User reviews

Land of the Dead - The 4th part of George A. Romero's zombie quadrillogy. It's been decades since the dead began to walk the Earth, and now they practically own it (except for Canada for some reason). There is one last little mega-city that is surrounded by electric fences, armed patrols and barbed wire on one side, and nothing but water on all other four sides, because the dead supposedly don't like water. Despite the fact that the surrounding lands are rife with zombies, this metropolis is incredibly corrupt. All thanks to evil bureaucrat Kaufman (Dennis Hooper, who I had a ball watching) who makes all but a select few rich folks (who have never seen or fought a real zombie) live in slums. There you can get your picture taken with zombies, or watch zombie fights (they fight over animals and the occasional human). There are a few mercenaries paid to make runs in a giant tank truck for precious commodities in the outside world.

Now I like George and could thank him endlessly for starting the zombie franchise, but he has always favored gore just a little more over character development, and has always liked his zombies just a LOT more than his humans. Heck in this movie, the zombies are practically the good-guys! They're just like you and me, except they rip people's arms in two (and I do mean length-wise) and tear belly button rings out of people. They are actually pretty intelligent and moderately fast at walking. By far the biggest threats in Romero's movies (most notably "Big Daddy" (Eugene Clark). For the most part though, it works, and it's good gory fun. Except the character development thingy. While I don't begrudge Romero for having fun with his zombies, I wasn't too sympathetic to Riley (Simon Baker) or Slack (Asia Argento). Riley, like Romero it seems, is just tired of character development as he has Riley say "I'm fed up with back-stories". But Riley dear boy, that's how the audience grows to care about you. Slack almost kills several of her fellow team-mates and does not grow at all, but that's the script's fault. Both of these characters, however are played well for what the actors are given.

Surprisingly the secondary characters are far more endearing. Cholo (John Leguizamo) was not only believable as a merc, but I was quite sympathetic to him as he realized that he was a pon. "Pilsbury" (Pedro Miguel Arce) and Charlie (Robert Joy) are endearing and funny.

So the effects are good. The story is iffy. The acting is good. The character development is iffy. The ending is really lame. This gets an overall B

Let me start by saying I'm a big fan of George Romero's previous films, especially the dead series. I thought he really hit his stride with Day of the Dead making a slick, structurally sophisticated continuation of his original idea. Not many people can pull off a sequel and I thought he did it twice with Dawn and Day. I also think he had something quite interesting to say with each of those films, layering thematic commentary under the story without distracting from main story elements or themes. His films were always about the shortcomings of man and the inability to work together in the face of danger. His films were always about the people, not the zombies.

But now he has tried so hard to make a political statement that he has hammered into his own genre at the expense of the film. It was interesting in Day when the scientist discovers that a zombie can regain some latent memory and begin to function in a more human way. I was very powerful when that zombie musters up just enough motor skill and latent memory to shoot the villain. It feels like a stretch to say that the zombies, or even the one zombie, in Land could make a conversion of understanding that leads an all out revolt. On an intellectual level, I understand it, but it just didn't work for me. This seems to me like a bigger deviation from the Romero concept then some of the things complained about in the many Romero inspired films recently.

The world described in the previews and press material doesn't seem fully realized. There is a huge divide between the rich and the poor. Why? How did it get that way. It doesn't seem like that would function well under the circumstances of the world as it is, especially in a small society. Why don't we find out anything about how this place works? How does Denis Hopper maintain his power? It is presented as a concept without any real thought. In the original film "The Island of Lost Souls" Doctor Moreau controls his population of beasts with fear. He cracks the whip, recites the law, and talks about the house of pain, which the audience knows to be the doctor's laboratory, but the beasts know it as a building where screams are heard. This is a stunningly well designed political metaphor. In Land of the Dead, I couldn't help thinking that the underlying political message was driving the story and that questionable things were written into the story for the wrong reasons. Money is a major plot device. Denis Hopper tries to escape the city with two large bags of money. What good is money outside the city? I was wondering, what good is money inside the city? Money only works if people believe in the underlying value of it. Most countries in the real world can't keep a stable currency. There is an aerial shot of the city during the day showing the streets deserted. Why are the streets deserted? Where are all the people? Later we see the same shot only the streets are now filled with Zombies. The characters keep talking about going to Canada as a safe haven. Why? Why is Canada safer than the United States. I was left to believe that this was more political commentary. Why are the Zombies trying to get to the city? They seem to be driven by some underlying, dare I say it, political motivation.

