Heres my time-check for Zack Snyder’s 2004 zombie flick. First pointless yet somehow obligatory shower sex scene: five minutes. First ridiculously gruesome zombie assault and apocalyptic transformation of a Wisconsin suburb: 90 seconds later. First pole-through-skull impalement: 15 minutes. First super sexy female (Sarah Polley) shooting an automatic weapon: 20 minutes. Dawn doesnt waste much time in restating the obvious, meaning Polley and a dozen-odd beautiful peoplenone with noticeably more emotions than the zombies outsidesoon take refuge in the mall for the big siege. Romeros original political/consumerist themes are absent here, but even if Dawn doesnt have a brain, it does at least have a sense of humor. The most morbidly funny scene: a rooftop-to-rooftop chess game played via binoculars and dry-erase boards while a zombie mob riots in the streets below, set to an airy lounge version of Disturbeds Get Down With the Sickness (dude!). (R) KATIE MILLBAUER.
Oct. 21-27, 9 p.m., 2011
