Movies: DVD Reviews

New 'Dead' dawns with a frenzy full of fright

'Dawn of the Dead: Unrated Director's Cut'
(Universal, $29.98)
(movie)
(DVD format and extras)

Man, that is some crazy opening. None of that old-fashioned set-up or pesky back-story context-building for these folks. "Dawn of the Dead" just hurls itself at you, eyes bloodshot, decaying flesh dripping from its mouth and dives straight for the throat. Fight or flight, baby; it's all you can do to stay in your seat and just take it. The first 10 minutes of this explosive rethink of George Romero's classic motorvates with such force, such terrifying velocity, such ever-accelerating chaos that you're perfectly within your rights to think this is going to be one of the greatest movie-as-movie-as-overwhelming-juggernaut ever made.

It isn't. I think audience heads would simply explode if "Dawn" tried to keep yhis pace up over the whole film, but it's certainly a great horror flick, bursting with energy, wit and, yes, plenty of furious zombies. We never do learn just why the dead are rising and eating us; we just know that we have to aim for the head.

Director Zack Snyder and writer James Gunn dial down Romero's anti-consumerist vibe; the empty mall for suburban nurse Sarah Polley, beat cop Ving Rhames and regular guy Mekhi Phifer seems value neutral. Sometimes a mall is just a mall, and besides, these zombies don't have any of the original's slow moving stumbly-bumbly charm. They come, they see, they rocket toward you.

From a fake documentary on one character's last days to real documentaries on the "anatomy of exploding heads" and the makeup involved in turning actors into zombies, the extras with "Dawn" let us see the process behind the gore. Instead of ruining the movie magic, it just makes "Dawn" seem all the more savage, if not more original.

'Arrested Development: Season One'
(Fox Home Entertainment, $39.98)
(show)
(DVD format and extras)

There's a strong sense of triumph over doom on the commentary tracks for the "Arrested Development: Season One" DVD set. On the day it was recorded, the show's creator Mitchell Hurwitz and the cast of his superlative Fox TV show had just found out they earned seven Emmy Award nominations after a season of middling ratings and continual uncertainty about the show's future existence. Their prediction: an 0-for-7 shutout.

Now, as the 22 first episodes are released on DVD (the show returns for a new season on Nov. 7), we know that "Arrested Development" won five Emmys last month, including Best Comedy -- a feat typically unheard of for a freshman series.

For fans of comedy, and those who were afraid the show would go the way of past Fox gems such as "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" and "Undeclared" (canceled in their first seasons), "Arrested Development" seems almost too good to be true. Both subtle and silly, the comedy comes with a crack ensemble, grounded by a revelatory Jason Bateman and ace comedian Jeffrey Tambor, and writing so sharp that even observant viewers need multiple showings to catch all the layers of humor.

As behind-the-scenes featurettes and deleted scenes on the three-disc set reveal, there's so much comedy packed into the show that a good chunk of it ends up edited out. Virtuoso scenes of improvisation (cast members David Cross and Will Arnett seem especially adept at taking a moment from funny to hilarious) are usually tightened to only flashes of brilliance in a show that moves quickly and takes lots of chances in its presentation and subject matter.

Like many of HBO's best shows ("Sopranos," "Curb Your Enthusiasm"), "Arrested" transcends its TV trappings and gets funnier the more you watch it. There may not be another American TV comedy that has been this good this quickly. If it stays on track, it will be remembered as one of the best TV comedy series ever aired.
-- Omar L. Gallaga