The film as a whole seemed less like a story of characters in a horrific world established in the earlier films, and more like a series of one dimensional vignettes based on thin political ideology – Rich verses poor, violence in America, mismanagement of government in post 9-11 society, negotiating with terrorists, yeah we get it. Not so subtle.

Simon Baker leads in this film as a mercenary who wants to head up North. Maybe the undead do not like the cold. He find himself trapped between various warring factions, including a ruthless CEO (Dennis Hopper) who offers safety to the wealthy while allowing the unwashed masses to fend for themselves, a fellow mercenary (John Leguizamo) who will sacrifice anyone to advance his own agenda, and hordes of zombies who are starting to take steps up the evolutionary ladder. They actually used a gun in this film. First time I've seen a zombie do more than eat. They even went in the water. Apes don't do that! Lots of blood, but there was less action than I've seen and more talking.

I love John Leguizamo, and that made it worth my time. Seeing Asia Argento (xXx) wasn't bad either.

The undead have taken over the world. What traces of humanity remain have taken to backing themselves into protected cities and getting supplies by venturing out in heavily armoured groups to raid smaller towns. One such city is formerly Pittsburgh, where the rivers provide natural protection and those who organised themselves into leaders have created a world of near normality while the rest live in the streets with less material and more risk. One of the raiders (Riley) is sure that he has seen evidence of learning among the undead but events within the city itself cause him more concern as his former second-in-command decides to take violent revenge for being betrayed by city boss Kaufman.

How you receive this film is more about you than the film itself (which I suppose is true of most things in a way – everything has a market somewhere). Those that will love it will be those looking for gore as their horror because the film delivers this in spades. The camera lingers on flesh eating, mutilation and some very painful sequences that had me looking away. However the problem for me was that it was just gore – not horror, not scares and not anything that made me feel uncomfortable in my own house. A minor criticism perhaps but let me assure you that me and zombie movies do not mix well and not only do I get scared during the films but also for days afterwards by the idea of it all.

Surprisingly then I was able to watch Land of the Dead with a detached air and it never convinced me of the world I was being shown. Part of this is budget but that's not all of it as I never bought the characters or main story either. The story in particular narked me because it did dominate the main horror (the mass of undead) and spent too much time on the detail of the human interactions and betrayal. In itself this is not a killer and indeed recently I saw The Mist do a very good job of making human monsters just as scary as the rubber ones but here Romero doesn't make as much of his social commentary as he could have done – OK so we have the haves and have-nots but beyond that we don't get much in the way of intelligence.

The cast reflect the low budget but are good enough for the level that this is working on. Baker is a bit bland but OK, while Leguizamo at least adds a bit of energy to his character. Hopper takes on a fairly easy role of just being a "Mr Big" character that even done in P Diddy/Daddy music videos in the past. Argento is sexy but little else while Joy is pretty good in his support character. Clark is better than a zombie character will get him credit for and makes his stuff quiet interesting and engaging. In regards getting the best "urgh" impact from his gore budget, Romero does well but I was surprised that he didn't do more as a writer or as director to do better with the characters or the tension/danger within the story; like I said, I was surprised by how much of an observer this film allowed me to be.

Worth a look for gore fans and those seeking out some old school zombies in the middle of these modern "28 Days Later" type ones but really this film is a bit of a disappointment in just how average it is. The gore is great but it produces repulsion, not scares and Romero cannot create a sense of genuine horror or fear as he tries to deal with a narrative that takes more than it gives.

i just watched land of the dead. finally after watching every single other romero zombie movie i finally decided to buy Land of the Dead. mainly because it was on sale at 50% off at suncoast's closing out sale. but i digress...

HOLY SPIZZLE!!!! this movie was just..... AMAZING!!! maybe its because i was a tad disappointed with the ending of romero's day of the dead (although truth be told day of the dead was an all in all great movie). i would say my opinion is based in large part on the fact that i had just watched zack snyder's dawn of the dead about a week ago and was horribly HORRIBLY disappointed. but man! i just watched Land of the Dead... WOW! This movie was outstanding.

it had everything! the classic george romero plot line. As with all of his other zombies movies, the story revolves mostly around the living characters and how they interact amongst one another. in this case, the world is completely full of zombies and a small city is left with the last of the world's living inhabitants caged up in a walled city. The zombies are used merely as a tool to set the stage for a survival struggle. It also did a fine job reflecting economy struggle and social content. And to top everything all off with a candied cherry (although i rather hate candied cherries so lets just say strawberry) it had a great cast! i always felt that many of george romero's previous movies suffered from horrible acting. but this was definitely not the case with this film. john leguizamo pulled off a spot on performance of the rebellious lone wolf figure, while simon baker's good guy role was played out perfectly. Dennis Baker was a bit on the cheesy villain side, but hey, thats how it was written and he pulled it off.

all in all i do believe romero finally created the full budget dream film he set out to create since his first film "night of the living dead".

kudos to you george. kudos.

