Easily the best "Dennis Hopper as an evil tycoon versus John Leguizamo" movie since Super Mario Bros.
In the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, the surviving humans living in a sealed-off city must contend with new threats both internal and external.
I've seen Land of the Dead in bits and pieces (including its ending) throughout the years but this is the first time I've ever sat down to watch it from start to finish. Romero's return to the zombie genre he reinvented with Night of the Living Dead happened as a result of the genre having a resurgence in the early-2000s thanks to the breakout success of 28 Days Later... and people understandably wanting to cash in on it by getting the genre's old master to show the whippersnappers how it was done (and on a budget considerably larger than what he was used to). To this end, Land... plays like a large-scale combination of previous installments Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, combining their main settings (a shopping mall and a military bunker respectively) into creating an inner-city stronghold where the remaining humans are separated into an upper class that lives in an immaculate skyscraper and a lower class that lives in the slums below. The conflict sets in when a mercenary (John Leguizamo) who does supply runs for the city and its sharply-dressed overlord (Dennis Hopper) decides to hijack the high-tech tank used in said supply runs to hold Hopper and the city to ransom. Enter our reluctant hero (Simon Baker), whose goal of leaving the city behind is sidelined when Hopper turns to him for help. That's without mentioning how the zombies outside are starting to develop dangerously high levels of intelligence...
Land of the Dead proves a thoroughly enjoyable experience that's not content to simply lean on former installments but gladly takes advantage of the freedom offered by a higher budget and technological advancements. Its addressing of similar themes and issues to installments from 20-30 years prior is less an indictment of Romero's imagination than it is of how these exact forms of both human and systemic fallibility have not only persisted but thrived and mutated (having the chief antagonist be an old white businessman in a suit and red tie certainly hasn't aged poorly, to say nothing of his main opponent being a disenfranchised Latino). Both major conflicts within the film involve one powerful side woefully underestimating the seemingly powerless other and reaping serious consequences as a result while there are people caught in the middle trying not just to survive but live free. In addition to all that, it's just a well-crafted movie that's paced extremely well and delivers efficient world-building with nary a wasted moment. It certainly doesn't skimp on the horror either, though it's definitely better at the gory type rather than the suspenseful type (and that's always been a good chunk of the appeal of these movies anyway). While I'd ultimately consider Land of the Dead a step down from the first three Dead movies, I still have enough fun with it as not just a 21st-century reiteration of what the others were about but a summation that brings it all home with a view to the future.
#15 - Land of the Dead
George A. Romero, 2005
George A. Romero, 2005
In the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, the surviving humans living in a sealed-off city must contend with new threats both internal and external.
I've seen Land of the Dead in bits and pieces (including its ending) throughout the years but this is the first time I've ever sat down to watch it from start to finish. Romero's return to the zombie genre he reinvented with Night of the Living Dead happened as a result of the genre having a resurgence in the early-2000s thanks to the breakout success of 28 Days Later... and people understandably wanting to cash in on it by getting the genre's old master to show the whippersnappers how it was done (and on a budget considerably larger than what he was used to). To this end, Land... plays like a large-scale combination of previous installments Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, combining their main settings (a shopping mall and a military bunker respectively) into creating an inner-city stronghold where the remaining humans are separated into an upper class that lives in an immaculate skyscraper and a lower class that lives in the slums below. The conflict sets in when a mercenary (John Leguizamo) who does supply runs for the city and its sharply-dressed overlord (Dennis Hopper) decides to hijack the high-tech tank used in said supply runs to hold Hopper and the city to ransom. Enter our reluctant hero (Simon Baker), whose goal of leaving the city behind is sidelined when Hopper turns to him for help. That's without mentioning how the zombies outside are starting to develop dangerously high levels of intelligence...
Land of the Dead proves a thoroughly enjoyable experience that's not content to simply lean on former installments but gladly takes advantage of the freedom offered by a higher budget and technological advancements. Its addressing of similar themes and issues to installments from 20-30 years prior is less an indictment of Romero's imagination than it is of how these exact forms of both human and systemic fallibility have not only persisted but thrived and mutated (having the chief antagonist be an old white businessman in a suit and red tie certainly hasn't aged poorly, to say nothing of his main opponent being a disenfranchised Latino). Both major conflicts within the film involve one powerful side woefully underestimating the seemingly powerless other and reaping serious consequences as a result while there are people caught in the middle trying not just to survive but live free. In addition to all that, it's just a well-crafted movie that's paced extremely well and delivers efficient world-building with nary a wasted moment. It certainly doesn't skimp on the horror either, though it's definitely better at the gory type rather than the suspenseful type (and that's always been a good chunk of the appeal of these movies anyway). While I'd ultimately consider Land of the Dead a step down from the first three Dead movies, I still have enough fun with it as not just a 21st-century reiteration of what the others were about but a summation that brings it all home with a view to the future.
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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0
I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.