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Land of the Dead (2005)
Director: George Romero
The Walking Dead and every other zombie film owes to not only this franchise, but to this 2nd sequel to Night of the Living Dead. From the opening credits, all tattered and stylish, we can see where Darabont took his show running creative direction to implement the Walking Dead opening. The nice thing about this film is that it was, like TWD, shot on film. Fuji film, with digital intermediate. That explains the tricks (DI) thrown in with quick cuts and circus-like effects and staging. There are some fantastic deaths on display here.
John Leguizamo is one of my old favorites, and he is great here. I didn't care much for the lead actor. I thought he was a bit too plain. I really liked the slow sidekick, though. His lines and acting were good. Some scenes were very creepy. Shot at night, Romero really knew how to set the mood and keep the tension on. Lots of darkly lit photographed entrail mayhem. Digital doesn't do these kinds of things justice.
The porous characteristics of film are suitable, and that is one of the circumstantial reasons why Romero's films are far above any extensions of his proprietary genre kind of pale in comparison. That and the fact that he knows how to write good characters who aren't completely one dimensional. Most all characters are given something to play with, and they do. This seemed to be on the edge of the big zombie turn in characterization in commercial cinema. Good old 2005.
I really liked the writing of this chapter. Day of the Dead was gritty and fulked up in all the right ways, but Land of the Dead is a fresh take, and still has a bit of the Harrison score in brief piano bits like when the zombies first start to cross the water. I'm glad he directed that mood to revisit. Too much sonic wall music is boring and actually works against a film being memorable. When will Hollywood learn. The answer is never. But that's OK. They're idiots. Moving on..
Dennis Hopper gives one of his last hurrahs and he's good but not great. He could've been in the film more and I wouldn't have minded at all. Zombies "creep him out", but that's about as far as we get from a usually very outspoken Hopper. Still, the The Nicotero/Berger effects make his death scene Ramboesque enough to at least finish up his job tidy for a film that wants to be more, but doesn;t have the budget to be.
This is the most ambitious chapter in the series yet, and goes the extra mile to make it atmospheric. Some of the make up isn't very convincing, namely the main "Bub" like zombie who seems to lead the pack in revolt. His zombie mask is clearly visible to start at the bridge of his nose and it's distracting. Maybe the effect team figured film would carry on longer than it did, and that the blurriness and saturation of colors would mask this limitation from the unforgiving sharpness of high definition. Who knows?
I did enjoy this movie.It very much deserves it's place within the series.
A lil' John Harrison for dat ass...
Director: George Romero
The Walking Dead and every other zombie film owes to not only this franchise, but to this 2nd sequel to Night of the Living Dead. From the opening credits, all tattered and stylish, we can see where Darabont took his show running creative direction to implement the Walking Dead opening. The nice thing about this film is that it was, like TWD, shot on film. Fuji film, with digital intermediate. That explains the tricks (DI) thrown in with quick cuts and circus-like effects and staging. There are some fantastic deaths on display here.
John Leguizamo is one of my old favorites, and he is great here. I didn't care much for the lead actor. I thought he was a bit too plain. I really liked the slow sidekick, though. His lines and acting were good. Some scenes were very creepy. Shot at night, Romero really knew how to set the mood and keep the tension on. Lots of darkly lit photographed entrail mayhem. Digital doesn't do these kinds of things justice.
The porous characteristics of film are suitable, and that is one of the circumstantial reasons why Romero's films are far above any extensions of his proprietary genre kind of pale in comparison. That and the fact that he knows how to write good characters who aren't completely one dimensional. Most all characters are given something to play with, and they do. This seemed to be on the edge of the big zombie turn in characterization in commercial cinema. Good old 2005.
I really liked the writing of this chapter. Day of the Dead was gritty and fulked up in all the right ways, but Land of the Dead is a fresh take, and still has a bit of the Harrison score in brief piano bits like when the zombies first start to cross the water. I'm glad he directed that mood to revisit. Too much sonic wall music is boring and actually works against a film being memorable. When will Hollywood learn. The answer is never. But that's OK. They're idiots. Moving on..
Dennis Hopper gives one of his last hurrahs and he's good but not great. He could've been in the film more and I wouldn't have minded at all. Zombies "creep him out", but that's about as far as we get from a usually very outspoken Hopper. Still, the The Nicotero/Berger effects make his death scene Ramboesque enough to at least finish up his job tidy for a film that wants to be more, but doesn;t have the budget to be.
This is the most ambitious chapter in the series yet, and goes the extra mile to make it atmospheric. Some of the make up isn't very convincing, namely the main "Bub" like zombie who seems to lead the pack in revolt. His zombie mask is clearly visible to start at the bridge of his nose and it's distracting. Maybe the effect team figured film would carry on longer than it did, and that the blurriness and saturation of colors would mask this limitation from the unforgiving sharpness of high definition. Who knows?
I did enjoy this movie.It very much deserves it's place within the series.
A lil' John Harrison for dat ass...