A great Zombie movie written and directed by the Zombie master himself George A Romero who created the Night of the living Dead film series which is mostly known for the second entry in the series Dawn of the Dead which is one of the greatest Zombie movies ever made.

This entry in the series takes place almost two decades after the Zombie outbreak where Zombies now cover the earth and whats left of the humans now live in a secure city lead by the super rich while the poor scavenge for food and supplies and man the defences of the city the scavenging crews are lead by Riley Denbo (Simon Baker) who wants out of the city while his friend Cholo Demora (John Leguizamo) wants into the tower where the super rich live but after a midnight raid on a small town filled with zombies goes badly they end up leading a horde of zombies right to the city's gate now they have bigger problems to deal with as the dead start working together to get there meal.

The blood and gore looks great and has much more detailed scenes of zombies eating people than most movies are willing to show especially in the Directors cut of the movie which is more graphic.

The makeup and green screen effects are pretty good for there time a little obvious now but in 2005 were passable also great acting all round the characters likable and unique.

I recommend this movie to any fan of zombie movies especially ones with plenty of blood and gore and a decent budget to make it look better than B movie zombie movies.

Zombies have taken over the world in Land of the Dead, the remaining survivors live within a walled city to keep the dead out. A revolution is brewing in a plan to overthrow the city. but outside the walls the zombies are developing their intelligence.

The plot kind of sounds a bit lame, but it really does work well and this is a zombie flick that can be taken quite seriously. Romero has again created something great on a tight budget, and he has done well to make it look good, with some great make up effects. The cast are all pretty good, there are some good characters and the dialogue is effective.

Overall Land of the Dead delivers all out zombie action that's great for fans of the genre, good work George.

8/10

This is the first review I've written for IMDb. I must try hard not to fall into the AAAARGH!!! jaws of Report This. I'm 80 years old, have been attentively following national affairs since about 1938 (I was a fat kid from an abusive home, so hid and read a lot). So, the thing I admire the most about Land of the Dead is its being a splendid parable of life in 21st Century America (my Rastafarian daughter would say life in Babylon). It certainly captures its political and moral properties. Judging from a comment that Mr. Romero makes in one of the Bonus Features, this was intentional. Yay, Romero!

The movie's photography and special effects are super-fine. The actors are all quite competent, though … and this also is splendid … the only really charismatic performance comes from Eugene A. Clark, as Big Daddy the zombie leader. I was rooting for him all the way. Close to charismatic was Asia Argento, whom I first dismissed as an Obligatory Sex Interest with gymnastic abilities, but respected more and more as the film progressed. Overall, I almost never watch movies twice, but I'll sure watch this one again.

In a near future, the zombies are all around the world, and the human society is restructured and adapted for the new reality. In a protected city ruled by the powerful Kaufman (Dennis Hopper), the upper class has the usual privileges living in a fancy well-supplied building, while the poor people lives on the streets. Riley (Simon Baker) and Cholo (John Leguizamo) belong to a team that bring supplies (food, medicine etc.) to the city using a heavy truck called Dead Reckoning and designed by Riley. When Cholo is betrayed by Kaufman, he steals the Dead Reckoning and threatens Kaufman, who requests Riley to retrieve the vehicle, with the support of his friend Charlie (Robert Joy) and Slack (Asia Argento). But the dead are smarter and organized under the leadership of Big Daddy (Eugene Clark).

"Land of the Dead" is a great zombie movie. The story is a sort of "Mad Max" with "The Night of the Living Dead", full of the usual clichés, but I liked it a lot. Dennis Hopper performs a character worse than the zombies, and John Leguizamo and Asia Argento are excellent as usual. Simon Baker is a charismatic leader, and there is a hook between Riley and Big Daddy for a possible sequel, that I hope comes true. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Terra dos Mortos" ("Land of the Dead")

It's so odd to read the reviews, they're either scathing or wonderful, such passion for such a movie. I'll be honest, I think it's just an average movie, I know it's fifteen years since the release date, but many movies become classics, and hold up very well. I would say this holds up moderately well.

