The second part of Romero's "Dead" trilogy, Dawn of the Dead expounds upon everything that made NOTLD such a success. It broadens the scope of the zombie outbreak and actually shows a grouping of people that get along with each other in such a situation.

The social commentary has returned in full force, demonstrating a self contained environment in which our heroes can thrive and live in peace, but is that what anyone really wants? It's also the first time a film maker tries to make us feel sympathy for the zombies as they return back to one of the only places they remember in their former lives and walk around without emulating their past lives.

DOTD is also the first zombie film graced by the talents of Tom Savini, who gives the zombies the rotting corpse look that they so desperately needed and makes the gore more graphic and disturbing than before. It's such a great film that it's really no wonder that it's being remade this year. Hopefully the basic foundation of the story is strong enough as to hold up under whatever changes the film makers have made to it.

The film begins in a hectic television studio in Philadelphia. We're smack in the middle of the zombie crisis at this point and the only thing on TV are listings of rescue stations and scientists throwing out their theories. One such scientist is currently talking on this particular station about the nature of zombies, such as the fact that they kill people for food.

Dr. Phil then gets on the air and complains that if the zombies really want to be thin like him then they've got to stop eating human flesh. Each person that a zombie kills gets up and kills. The only way to stop them is to abandon faulty human emotion and to take out all of the dead.

Martial law has currently been declared in Philadelphia and no one is allowed to remain in a private residence. Everyone must be put into central locations where they are safe and the dead can be dealt with. Fran Parker, one of the journalists in the studio, pulls the list of rescue stations off the air as half of them are no longer in operation at this point. The station manager becomes livid, as rescue station listings = RATINGS.

Everyone becomes pissed off at him and begins to leave the studio. SWERVE BABY. Chopper Steve comes into the studio and lets his gal pal Fran know that he's taking one of the station's choppers and getting the hell out of there later tonight. As the scientist said, special SWAT teams are herding people into central locations and trying to get rid of zombies.

A bunch of people in the ghetto have holed up inside an apartment with their dead relatives and refuse to leave, so the team moves in. These people are saving their walking dead like they're going to become valuable collector's items down the road.

The people inside the hotel resist and begin firing at the SWAT boys who more than happily return the fire. They infiltrate the inside of the hotel where one of the super racist SWAT members goes apeshit, having to be shot down by super badass SWAT member Peter Washington (played by super badass Ken Foree of TV's Kenan and Kel).

Lots of cops vs. humans and zombies mayhem ensues. One fun highlight is a zombie husband ripping the throat of his wife out as she embraces him. That's love for ya. In the basement of the hotel, Peter meets up with fellow SWAT member Roger DeMarco and they share a tender moment together.

The SWAT team discovers a treasure trove of zombies boarded up in the basement and does what they do best by shooting them all in the head. Because they're now zombie killing brothers, Roger invites Peter to come with him on Steve's helicopter and get the hell out of zombie city. Speaking of Steve, he and Fran are refueling the helicopter. They get accosted by some raider punks dressed as cops, but the piercing gaze of Ken Foree's enlarged eyes scares them off.

The foursome get to know each other in the chopper, with Fran asking Peter is he's leaving behind "real brothers or street brothers." Right on sista. Along the way they see the roving bands of rednecks from NOTLD going on zombie hunting trips. I wonder if you need a hunting liscense to bag zombies.

The chopper lands for yet another refueling at an abandoned fuel pump. Zombie attacks are on the menu for every good guy, although Roger gets off easy with a retard zombie who ends up chopping his head off on the helicopter blades. Peter gets the worst of it as he's forced to fend off two zombie children. Chopper Steve's the shittiest shot in the west and can't hit a zombie in the head, much less the torso. Peter puts the loser in his place.

They take off again and land on the roof of a nearby abandoned mall. They discover the entrance to a back room in the mall that's secluded from the rest of it (the only way in is a stairwell) and go on it. It isn't long before Roger and Peter decide to go downstairs into the mall and loot all they can. Roger turns on the power, which starts up the fountains, escalators, and that awesome mall music. Now the zombies can shuffle along to the beat of awful Yanni beats.

The well dressed zombies in their stylish bell bottoms are easy to outmaneuver, especially for anyone skilled at passing the old people in the mall that just go there to walk around. Peter's so hardcore he smacks each and every zombie in the damn jaw like Mr. Sandman to show them whose boss.

The two fellas raid a Pennys (They hadn't added the JC yet), taking such essentials as a TV, a radio, and gold watches. Meanwhile, Chopper Steve leaves the safety of upstairs and goes exploring in the bowels of the mall. He runs into a zombie and with his impeccable aim, proceeds to shoot lots of errant shots that bounce all over the place. You'll shoot your eye out kid.

He manages to run in front of zombie, turn around, and then somehow let it sneak up behind him. That takes serious talent. Meanwhile, Peter's gorilla press slamming zombies off of balconies. The crew decides to stay put in the mall for a while since it has everything they need. They use a map Chopper Steve recovered to find some passageways in the ceilings that go between stores.

Meanwhile, a Hare Krishna zombie is trying to bust into the upstairs room where Fran is holed up. The boys come back in time to save her worthless ass and don't exactly treat the Krishna zombie with peace and love.

As the radio spews government nonsense, Chopper Steve drops the bombshell that Fran is pregnant. Too bad she doesn't have a zombie fetus (But don't fret, dear reader, for we'll be profiling a movie that does!). Peter, being super awesome, offers to abort the fetus as he has that special know-how.

