeah, he was great. His character felt really lived in. And I mean, I guess that's helped with, like you said, a sense of what he wants, you know? It was very clear early on that he was this guy who was quite capable out there. And also he had someone or some people that he really needed to get to. Yeah. And so that was enough to kind of make us.

go, okay, yeah, we're on board with you. And then the friendship that he forged with Andy across the way at the gun shop was also really sweet. Yeah. So, yeah, you just kind of get to know him. That whole thing with Andy, I thought, was actually a really nice touch to the film. You could totally see that kind of thing happening, you know, and that kind of bond of just using the boards.

I just thought that was cool. Another nice element. And it gives you a sense of hope. And then you really feel it when you, when you know he got bit. You feel what the characters feel. I thought that was actually very effective because they did a lot with a little I mean really what you were working with was like

a walkie talkie and some voiceover and yet you felt immense like you got to know him as well as the characters did you know what I mean yeah because he was he was cool as well and I felt sad for him too when he wrote that sign and he's like hungry

and it's like oh my gosh they didn't even think to ask their friend if he was okay did he need food you know like All of that stuff, I guess you just, I just assumed that, oh, maybe he had a secret stash of stuff in his shop. But I guess, yeah, he ran out. He didn't have enough. And so it was just so sad. And then when he gets bitten and, like, the dramatic irony of it all, because we know, the other guys know, but poor Andy doesn't know.

And it's like, what do you do in that situation? Like, just let him be. Then Nicole had to go and ruin it all. Stupid. I should have just, like, let the dog find his way back. Just be like, chips, chips, come back. Yeah. It is a little surprising to me that they didn't even bother trying to explore.

Like, he's got all these guns. I mean, I guess they showed you, you know, from the bird's eye of view, just the amount, the volume of zombies that are out there, right? Yeah. And he's just one guy. He might have, like, a thousand guns, but he's one guy. He's one guy with a thousand guns and a billion bullets. Like, it's a daily routine, but eventually you'll get all the weeds, right?

You know what I mean? I mean, maybe, kind of like in other shows, The Walking Dead or The Last of Us or whatever, where you're just like walking around the perimeter, just trying to... Yeah, exactly. Keeping it clean. Keeping it clean, but there were so many, and I would imagine that they're constantly just repopulating because they're getting more people. Yeah, that's true.

So... I could go for some lucky charms. You guys, thanks so much for hanging out. Hopefully you enjoyed that. I'm Jabby Koeh, this is. Acharikirk. Peace out.