Land of the Dead - Ray's Review

George A. Romero's Land of the Dead
2005
93 mins

Written and Directed by George A. Romero

Starring:
Simon Baker as Riley
John Leguizamo as Cholo
Dennis Hopper as Kaufman
Asia Argento as Slack

Intro:

As I kid I loved gore flicks. Peter Jackson's Bad Taste was where my love began and Land of the Dead marks the end of that love affair. Watching LOTD I realised no matter how good the plot, characters, effects or anything tried to be (emphasis on tried) I am just over zombies and gore films in general (but I can't make that an absolute rule, there is an outside chance an exceptional horror flick may still excite me sometime). I just needed to clarify this before I delve in. My attitude towards this genre that I once loved has shifted, I feel so utterly desensitised to the 'horror' on screen that I am unable to be effected by it any longer. So with that in mind let's get on with it.

The Optimist:

George A. Romero can basically be credited with creating the zombie genre, or perhaps that's over simplifying things. Of course other zombie films existed before his landmark black and white 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, but Romero made the genre incredibly popular and begun a trend in film that is obviously still going strong (as evidenced by the success of 28 Days, the Dawn of the Dead remake and Shaun of the Dead).

Land of the Dead is part 4 in his 'dead' series. As I mentioned it all started with Night of the Living Dead (1968) in which a few people utilise a house as their last defense against the undead. Then in 1978 (exactly a decade later) he made Dawn of the Dead in which people survive by holding out in a mall instead of a house. People talk about all the underlying themes like Romero's jab at consumerism (such as the image of the brain dead zombies walking repeatedly into glass, trying to get into the mall - obviously a jab at mindless shoppers buying crap they don't need). But Romero's 'social commentary' never felt very relevant to me. Maybe all the flesh eating and exploding heads distracted me from how deep it really was?

In 1985 Romero made Day of the Dead which was set in a military style bunker in which basically all the same stuff happens - a bunch of misfits band together to survive. They run around making stupid mistakes and kill a few zombies when they get their act together. I always thought these films were really dumb but that never distracted me from the sheer visceral thrill I got watching all these grotesque things taking place. I was totally fascinated and couldn't get enough of it. Which leads me to Land of the Dead. Romero meant to make this in the 90's (one zombie film for each decade you see) but only just got it together now (due to the resurgence in popularity of the genre), to be frank I really don't know why he bothered. I'm really struggling to come up with good points here now in 'The Optimist' section. For me the only good points in these films were the special make-up effects and now that I am totally desensitised to the gore there is nothing left except some low-budget, crappy Mad Max type film without a strong male lead (like Mel Gibson) and without any really good action.

Come on Ray, list some good points you rambling fool! Right, OK... good points. Ummmm.

Asia Argento (who plays the heroine called Slack) is hot. See:


One thing I did like and that I consider to be the only really new concept in Romero's screenplay is that the zombies are learning to be human again. Such as the main zombie character who used to pump gas and stands around at a gas station fiddling with the pump, unable to fully grasp what exactly he used to do. He ends up learning how to use a machine gun (through firing it accidentally) which leads to other zombies imitating him and using weapons too. This is a cool development that adds some depth to the film, but it's too little too late.

I can tell Romero is trying to make some comment on the state of the world (such as thousands of people dying needless deaths in pointless wars), but having a character say something like "This isn't war, this is slaughter!" after killing countless, defenceless zombies feels out of context with all the gratuitous gore. Is this genre really the place to comment on the state of the world?

The main story of rich folks living some luxury lifestyle in a high rise while all the scumbag humans live in a shitty wasteland is meant to resonate on some deeper level too I think, but didn't work for me either. It just didn't make much sense. How did they have all these luxury items when the world is overrun with the living dead? Where did they continue to get all this stuff from (and no, showing some characters raiding a supermarket and getting a truck full of cans does not convince that this luxury lifestyle would be sustainable). Also why wouldn't all the 'scumbag' humans attack and destroy this luxury high rise out of pure resentment? It's not like they have much to live for anyway, so why not make life suck for the privileged folks too? The luxury high rise building was protected by a big electric fence - am I meant to believe this and a few guards would keep thousands of people out?

OK Ray... settle down and try to list a few good points. Ready?

The zombies coming out of the water was very cool visually.

The bit where Dennis Hooper said "Zombies man, they creep me out!" was laugh-out-loud funny.

Did I mention Asia Argento is hot? For those of you who don't know, she is the daughter of Italian horror film director Dario Argento (Suspiria).

A few of the kills were pretty inventive (such as the flip-top head dangling from a flap of skin).

The Pessimist:

Simon Baker (the Australian actor from The Shield) is apparently the main hero in this film. Well at least that appears to be the role he is attempting to fill. I don't know if it's the script or him but he is neither commanding nor charismatic.

'Let's get Dennis Hopper to play another bad guy role'. Yay how inspired! Seriously why? There are so many newer, better actors that could have filled this role, but I guess he did lend some credibility to the cast even if he is mainly relegated to direct to video films these days.

Fancy special effects are not enough to get by on. This film needed characters that I cared about and these generic, quasi futuristic tough guys and gals sucked! I'm sorry, I'm usually more literate and constructive with character descriptions but these actors were all so crappy that I am overwhelmed with mediocre descriptions such as 'sucked' and 'crappy' (maybe I'm being a bit harsh, John Leguizamo was pretty entertaining - even if he was doing his usual schtick).

The 'Dead Reckoning' truck was meant to be cool. It was just like the armoured truck at the end of Clint Eastwood's The Gauntlet, except it could shoot fire works. The characters all looked embarrassed when they had to refer to it by it's full name, as opposed to saying 'the truck' as you probably would in real life.

The 'deep' commentary about the pointless deaths of humans and social hierarchy was contrived and simplistic.

There is no grand scale to the film. You have no sense that the zombie thing is happening on a world scale. Just a few shots of other countries filled with zombies could have helped (but obviously their budget was restrictive).

Let's put things in perspective. The remake of Dawn of the Dead was better than this as a sheer horror experience. Shaun of the Dead handled the social commentary aspect more skillfully. Peter Jackson's zombie masterpiece Braindead (aka Dead Alive) is both scarier and funnier, and it came out 13 years ago! Sorry Mr Romero but your disciples have learnt from your mistakes and have raced ahead leaving you in the dust!

LOTD is not a bad film, it is merely an adequate continuation of the series, nothing more, nothing less. If you grew up on horror films they probably have a special place in your heart and you should see LOTD as you will appreciate how far special effects have come and will enjoy some of the inventive kills. But if like me, you used to love horror films but are now desensitised to gore in general, avoid it, it has nothing substantial to add to the zombie genre and you will be under whelmed and bored like I was.

[But hey, I'm a minority on my poor rating. LOTD has a 73% 'fresh' rating at RottenTomatoes.com - where they take hundreds of reviews into consideration and come out with an overall rating.]

6/10