Land of the Dead Review
by William Robert (webmaster AT moviesforguys DOT com)June 23rd, 2005
Land of the Dead (2005)
Starring: Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Asia Argento, Dennis Hopper, Eugene Clark
Rating: 4/5
Reviewed by Chris Terranova of www.moviesforguys.com
In the wake of recent successful zombie movies like 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead and even a remake of George A. Romero's own Dawn of the Dead, Universal decided to milk every last drop of rancid milk money out of that zombie teet. Romero was given a reported $15M budget (his biggest ever) to create Land of the Dead, the fourth movie in his "Dead" saga.
Like the previous sequels to Night of the Living Dead, none of the characters have returned even though the movie is set in the same post-zombie apocalypse America. Riley (Baker) and Cholo (Leguizamo) work on a retrieval team that moves around the country in an armored convoy. Their job is to explore smaller towns and gather food, medicine and other supplies, which they will return to a city full of human survivors.
The city is protected on two sides by rivers, and on a third side by soldiers and high-voltage electric fences. The entire city is run by the powerful Kaufman (Hopper). He has imposed a very strict class system, with the lower-class citizens doing most of the dangerous grunt work for the upper-class citizens, who live with Kaufman in a gigantic high-rise named Fiddler's Green.
Cholo tries to buy his way into Fiddler's Green, but is rejected by Kaufman because of his lower-class status. Cholo plots revenge, but that's the least of Kaufman's troubles. A fairly intelligent zombie (Clark), with an army of hungry zombies in tow, has followed one of the retrieval teams all the way back to Kaufman's well-guarded city. Clark's "learning zombie" character isn't nearly as lovable as Bub from Day of the Dead, but he is much smarter and becomes quite the charismatic leader.
My initial reaction to the movie was that it was a pretty good big-budget zombie movie with several magical Romero touches of brilliance. Since it was financed by a Hollywood studio, I felt that Romero probably made some compromises. Hopper and Leguizamo were both great, but most likely were cast because they are well-known stars. How many stars were in the previous three "Dead" movies? None. Hopper and Leguizamo will always be Hopper and Leguizamo in every movie I see them in. I like them both, but they rarely disappear into a character. I personally would have preferred relatively unknown actors in those roles, but the presence of Hopper and Leguizamo in the movie trailer, and ultimately on the DVD box cover, will help this movie make more money.
In spite of any concessions he made, I have to commend Romero for managing to instill some social satire into this movie. It's not quite as effective as his satire in Dawn of the Dead, but it does work. This time it's all about Classism. In the opening scene, the retrieval team keeps the zombies distracted with "pretty" fireworks while they empty the stores of supplies. I believe it's a subtle statement about big-budget Hollywood movies, untalented celebrities and flashy advertising. You make the connection. And the way the zombies rise at the end of the movie could definitely be used as a rally cry for the lower class. I'm curious to see if these themes hold up during a second viewing, or if they got too watered down by the studio before its release.
While it's not quite as strong as last year's Shaun of the Dead, I do think Land of the Dead is one of the better zombie movies to come out in recent years. It's easily the second best movie in Romero's "Dead" saga. There's plenty of action and gore for everyone, and I highly recommend seeing it this weekend with a packed theater full of freaky horror fans.
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