After being subjected to "Pre-Show Entertainment" for so long, I began to understand the virtues of being bombarded with Britney songs and being forced to watch Coca-Cola movie trivia.

"Ow!  Stop it!  Cut it out!  *slap!*  I told you to stop!"

And was it a gaggle of 7 year olds?  No!  It was some heavy breathing 13 year old boy and an adult!

It was so strange being in such a deadly quiet theater with no commercials before the previews.  However, I would suggest some Muzak simply to fill the void as I'm not dying for Pepsi or Coca-Cola to get the wrong idea that I personally miss them.

So, all of the momentum I had in wanting to watch this movie was slowly dissipating as I wondered if it was kosher if I could go and ask for my money back.

Alas, the lights finally dimmed, and after many previews for  The Matrix meets King Arthur, and the Matrix meets Judi Dench, we were welcomed into Dawn of the Dead.

I like the George Romero original "Night of the Living Dead" so much that I have been reticent in seeing any of the sequels.  That's how much I don't want my image of that movie tarnished.

However, George is not around for this one, is he?  It's a remake of a remake, and enough time has passed in between my last scary movie and this one that I had safely forgotten the nerve damage that one takes upon sitting through one of them.  All of the undignified squinting and hiding behind your seat and leaving the theater like your last fragile nerve had been shattered, you can't simply feel the same effect on the small screen.  Why I want this pain, I'll never know.  However, I am game enough for any scary movie with questions behind it.  Like any good 1950's sci-fi movie like "The Blob" where it's simply veiled questions about the bomb and communism.

Dawn of the Dead is basically Night of the Living Dead set in a mall.  I haven't seen the original Dawn of the Dead, so I can't compare, but even if you haven't seen the original, this is a good diversion.  Sure, the zombies pop up at the moments that you expect them to, but in exactly what scary movie does that not happen?  You know that when they split up that somebody is going to get it.  You know that when they have to go outside and fix the generator that it won't be a simple operations.  You know that there will be at least one emotional female of the group who does something that isn't quite level-headed and then must bring her much smarter co-horts to her rescue. However, if it wasn't for stupidity, the closing credits would have to roll about 15 minutes after the opening credits. Stupid movie, I forgive you!