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I'm not a big "zombie" movie kinda guy. I have nothing against the zombie genre, it's just that it doesn't rank very high on the type of movie I'm lining up to see. However, that being said, I really wanted to see Dawn of the Dead.

Dawn of the Dead is the remake of director George Romero's 1978 classic. In it, the world is taken over by the undead. You get bitten by a zombie - you die - you come back to life - you try to kill more people. You feed off the living. In the midst of the carnage, a group of survivors hole themselves up in a mall and fight for their lives against the hordes of those infected. The movie has a little bit of everything - a little human drama, tons of action, and a fair share of comedy - some intentional, some not so much intentional - but in terms of the plot, that was about it. People die. People in the mall fight for their lives.

And that was really my biggest problem. I don't know what else I was expecting, but it was all just a little too simple. I guess it was along the lines of your standard horror movie with little to no plot but, in all honesty, I was really expecting more. I don't know what else I was expecting - but it wasn't really what I got. Sure, it entertained my juvenile little mind, but the movie did nothing to make me want to jump on the zombie movie bandwagon.

I should note that the DVD I am reviewing here is the Unrated Director's Cut. I'm not really sure how the actual movie differs from the theatrical version other than 9 minutes of additional footage, but there are some extra bonus features available.

The exclusive bonus features include 3 featurettes, with the first titled "Raising the Dead". Running 8 minutes, this extra looks at the makeup from the movie, mostly featuring David LeRoy Anderson (who provided the film's Special Makeup Effects) speaking about his behind-the-scenes role on the film. Second, we get "Attack of the Living Dead" which looks specifically at 6 zombies from the movie and again features Anderson filling us in on how he helped create these characters. Finally, there's "Splitting Headache: Anatomy of Exploding Heads" which is pretty self explanatory. I should also mention that the Unrated DVD includes an introduction to the film by director Zack Snyder who goes over what we should expect from the unrated version - including more gore and more character development.

For features available on both DVDs, we get "The Lost Tape: Andy's Terrifying Last Days" (16 minutes) which is a home video made by one of the characters in the movie. It's a little cheesy - but fun to watch. We also get "Special Report: We Interrupt This Program" (21 minutes) which is the newscast from the first day of the movie. This one is pretty fun too - with a little less cheese. I actually though this would've maybe made a better movie if it were feature length.

Standard features include some deleted scenes with optional commentary and a feature-length commentary, both provided by director Zack Snyder and producer Eric Newman. I found the commentary to be very entertaining. As with most horror movies, you can really tell that the guys behind the camera had fun making these types of movie, and it's no different here. There are lots of laughs as the two fill us in on details from the set and let us in on some gags and trivia from the movie that the untrained eye might not see. Definitely worth a listen.

(It should also be noted for those interested that the Rated DVD includes the featurette "Surviving the Dawn: Dare to Face Your Fears" which isn't included on the Unrated edition.)

So, I'd have to give this DVD a moderate thumbs up. As for bonus features, the quality and quantity are enough here to please the core audience or the casual fan. And the movie itself? It's not a riveting drama - it's not going to leave you laughing - it's not even really going to scare you - but the filmmakers still manage to make it relatively entertaining.