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Year Of Release
Review #220, Movie #291
Land Of The Dead
Land Of The Dead
Year Of Release
2005
Director
Director
George A Romero
Producer
Producer
Mark Canton, Bernie Goldman, Peter Grunwald
Writer
Writer
George A Romero
Cast
Cast
Simon Baker, Asia Argento, Robert Joy, Eugene Clark, Boyd Banks, Tom Savini, Phil Fondacaro, Shawn Roberts, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper
Notes
Notes
Another “keep it in the family” moment came with the casting of Asia Argento as the lead girl. Asia is the Niece of Claudio Argento, who was a producer on Dawn Of The Dead.
Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, the main duo behind Shaun Of The Dead have bit parts as Zombies after Romero gave personal praise for their parody of the Zombie genre.
Stand-up Comedian Boyd Banks and Tom Savini make a show as well as various Zombies and extras… Banks in particular was also part of the Dawn Of The Dead remake a year earlier than this film in 2004, which also had cameos from the casts of Romero’s originals including Ken Foree in one of the best cameos I’ve seen.
In another throwback, Foree was also part of Edgar Wright’s and Simon Pegg’s Shaun Of The Dead when his name appeared as the name of a shop, Foree Electronics.
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Synopsis:
A while after the Zombie Apocalypse, many outposts have been set up across the world.
One of which is in Pittsburgh, and like many others, it has a pecking order.
At the top of the food-chain (ahem), is Paul Kaufman, who has claimed himself as the ruler of the outpost and lives in almost solitude apart from a couple of Yes-Men who surround him.
Kaufman hand picks the upper classes (or people of importance from the past lives they once lead) to live in his high-rise apartment block at the centre of the Outpost living a life of luxury and blissful ignorance of the horrors outside...
... everyone else is either a worker who keeps the building going or a kind of hunter-gatherer who risks their life outside the Outpost by gathering goodies for the "rich people"...
... or failing that, they are forcefully kept out of the building by Kaufman's foot-soldiers and live in squalor in the sealed off slums below, all the while the borders are under threat of attack from the Zombie Hordes.
Review:
Ok... this is a modernised version of Romero's Zombie vision.
For a start, it's all very clinical and clean... in the sense of being not that daring and certainly not that experimental in terms of the filmmaking.
This film does follow in the footsteps of the first 3 in that the Apocalypse is farther along in time, yet even though it's tied to the original trio, it has very, very little additions in terms of expansion.
It feels more like an homage to the first 3 films with the bonus of a new effects crew and some CGI.
The Haunted House theme from Night and also the theme of having a Mall from Dawn as the basis of the story is nodded at with Kaufman's High-Rise building, there's the jumpy bits and scares thrown in too, and some realistic gore from the Day rather than the comic style of the second.
There's also the sociological aspect of having a clear and precise pecking order within the inhabitants of the Outpost, which feels like a nod again to Day.
It is lacking however in the satirical side of things, especially with how the Human Race tends to hang on the ownership of "stuff"... the people inside the building are never really built upon, which was a bit of a missed opportunity.
The humour is also mainly situational, as in, the odd line or two after a hint of action... rather than coming naturally from character traits.
One new thing though, is the film does build on and utilise another part of Dawn and Day... that Zombies can learn. The film uses a premise that came from Dawn when one of the characters hints that Zombies may have vague memories of their past lives, which is why they were attracted to the Mall... and we have the "main Zombie" who has seemingly remembered who he was and has realised what he has become, and starts using tools and even leading a group of Zombies toward the Outpost.
What is a little contrived though, is that this film has a MacGuffin. A pretty rubbish one too. The whole second and third acts are based around retrieving a vehicle. Hmm.
As for the acting... Romero has brought in some bigger names for this one rather than having unknowns in the leads.
Simon Baker is our Hero of the hour as Riley Denbo. Not much is built on in terms of character arc, just the odd hint of things he did in the past like helping out his stalwart friend Charlie.
Baker is good in the role though, he plays it straight and makes a likeable hero.
Asia Argento plays Slack... another "rescue" of Riley's and becomes a generic Female role for Baker to play off. Argento is fun though, and she plays a pretty tough but fallible cookie throughout.
John Leguizamo also plays it straight as Cholo DeMora... Baker's second in Command. His role is really the pivotal role in terms of the second and third acts when he steals the MacGuffin in question when he gets slighted by Kaufman. Leguizamo also plays a tough, unbending Soldier who actually has a soul at times which is nice for the character.
Robert Joy plays Riley's pal Charlie... absolutely brilliant. Joy takes what could have been a basic "best pal" role and turns on his talent and makes probably the most memorable role within the Dead Series. He even has a catchphrase of sorts: "All you have to do is look at me, and you can tell... [insert quip here]"
I loved Joy in this role.
The standout role though is by far the late great Dennis Hopper as Kaufman. Hopper's natural talent for being funny, slimy, tough and also fallible at the same time is perfect for the role.
His role is that of the Human antagonist but I couldn't help actually liking and even agreeing to an extent, some of the things Kaufman does... and it's all from Hopper's enigmatic performance.
Back up comes from Boyd Banks, Tom Savini, Phil Fondacaro, Shawn Roberts (of Resident Evil fame) and Eugene Clarke plays our Head Zombie. Clarke is pretty apt in the role too.
Effects and stuff?
Well, it's is a mix of the olde exploitation stuff we're used to from Dawn and Day, just with the added edge of being pretty realistic.
