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| Land of the Dead (2005)
  
Starring: Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Asia Argento, Dennis Hopper Director: George A. Romero Rating: R Category: Horror  |
It’s rarely good news when a legend comes out of hiding to reclaim their throne at the top of the kingdom. Michael Jordan had his second go at an NBA career with unsettling results, and now, the master of zombie films himself, George A. Romero, is looking to cash in on the recent zombie renaissance. And while his original three movies (“Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead,” and “Day of the Dead”) were all brilliant horror films - as well as excellent sources for relaying social commentary - his latest venture into the world of the undead is a heap of summer movie crap.
It’s true that Romero can be fully credited for the birth of the zombie genre, but he’s been recently outdone by such clever films as “Shaun of the Dead,” “28 Days Later,” and even the remake of his own “Dawn of the Dead.” The veteran filmmaker has struggled to get his latest zombie film into theaters for years (plagued with more production problems than a Terry Gilliam picture), but “Land of the Dead” ultimately feels like a Hollywood sellout riding the coattails of much bigger, and better, zombie flicks with its diluted script and amateurish direction.
The humans are finally learning to fight back, and the remaining survivors have barricaded themselves inside of the city. Among those survivors are a group of mercenaries, led by Riley (Simon Baker), who go out at night to retrieve supplies for the city and blow open a few zombie heads while they’re at it. His second-in-command is Cholo (John Leguizamo), a lower class thug with the hope that his duty will earn him a pass into the upper class sanctuary, Fiddler’s Green. When he’s denied payment and kicked out by the city’s dictator-like leader Kaufman (Dennis Hopper), Cholo steals an armored assault vehicle nicknamed Dead Reckoning and threatens to blow up the city.
Meanwhile, the zombies are plotting a plan of their own. Well, kind of. Led by a black gas station attendant zombie (Eugene Clark) who’s apparently discovered the concept of communication and logic, the army of undead unite and head for Fiddler’s Green, perhaps one of the only safe havens still available in the world. Hired by Kaufman to track down Cholo and reclaim the Dead Reckoning, Riley, his friend Charlie (Robert Joy) and ex-Marine turned prostitute Slack (Asia Argento), must save the day, or the human race is....doomed.
“Land of the Dead” simply doesn’t live up to the expectations of a Romero film. Along with the lack of any really frightening moments (despite an abundance of grotesque ones), the film also delivers the most survivors I’ve ever witnessed in watching a horror picture. The miserably low body count and cookie-cutter happy ending are among many of the insulting faults that Romero hurls at the fans, but what’s worse is his disregard towards any social commentary; albeit he did throw in a few weak blows at social class, including the ridiculous concept that zombies are also victims.
The biggest setback of the film though, is Romero’s mindless script, which has the sharp-witted heroes of the film shooting at every zombie except the one running the show. And it’s not like he wasn’t visible either: he was in the front of the pack the entire movie. Now, if you were a character in the movie, and you saw an army of undead walking towards you, which zombie would you gun for? The slow, elderly lady zombie, or the massive black zombie (clearly the most menacing of the bunch) carrying a semi-automatic weapon? Kill the big, black zombie you idiots! He’s teaching them to use guns!
Sigh. It’s no use. And even though “Land of the Dead” stands as the worse Romero zombie film of his career, it still manages to satisfy at the guilty pleasure level. I guess we have Tom Savini and KNB to thank for that, whose special effects for the film are beyond amazing. The choice is up to you, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
DVD Review:
I just recently ranted about how horrible these Unrated Director's Cuts can be in my DVD review of "Unleashed," but the widescreen release for "Land of the Dead" is anything but. Featuring an always interesting audio commentary with director George A. Romero (as well as producer Peter Grunwald and editor Michael Daughtery), the special features are perhaps the best thing about picking up this DVD. Presented in an anamorphic 2.35:1 video presentation and a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the film looks great, but the SFX look even better. And this is exactly why the special features succeed on a higher level, because most of the featurettes focus on the amazing effects work that went in to making the movie.
First up are two making-of featurettes (one hosted by John Leguizamo), and a series of very uninteresting deleted scenes, but these are hardly worth your time. The most interesting material can be found in the effect featurettes "Bringing the Dead to Life" and "Zombie Effects: From Green Screen to Finished Scene," as well as the short documentary "When Shaun Met George," which follows "Shaun of the Dead" star Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright during the filming of their cameos as zombies. Also featured on the single-disc release is a storyboard-to-scene comparison featurette and a strange CG clip of zombies dancing. And as weird as that may be, you'll definitely get your money's worth when renting this flick.
~Jason Zingale
jzingale@bullz-eye.com