Land of the Dead (2005)

Kaufman is running one of the only cities left on Earth that has living people inside it. But it’s a walled city that although it has its protections, it still lacks enough supplies for everyone to survive on. So despite the use of an Army to protect the walls, Kauffman employs scavengers to go into vacant cities and bring back supplies. But today, something has changed. Today, the zombies are different. Today, the zombies are starting to fight back. No more Mr. Nice Dead Guy!           Overall: Well this wouldn’t be a Romero Zombie flick without some social commentary to it. I felt the 2nd and 3rd films choked to death on their commentary such that they weren’t even zombie films as much as it was Romero trying to pull a “Michael Moore,” decades before Moore put out “Fahrenheit 9/11.” This film though is different than the last 2 films. It’s smarter…and it’s more subtle. In fact, if you aren’t paying enough attention, you might just miss it.           Let me give you my opinion of what Romero hoped to achieve. He feels that the lower classes (zombies) will evolve and eventually figure out what the majority/government/wealthy are doing to them. They’ll realize that they exist to give the rich their supplies. They’ll realize one day that they can fight back and when they do...all hell will break loose. He’s trying to show with “Fiddler’s Green” that the wealthy are organized and can always guarantee the poor will fight amongst themselves rather than their common enemy; that vices such as drugs, women, etc. can always change people’s mind. But that when one group amongst society becomes immune to those vices...there will be nothing left to reason with. Romero uses the commercials for the apartment complex to remind those inside how good they have it and also, not to rock the boat on why more people haven’t joined them. And finally...he is warning the people in charge, not to screw with your slaves because they might just decide to screw you in return.           Boy...that was deep wasn’t it? On a strictly horror film level not all that above commentary works. Frankly, how are the rich staying richer? There are no jobs...no businesses...no banks or vaults. Frankly, any money you had was useless and only those on the outside could use it...and yet they have no interaction with those on the inside. We see so little of Cholo and Kaufman’s history that it’s hard to believe Cholo would immediately turn on his protector or vice-versa rather than Kaufman simply delaying any entrance into the promised land. Besides, given the weak turn out from their scavenger adventures, I’m shocked they truly bring back enough to make it all worth it. And if the truck called “Dead Reckoning” was really such a bad-ass vehicle, how come no one ever tried this before?           In addition, the film fails to follow-up on more than a few things. We never did see the car Riley claimed existed. Even in passing. We saw the barriers as so strong versus the zombies and yet the evolved ones move through them without any resistance at all. In addition that fence they do come in on, was awfully weak...especially for a place that has been fortified for, what, years?           I wanted to buy the idea of the zombies evolving except for the fact the film never explains how. Did the space dust start to wear off? Was there something in the water? Has so much time elapsed? What happened? And why the zombie called “Big Daddy”? What was so special about him that caused him to lead the resistance? And once the killing starts, the film focuses solely on Riley and Kaufman, we saw almost nothing of the zombies perhaps going room to room with the apartment complex. That would have been cool...but also out of “Rabid.” I actually thought the celebs in the zombie cameos were more distracting that anything. I’m a Tom Savini fan as much as the next person, but it took over the film for a bit and detracted from the rest of the movie.           2/24/06 Well the DVD is out now with additional scenes and tons of goodies. There’s an amusing 13-minute documentary on the “Shaun of the Dead” creators visiting the set and being used as zombies. Also have more than a few minutes of “remaining bits” that was not used in the film. Some nice stuff there, but nothing that advances the plot. But as you watch the “unrated director’s cut,” there are scenes that are new. I think the new scenes do help the cohesiveness of the film and make it feel less choppy, like less is gone unanswered...frankly, it’s not super, super important to the plot. But...it’s still necessary for a clean film.           I’ll give Romero credit for this being his 2nd best zombie film. It was more intelligent and creative that the other 2 sequels. But frankly, it doesn’t rank better than the 3 most recent zombie films: 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead (2004), and Shaun of the Dead. Those are still better films but I’ll chalk Romero up to being a bit rusty coming out of retirement.           Comparison: Night of the Living Dead meets The Siege

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