The story is decent, the special effects are decent, plenty of blood and gore. However, when I watch a zombie film I look for a little bit of originality, something unique in story, production, cast etc, that's the problem, there is nothing which sets this film apart, the previous films have much more of an impact, this one is a bit lacking somehow.

It still packs a punch, it's still watchable, 6/10.

George A. Romero returns to the zombie flick twenty years after his last dip into the genre with 'Land Of The Dead (2005)', a post-apocalyptic tale of human survivors in an undead-infested land. The picture deals with the class system, seeing its major setting - a walled city with a shopping mall at its centre - ruled by a rich board of directors who use the promise of a better life inside the tower to manipulate those who aren't fortunate enough to ignore the chaos outside. Continuing the 'smart zombie' theme of 'Day Of The Dead (1985)', the flick features a focal ghoul who becomes more intelligent and cunning as the narrative unfolds. The picture features plenty of neck-biting, blood-spurting, head-crushing carnage and it moves at a pretty quick pace, too. Its plot is pretty thin and its characters are all, essentially, stereotypes, but it's a fun experience throughout. It isn't as good as Romero's previous zombie stuff, partially because its subtext isn't as strong. Still, it's an enjoyable action-horror piece nevertheless. 7/10

I was able to catch an advance screening with friends last night, and maybe it was just the mood we were in, but we had a blast. It took me a few minutes to get the direction George was going with this one, but once I did, it cranked on almost every cylinder.

The first thing to note is this is not a serious, somber, scare you out of your pants zombie movie. What it actually plays out as instead is a social commentary on class, politics, and stereo types, while having a good time doing it. Think more Evil Dead meets Mad Max meets Night of the Living Dead, and you'll get a clearer picture of the movie George has made here.

Yes, it is very violent, and yes, there are plenty of "feedings." Highly recommended for those whose take zombie movies as seriously as they should.

George A. Romero's long-awaited return to the genre he helped create is a very, very mixed bad if not a consistently entertaining one.

Romero's greatest strength as a director have always been his creativity, creating iconic moments and literally raising the zombie from the ground up on low budgets and tight schedules. Thus, it's more than a little disappointing to see LAND, the first in his DEAD series to see major studio backing and his highest-budget to date, be so riddled with a distinct lack of imagination. Romero's depiction of a zombie-infested, post-apocalypse never feels as bleak or gritty as the brief glimpses afforded in his predecessors. Characters still speak of things like cars, countries, and pop culture in the present tense; what's left of society still somehow needs and uses currency that should've long ago been rendered worthless. The class divide still looks like the class divide now, shopping malls and luxury highrises replete with waiting lists and Boards of Directors are still open and operational as usual. It all feels artificial, incomplete; not completely surprising for a script strung together from unused pieces of DAY, but nonetheless disappointing.

The blockbuster budget is both a blessing and a curse. The scope of the film, though grander and more far-reaching then any of its predecessors combined, still feels claustrophobic and (ironically) devoid of life, and not in the good way. A long-dead Pittsburgh is never more than a few samey, empty-looking suburban streets with a suspicious lack of decaying carcasses and overgrown plant life. DAY's opening three minutes of a long-abandoned, desolate Orlando is more chilling and more grounded then anything this film has to offer. The relatively-straightforward plot often feels meandering and listless, going off on random tangents and introducing a rotating cast of wacky side characters more memorable than any of our leads. Said supporting cast, including standouts John Leguizamo, Robert Joy, Dennis Hopper, Eugene Clark, and Asia Argento, are this film's salvation, giving memorable and borderline-campy performances to make up for the nothing lead that is Simon Baker. He's a bland, generic "blonde hero guy" who's supposedly a misanthropic anti-hero but never comes across as anything more then mildly whiny, existing solely to perpetuate an already blatant political allegory that beats the audience over the head with how obvious it is. Then again, his spotlight is often drowned out by the mass of other supporting characters, which proves another fault by Romero. There are too many characters, and only so much runtime.

And yet in spite of that, the film's still immeasurably entertaining. Romero injects that indelible "X" factor that permeated his previous works and made them so beloved. The zombie makeup and gore effects, courtesy of Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero, are as good as they've ever been (save for some questionable CGI). The aforementioned supporting cast is lively and plays off each other well. And the action is as solid and gloriously pulpy as its ever been, one of the few areas where the budget really shines. Romero's no slouch, even at his most average he's still miles ahead of many other directors in the same sphere. LAND is deeply flawed, deeply imperfect, but then again you could say the same about what came before. It's still a solid B-movie, and at the end of the day that's all George ever wanted to make.