"Land of the dead" By George A. Romero movie review

[Vkmies]

So... I just watched the Land of the dead made in 2005 by George A. Romero. First, I want to say that Im a Romero-fan. Not the biggest one but I think he is really, really good and my favourite Zombie-director.

Story: This movie upgrades with the whole Zombie-aspect. They are getting smarter and smarter and the humans are getting more and more fucked. As you can most likelly remember, in "The day of the dead" That one zombie remembered how to use a gun,book and other simple devices and items.
Well, they are even more smart now! They can communicate and move in groups and use teamwork and weapons. This one Zombie has taken the part of a leader and leads the other Zombies to kinda revenge their fate to the living. It seems with this one the Zombies have feelings too. They put down the zombies in pain and are mad when one of their fellow Flesh-eaters get shot. I kinda liked this feature. It makes the previous movies linked with this one, how the zombies evolve and stuff.
As the zombies are going up, the humanity is going down. It seems that nowhere else is safe exept in the big cities or in the middle of nowhere. I wont go deep into the story, since it's fairly complex and hard to explain and would probably just bore you. IT'S A ZOMBIE-FLICK, WHAT DO YOU EXEPT?
Characters are made very well, the dialog is sharp and the whole storyline flows like a river. It's pretty darn awesome.

Sound: Let's start with the music. There isnt alot to say about it. With Romeros zombie-movies, music isnt usually on the front-seat. That's the place for sound-effects. You dont really need mindblowing tunes, when you have top-notch Zombie-growls, explosions, Gun-shots and screams full of pain. Im not sure if it works with surround sound, but if it does. Use it. If you are watching it in total silence, I think you will love it.

Acting: Im really not a big fan of the actors in this movie, but I had no problems with it. I dont think it's revolutionary or anything, but it wasnt bad by any means. Zombies were awesome but the main-actors were nothing special. The only actor I liked in this movie was Dennis Hopper. He is awesome as the bad guy. The sneaky guy who has made himself kinda as a leader in this torn apart city. Oh, and the writers/main actor from the movie "Shaun of the dead" are Zombies in this movie! EPIC!

Masking/vehicles/props etc: The Zombies look AWESOME! The masks and the makeup is absolutelly brilliant. Probably the best-looking Zombies I have ever seen. They DO look like they have just came up from the dead.
They also have jeeps and cars in the movie, but the only vehicle that deserves a mention in the movie is this super-cool armored car thing with missiles and machine guns. It's really cool and makes some awesome scenes.
The whole city is very well built and looks great. It really lives and breathes.

Overall: Ok, so it's not Romeros best, but it's still one of the most memorable Zombie-movies ever made. And when you think about it, you really cant compare the romero-movies with each-other. It feels like a totally different movie, but it still somehow feels like a "_____ of the dead"-movie wich is pretty weird but awesome, like all the other romero-flicks. If you like Zombies, gore, Romero, Post-apocalyptic feeling stuff etc. you have to see this movie. It's classic Romero.

 

[Syphonz]

I personally didn't like this movie. The 'evolution' of the zombies like communication, co-ordiation, even fear (not how lead dude jumps back when a dangling zombie randomly swings by the window) just seemed ridiculous to me. Not only that, I got the feel from very start that the humans feel the zombies are minor threat, like its more of a game than anything. Sure there's a big attack at the end of the movie but beyond that, nothing much.

Then comes my problem that humanity is split into two; the very few rich, and everyone else is like a Hells Angel member. I understand the meaning behind it and all, but it just doesn't work for me.

 

[Lord George]

Ah someone else who decided to watch the of the dead films over Halloween (or so I presume), of course I'd be playing the "drink every time survivor/zombie dies" game and don't remember much by the time we got to Land of the Dead, I think it was good and liked the whole sociopolitical elements in it with the rich/poor thing and lower classes gaining intelligence thing.

 

[PostOmnis]

I felt like this movie was a BIG metaphor about humanity. And how we brain wash ourselves to think nothing outside of our walls matter. But when our worst fears attack us... What happens? Do we duck and cover till the storm passes? Do we fight till we die?
A lot of thought is put into the underlining of this movie. I.E. Power corrupts. And humans are idiots, no matter what the situation is. LOL!

Good review!

Cheers,
PostOmnis

 

[Vkmies]

Ah someone else who decided to watch the of the dead films over Halloween (or so I presume), of course I'd be playing the "drink every time survivor/zombie dies" game and don't remember much by the time we got to Land of the Dead, I think it was good and liked the whole sociopolitical elements in it with the rich/poor thing and lower classes gaining intelligence thing.

