Land of the Dead movie review
George A. Romero worship continues… Dusk has fallen on the Day. The dead, called “stenches” have inherited the earth. As evidenced by Bub, of Day of the Dead, the zombie class has become increasingly cognitive. While instinct may have driven them back to the farmhouse and the mall, they have now become slightly adept at complex thought processes, and a sort of communication through grunting. One such zombie, a former gas station attendant and bull of a man, complete with a name patch reading Big Daddy, has even figured out the use of tools, and can sense the danger extant man brings with him.
The remaining humans live in a fortified city in the middle of nowhere. Within this town the caste system has eschewed all unnecessary intermediary levels. At the top reside the rich elite — well bred Caucasians who live in Fiddler’s Green, an ivory colored high-rise luxury apartment and shopping complex. Their days are spent shopping at stores whose merchandise is collected from the surrounding towns by the working poor who dare to brave the zombie hordes. But that’s not to say the working class is ever portrayed as saintly huddled masses. In fact, some are downright despicable, using zombies for such amusements as target practice, souvenir photos, and betting on stench-fights.
At the top of the top is rich guy, Kaufman (Dennis Hopper). From his ivory tower he views the working class as a disposable resource; the street dwellers being good enough to do his dirty work, but never worthy of coming upstairs. Kaufman is in charge of the quasi-military unit responsible for requisitions. Heading the pack is a man named Riley, an idealist and inventor of the armored bus/attack vehicle of the film’s 
former namesake, Dead Reckoning. His right hand-men, include the mentally challenged, but indispensable Charlie (possibly a reference to Flowers for Algernon) the hotheaded Cholo (John Leguizamo. Note that’s actually the character’s name. Please do not send me hate mail).
When one of the missions goes awry Big Daddy and the rest of the zombies follow the human trail back to the city, both to feed and eliminate the human threat. Complicating the matter is the fact Cholo has jacked Dead Reckoning and Charlie and his team have been saddled with its recovery. In true Romero fashion, the obstacles increase exponentially from here on out.
With Land of the Dead George Romero is at his best. As with the past three films in the zombie tetralogy, the film is rife with social commentary, excellent dialogue, and fleshed out, believable characters. Just look at the use of the “skyflowers” as a metaphor for government induced patriotic blinding. Another scene involves a young trooper hiding in a shed, waiting for Dead Reckoning to return. Scared witless he clutches a rat and caresses its fur — In the darkest of times, even rats can serve as comfort animals.
This is literary horror cinema at its best. Every line has a purpose to further the story, critique the establishment, and develop character motivation. What an excellent treat after the overly long Batman monologues.
Hopper, thank god, gives a Blue Velvet performance instead of a 24; his oddball panache exhibited in scene after scene. Just try to imagine anyone else sternly picking his nose while emoting “zombies…they creep me out,” At another point when a Cholo threatens him by phone, demanding 
receipt of his pay, he quips “we don’t negotiate with terrorists,” eliminating any doubt regarding the war mongering good-old-boy his character is based upon.
Asia Argento, the daughter of Dario, whom I’ve only seen in Scarlet Diva and xXx, delivers a decidedly high quality performance as Slack, the street-walker turned heroine, though it may just be that in contrast to her other sub par work that it seemed exemplary. John Leguizamo, in turn, who was pretty good in the Assault remake, is good here as well.
Topping off this orgazmatron of film are cameos by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright of Sean of the Dead fame (see the souvenir photo scene) and Tom Savini, some truly amazing zombie effects, and more political and social commentary than you can shake a stick at. This film has exceeded any and all expectations I have had. Intelligent, deep, and thrilling; it’s the best film I’ve seen this summer. Go see it. Now.
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See More: Asia Argento, Dennis Hopper, George Romero, John Leguizamo, Land of the Dead, Simon Baker
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HMmm…no matter how good you make it Chris, I’m not giving in!!
I’m a weakling when it comes to scary movies
I am a huge Romero fan with Dawn of the Dead being my absolute favorite. I really liked this movie too and think it deserves recognition among hardcore horror fans. Go see it!
Came to this link via the post over at AINT IT COOL NEWS.
Nice review Mr. Nelson. A solid zombie movie that doesn’t want to rape your mental activities with stupidity, retardation, or worse….boredom….like Paul W.S. Anderson’s amazingly inept RESIDENT EVIL films.
Sure some losers out there hate the movie, but those same morons hated DAY OF THE DEAD and later claim its great in message boards so they wouldn’t get left on the dock when the boat went out.