Fran's not happy about a potential abortion or the fact that they're all going to stay put in this "prison." The zombies are having all sorts of fun in the mall, playing with mannequins and sliding around on the ice skating rink. Mutant league hockey indeed. Fran sticks up for herself and refuses to be den mother for the rest of them, demanding a right in all the decisions. DAMN YOU 19TH AMMENDMENT, DAMN YOU!

Peter and Roger go outside to jack some tractor trailers and use them to block the entrance to the mall. Roger's a little too confident and gets ambushed by some zombies while hotwiring another truck. He escapes a few of the zombies and goes over the deep end, which means instant death in a zombie film.

He leaves his bag in one of the trucks and goes back to get it. The evidence of him being a super moron is adding up, and as such he gets bitten, twice even. Becoming a zombie is now inevitable for retard Roger.

The good guys patch Roger up since he'll be useful until he turns into a zombie. Chopper Steve becomes Peter's new running buddy and they raid the guns & ammo shop in the mall together, accumulating so many guns it would make any NRA member pop a boner.

Once they take all the guns they can, all four members of the crew get equipped with weapons (and bubble lead). All four go through the mall with Roger being pushed along in a little cart. Too bad there were no Hoverrounds to steal in that mall. Their plan is to lock all four of the entrances into the mall. They accomplish this by hotwiring one of the display cars in the middle of the mall and driving from entrance to entrance.

With all entrances shut, the four go on a zombie killing spree to get rid of what little number of zombies are still inside. Roger's condition continues to worsen from the zombie bite and Peter knows that eventually he'll have to shoot him. Roger and Chopper Steve come up with the plan to build a wall in front of the stairwell entrance so that no one will know that they're there.

The crew takes some relaxation time by looting lots of cash and clothes. Even Roger gets a fancy hat for his crippled ass. They also loot tons of assorted meats and cheeses that make me incredibly jealous.

Fran gives Chopper Steve a new haircut befitting his almighty chopperness, and then the fellas go hang out at the arcade where they play state of the art 1970s video games. After having their fun they go back upstairs and rest.

Roger's pretty much dead by this point and makes Peter promise to take his zombie self out once he dies. While Peter's watching a scientist on TV suggesting eating the zombies and dropping nukes on every big city, Roger comes back from the dead.

Peter doesn't eat him but fulfills his oath by shooting him in the forehead. A true friend to the end, hi-dee-ho. They bury Roger in dirt and trees next to one of the fountain displays. The threesome continue to live a life of luxury all by themselves in the mall, with Peter acting as a waiter and giving Chopper Steve and Fran some time alone at one of the fancier restaurants in the mall.

Chopper Steve asks Fran to marry him with one of the rings he stole. All is going well it seems. They show these guys doing so much shit but we never get to see where they take a shower. These are the little details I'm interested in.

The prospect of living forever in this empty mall is starting to wear down on the three and they quickly become withdrawn and depressed. It finally reaches a point where they can't take it anymore and decide to make preparations for leaving. This includes Chopper Steve teaching Fran how to pilot the helicopter and become Chopper Fran.

A bunch of biker raiders see the helicopter flying around and are impressed by how much effort they've put into fortifying this mall. The leader of the gang, Tom "The Moustache" Savini, decides that they're going to raid the place tonight and then whips out a switchblade comb to stroke his moustache.

The good guy crew picks up a radio transmission from the raiders and learns about their plan, although the radio broadcast is quickly silenced by the FCC because of indecency. The threesome decides to stay and fight them off as best they can.

The raiders have no trouble busting in and driving through with their bikes. Thanks to their busting down the doors, tons of zombies come in as well. They loot all they can, even going to far as to rip valuables off of zombies and throw cream pies in their faces. Oh Tom Savini, you card!

Chopper Steve goes a bit crazy and starts shooting at the raiders because he believes all this shit rightfully belongs to him. To make up for the lack of gore thus far, the next ten minutes are nothing but, with lots of good guys shooting the raiders, raiders shooting the zombies, and zombies eating raiders. Tom Savini eventually gets blown away by Peter and gets his guts eaten.

Chopper Steve meets a similar fate thanks to some zombies in an elevator. Fran wants to leave but Peter feels like he should stay and go down with the ship. Back downstairs, Chopper Steve has gone zombie and leads the rest of the zombies through the fake wall and upstairs.

In the face of certain death, Peter decides that maybe he should leave and go on to kick ass another day, so he runs up to the chopper. Peter and Fran take off to go on merrier zombie adventures as dawn approaches.

Looking back at the article, the film doesn't seem that exciting when I discuss it. The film is actually pretty long and the zombies only present a threat in a few key points throughout the movie. Oddly enough, this dead film is more about the humans in it and about what the world has become as a result of these zombies rather than the zombies themselves.

The raiders/zombies fight at the end of the movie seems more like an afterthought, as if Romero said "Oh yeah, we've gotta have some zombies eating people now." And even when zombies are eating people the central message of the movie is still being conveyed through the fact that the happy home is being destroyed.

The film is rock solid even after so many years and I can't help thinking that the remake is going to be unable to stand the test of time. Does a film like this really NEED to be remade? Is it so hard to think up new locations to put zombies in?

Then again, the NOTLD remake didn't turn out that bad so maybe I'm worrying for nothing. No matter how bad the remake is, I'll always have the original. That's right baby, just me and my Dawn of the Dead DVD. Mmm, yeah.