The practical effects and puppetry, makeup work and so on are brilliant in this one.
The big let down though, is the enhancements to the gore by using CGI.
Now, the CG work on the sets and backgrounds and the greenscreen work is top drawer, it's the CG blood and guts that are a bit iffy. It's not brilliantly rendered tbh and looks like CGI.
A while after the Zombie Apocalypse, many outposts have been set up across the world.
One of which is in Pittsburgh, and like many others, it has a pecking order.
At the top of the food-chain (ahem), is Paul Kaufman, who has claimed himself as the ruler of the outpost and lives in almost solitude apart from a couple of Yes-Men who surround him.
Kaufman hand picks the upper classes (or people of importance from the past lives they once lead) to live in his high-rise apartment block at the centre of the Outpost living a life of luxury and blissful ignorance of the horrors outside...
... everyone else is either a worker who keeps the building going or a kind of hunter-gatherer who risks their life outside the Outpost by gathering goodies for the "rich people"...
... or failing that, they are forcefully kept out of the building by Kaufman's foot-soldiers and live in squalor in the sealed off slums below, all the while the borders are under threat of attack from the Zombie Hordes.
Review:
Ok... this is a modernised version of Romero's Zombie vision.
For a start, it's all very clinical and clean... in the sense of being not that daring and certainly not that experimental in terms of the filmmaking.
This film does follow in the footsteps of the first 3 in that the Apocalypse is farther along in time, yet even though it's tied to the original trio, it has very, very little additions in terms of expansion.
It feels more like an homage to the first 3 films with the bonus of a new effects crew and some CGI.
The Haunted House theme from Night and also the theme of having a Mall from Dawn as the basis of the story is nodded at with Kaufman's High-Rise building, there's the jumpy bits and scares thrown in too, and some realistic gore from the Day rather than the comic style of the second.
There's also the sociological aspect of having a clear and precise pecking order within the inhabitants of the Outpost, which feels like a nod again to Day.
It is lacking however in the satirical side of things, especially with how the Human Race tends to hang on the ownership of "stuff"... the people inside the building are never really built upon, which was a bit of a missed opportunity.
The humour is also mainly situational, as in, the odd line or two after a hint of action... rather than coming naturally from character traits.
One new thing though, is the film does build on and utilise another part of Dawn and Day... that Zombies can learn. The film uses a premise that came from Dawn when one of the characters hints that Zombies may have vague memories of their past lives, which is why they were attracted to the Mall... and we have the "main Zombie" who has seemingly remembered who he was and has realised what he has become, and starts using tools and even leading a group of Zombies toward the Outpost.
What is a little contrived though, is that this film has a MacGuffin. A pretty rubbish one too. The whole second and third acts are based around retrieving a vehicle. Hmm.
As for the acting... Romero has brought in some bigger names for this one rather than having unknowns in the leads.
Simon Baker is our Hero of the hour as Riley Denbo. Not much is built on in terms of character arc, just the odd hint of things he did in the past like helping out his stalwart friend Charlie.
Baker is good in the role though, he plays it straight and makes a likeable hero.
Asia Argento plays Slack... another "rescue" of Riley's and becomes a generic Female role for Baker to play off. Argento is fun though, and she plays a pretty tough but fallible cookie throughout.
John Leguizamo also plays it straight as Cholo DeMora... Baker's second in Command. His role is really the pivotal role in terms of the second and third acts when he steals the MacGuffin in question when he gets slighted by Kaufman. Leguizamo also plays a tough, unbending Soldier who actually has a soul at times which is nice for the character.
Robert Joy plays Riley's pal Charlie... absolutely brilliant. Joy takes what could have been a basic "best pal" role and turns on his talent and makes probably the most memorable role within the Dead Series. He even has a catchphrase of sorts: "All you have to do is look at me, and you can tell... [insert quip here]"
I loved Joy in this role.
The standout role though is by far the late great Dennis Hopper as Kaufman. Hopper's natural talent for being funny, slimy, tough and also fallible at the same time is perfect for the role.
His role is that of the Human antagonist but I couldn't help actually liking and even agreeing to an extent, some of the things Kaufman does... and it's all from Hopper's enigmatic performance.
Back up comes from Boyd Banks, Tom Savini, Phil Fondacaro, Shawn Roberts (of Resident Evil fame) and Eugene Clarke plays our Head Zombie. Clarke is pretty apt in the role too.
Effects and stuff?
Well, it's is a mix of the olde exploitation stuff we're used to from Dawn and Day, just with the added edge of being pretty realistic.
The practical effects and puppetry, makeup work and so on are brilliant in this one.
The big let down though, is the enhancements to the gore by using CGI.
Now, the CG work on the sets and backgrounds and the greenscreen work is top drawer, it's the CG blood and guts that are a bit iffy. It's not brilliantly rendered tbh and looks like CGI.
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All in all, a couple little additions, but nothing that'll win awards.
Land is definitely the most soulless of the films, so far, and some of the CG effects aren't great.
It is still a fun adventure for Romero's Dead fans who can spot all the little nods to the other films and will entertain Zombie fans who are just after some popcorn brainless blood and action.
My rating: 84%
All in all, a couple little additions, but nothing that'll win awards.
Land is definitely the most soulless of the films, so far, and some of the CG effects aren't great.
It is still a fun adventure for Romero's Dead fans who can spot all the little nods to the other films and will entertain Zombie fans who are just after some popcorn brainless blood and action.
My rating: 84%