LAND OF THE DEAD is a worthy sequel to the long-running DEAD franchise, and oh ya George Romero, you did good old man!
Final Film Rating - *** out of 5
P.S. - SHAMELESS PLUG-IN - Check out my longer review of LOTD and others here: http://moviefan.proboards20.com/index.cgi?board=horror&action=display& I’m ronnierocketAGO and if anyone can, check out the editions of RRA’S CULT MOVIE REVIEWS, VIDEO BIN REVIEWS, and upcoming RRA’S CABLE CRAP(which will review such re-aired movies constantly on cable TV like TOP GUN, BEASTMASTER, you name it!) Sorry for the spam!
Great action. I’m actually going to see it again this weekend, hehe.
Awesome. Thanks for the feedback!
Just recently I managed see George Romero’s LAND OF THE DEAD& here’s my review for that movie.
Billed as George Romero’s Ultimate Zombie master peace LAND OF THE DEAD sadly comes no where near his cult classics NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD or DAWN OF THE DEAD ( particulary the later ), & dosn’t even come close to the deeply floored & disapionting second sequal DAY OF THE DEAD.
The problems with this movie are as follows:
A good 95% of this movie is shot at night so although there are many great special affects a lot of them are masked by semi darkness & the fast pace of the movie a lot of the time. I would have also liked to have seen more daylight shots in this movie because I think that seeing zombies during daylight hours makes them all the more menacing as they seem so much more & out of place. Also for the first time in one of his Zombie movies Romero has opted to use Digital special affects in some scences rather than in camera special affects but the sequences where Digital special affects are used sadly look false.
The zombies in this 4th installment are now given some intelligence & manage to work out how to work as a group & use guns & other tools. This again sadly didn’t work for me as surley this takes away the whole meaning to being a zombie in the first place, also I have to say that the extra’s playing the zombies didn’t seem to be putting their all into it at all.
The characters in this movie were not very well fleshed out & I think that more time should have been given to getting to know them at the start of the movie so that you actuly cared about what they were going through as you did in the fist 2 movies. Also although given a top billing Dennis Hopper ( who plays the main villan of the peace )was given very little screen time & when he was on screen he looked like he was just playing it by the numbers ( sad as i’m such a fan of his work ), also he’s demise was simply just not horrible enough for the main villan.
The musical score was nothing to write home about ( actualy I can’t even remember it ), unlike the haunting scores of DAWN OF THE DEAD, & the ending of this movie was to my mind a total cop out.
On the up side ( & these not much of an up side ), what special effects you could see properly were truely spectacular & the movie has gore galor. There are also 1 or 2 moments of inspired camera work on show here especialy when the zombies heads come rising out of the river.
Also as in all of Romero’s Zombie movies this movie has something to say about social commentary with the rich people being able to populating the safe & manufactured world of Dennis Hoppers sky scraper which resembled much of the way we live today, while on the less well off stuggled to make a living on the outside while often under seage by marrauding zombies, this made Dennis Hopper’s safe haven seemed strangely surreal considering what was going on outside.
And on another plus side ( & one for all the die hard Romero fans ), theres a cameo appearance of Tom Savini ( the makeup special effects man on Romero’s first 3 zombie movies ), as a zombie, but blink or your miss him.
In summing up this movie ( & I have to say I am one of thoughs die hard Romero fans ), I was sadly disapionted in this 4th installment as I hoped it would be a vast improvment on what was to my mind, & as I said, the deeply floored & disapionting DAY OF THE DEAD. Yet this film magages not eithen to pull that one off & with affect comes accross as distinkly average. So if your the average horror fan then this movie will probably please you more than most other horror movie of recent times as it’s got more than it’s fair share of gore, but if your a more decerning horror fan who likes his or her’s horror movies to have a bit more to say & leave you thinking then this is not the movie for you & at best this will only be a time killer & I’d also have to say that I thought 2004’s remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD ( although nowhere near as good as the original ), was much more entertaining.
Out of 4 Stars I’d give this movie: **
I find it funny that every time I see a movie, and whether I like it or not, I can only hear uproarious cries from critics that it sucked. Usually these film critics end up enjoying movies stake their fame on the fact they’re based on “real” events.
All I can say is that they need to take the branches out of their collective asses and watch a good zombie movie! I loathe the undead, and this portrayal of an aftermath world ruled by zombies adds to my honest opinion that the dead should be burned to prevent them from coming back.
But what I appreciated the most was the costume and make-up, this was a brilliant showcase of all the ways special effects can be used to create a world. Good stuff.