Acually i just rented 2 horror movies i was interested in, to check on halloween. Land of the dead and House of the haunted hill. Both were great. Might write a review on "house of the haunted hill" later today...

Good review!

Thanks alot man!

 

[Ammadessi]

I felt like this movie was a BIG metaphor about humanity. And how we brain wash ourselves to think nothing outside of our walls matter. But when our worst fears attack us... What happens? Do we duck and cover till the storm passes? Do we fight till we die?
A lot of thought is put into the underlining of this movie. I.E. Power corrupts. And humans are idiots, no matter what the situation is. LOL!

Good review!

Cheers,
PostOmnis

Romero movies are always a metaphor for something. Dawn of the Dead was social commentary on consumer culture.

 

[PostOmnis]

I felt like this movie was a BIG metaphor about humanity. And how we brain wash ourselves to think nothing outside of our walls matter. But when our worst fears attack us... What happens? Do we duck and cover till the storm passes? Do we fight till we die?
A lot of thought is put into the underlining of this movie. I.E. Power corrupts. And humans are idiots, no matter what the situation is. LOL!

Good review!

Cheers,
PostOmnis

Romero movies are always a metaphor for something. Dawn of the Dead was social commentary on consumer culture.

George A Romero's movies are brilliant. BTW, did anyone notice the directors of "Shawn of the Dead" are in "Land of the Dead?" They are the zombies who are chained up for photo opps.

 

[electric_warrior]

for me, it was too claustrophobic and unpleasant even for george a romero. I respected it as a good film, but definitely did not like it.

 

[primitivescrewhead]

Although the original Day of the Dead has my favourite gore affects in any zombie movie, Tom Savini really did a great job. Capt. Rhodes' death "choke on them!" and the bottem jawless zombie at the start are two highlights. Having said that, Lucio Fulci has always been my favourite zombie movie director, from Zombie Flesh Eaters, the beyond and the house by the cemetery. Land of the Dead is by no means a bad zombie movie (look towards the two modern day of the dead movies for two of the worst). However it was definitely a turn towards a more 'modern' look of a zombie movie but for me it still worked as a good movie. Romero's latest 'Diary of the Dead' was in my opinion awful, with annoying characters and a lacking plot it just didn't have the style of a classic Romero flick. The idea for a 'cloverfield' style zombie movie has been done in a far superior Spanish movie 'Rec' (The American remake can gtf). Romero's next 'dead' movie 'Survival of the Dead' is due soon and from what I have heard is straight to DVD which doesn't exactly bode well, we can just wait and hope that Romero is back on form with this one.

 

[Therumancer]

I saw this because of Romero, and Asia Argento (daughter of Dario Argento, I have a thing for her, and like a lot of her father's movies as well).

At any rate, I myself didn't like it too much. I felt the ending was predictable, the Zombies "evolving" was a bit silly, and it seemed to be trying to convey a social message at the expense of common sense or even much explanation.

Some aspects of it, like the people seeing the Zombies as a minor threat, did make sense because of how well fortified they were (well I won't ruin the ending). As far as the social aspects, well it IS a post apocolyptic wasteland, and there is only so much space in that tower they had. Any way you look at it, no matter what system they used, not everyone was going to be able to live in there like that, and the vast majority of people would wind up outside wanting to be able to live in there.

One problem I have with social messages (like the ones in this revolving around the above point and a few other things) is that oftentimes they focus on an inequality, but not on the situation that causes it, nor do they present any better alternative solutions other than to scream "there is a problem". The screaming is of course always the easy part which is why I have so little respect for most people screaming about social inequality, but DO respect people like Bill Cosby (even though I disagree with them on a lot of things) because at least they try and present solutions and try and look at the root of the problems they are discussing. Even on the things I disagree with them on, merely putting in the thought means
a lot.

That movie presents a very harsh situation, and honestly while the whole thing exists to make you hate the bad guy (and he does do some bad things, which are irredeemable) the general situation presented is one where things could not continue to function while being fair to everyone.

Overall I consider it his weakest work, both from a fantasy/concept perspective, and from a perspective of social commentary.

 

[The Infinite]

Good review you have there. I agree with you, it wasn't a half bad movie and I thought they gave just enough intelligence to the Zombies to make them destructive enough to wipe out the city, but still dumb enough to get away from. I agree with Furburt, Diary of The Dead was a terrible movie. I hope he gets the next one right.