Land of the Dead
2005 Directed by George A. Romero
Synopsis
The dead shall inherit the Earth.
The world is full of zombies and the survivors have barricaded themselves inside a walled city to keep out the living dead. As the wealthy hide out in skyscrapers and chaos rules the streets, the rest of the survivors must find a way to stop the evolving zombies from breaking into the city.
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70/100
[originally published on Nerve.com]
How did we manage to get through the '90s without a George Romero zombie movie to encapsulate the period in gut-munching metaphor? Now spanning nearly forty years, with previous entries issued during the Johnson, Carter and Reagan administrations, this remarkable series serves as a sort of alternative State of the Union address, capturing each era's defining mood simply by imagining how we might respond to the end of civilization. It may be the only movie franchise with no recurring characters, no contiguous plot details, no Pavlovian stimuli—nothing, really, except a single trenchant idea with endlessly malleable permutations. But it's been a good long while—odds are you would have heard "Sussudio" on your way to the…
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Horroctober 2012In a world where the dead are returning to life, the word "trouble" loses much of its meaning.
-KaufmanThe odd duck in the George A. Romero series of Dead films. While the first three films were all unrated independent films, the fourth installment is a full fledged studio film backed by Universal Pictures no less. It's very much a commercial film, and it's odd coming from Romero. To say there's a difference in the aesthetics would be an understatement.
Anyone watching the so-called "Unrated Director's Cut" expecting Day of the Dead levels of gore will be sorely disappointed. The fact of the matter is Land was never made with an "unrated" version in mind, it…
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Once you get past the fact that Land of the Dead is a little bit goofy and a little bit shit, its actually quite good fun.
Sure its no patch on Romero's first three Dead films, but what is?
There are three main components: The social commentary revolves around a walled-off city where money rules and corruption is rife. We are also introduced to a group of zombies who are slowly learning and developing basic skills. And finally a band of mercenaries who are eventually sent on a mission to recover an armoured truck.
My main gripe is that I wish we could have spent more time with the travelling gang of zombies. Their story was by far the most… -
I saw George Romero's LAND OF THE DEAD back in 2005 with perhaps the highest expectations I've ever had for any film in my life. DAWN OF THE DEAD was (and is) my favorite film of all time, and I had gotten into it in the late '90s, years before zombies were cool again.
I saw the tide turn with the success of RESIDENT EVIL, 28 DAYS LATER..., and the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake (stellar films all) in the early 2000s, and when I heard that as a result, my filmmaking hero (and creator of the modern zombie film) George Romero was going to get another crack at continuing his series of films set in a post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested world,…
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Not the best zombie film, but surprisingly not the worst. The multiple character arcs converge nicely, too, which marks a nice shift from standard horror fare.
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I'm sorry my lovelies but I completely lost interest in this and probably shouldn't really be reviewing it. I was left about as intelligent as a zombie by the end of it!
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Very cool zombies and some funnybloody scenes but the characters are very unloving and dulled.
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Zombies thinking for themselves feels that George is running low on ideas.
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I watched this at the theater when it first came out. I thought some aspects were very creative, but wasn't all that impressed overall. I'm glad I gave it a second shot. It certainly is one of the most creative zombie pictures out there (the setting, main characters, and zombie attacks are all well-written and crafted), and not only scary but a lot of kooky fun.
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Esta saga de Romero es buena para visualizar como ha cambiado el cine con los años. En las primeras películas, la introducción es bastante larga y los zombies comienzan a atacar la última media hora. En las nuevas, la acción comienza desde el principio y, en ocasiones como en la que nos ocupa, la fuerza se viene abajo sobre la mitad del film.
Aquí los zombies ya no son entes que comen y caminan. Como apuntaban las anteriores películas, comienzan a pensar, a desarrollar habilidades más humanas del tiempo en el que fueron algo más que caminantes. Ahora pelean y viven para algo más que matar.
La lucha de clases, entre humanos, sigue siendo el argumento principal, pero aquí hay mucho más zombie que en las anteriores. El gore se deja ver, la acción se vuelve muy importante y el mejor quote de la historia aparece : "Me llamo Manolete, como el torero".
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Big fan of George A. Romero's work. Not as good as he first 3 "Dead" films but still worth watching, especially if you are a fan of the genre.
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No thanks.
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Romero obviously still has the ideas and creativity to engage this genre, and his franchise within it, as a means for socio-political commentary, which OH MY GOD THE ZOMBIES ARE SWIMMING.
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Bei der Erstsichtung empfand ich LAND OF THE DEAD (im direkten Vergleich zum ebenfalls damals erschienen DAWN OF THE DEAD-Remake) als eine Katastophe, da Letzterer gezeigt hat, in welche Richtung ein moderner Zombiefilm gehen kann.
Einige Jahre später fällt es mir leichter den Film objektiver, losgelöster zu Beleuchten.Das vielversprechende Szenario und das sehr gelungene, individuelle "Zombiedesign" (das wäre doch fast mal eine Oscar-Kategorie wert) stehen gegen einen (besonders gegen Ende) abstumpfenden Plot.
Die menschlichen Charaktere bleiben sehr flach, auf der Seite der Untoten gibt es allerdings durch die Hauptfigur einen gelungenen Symphatieträger. Diese Aspekt ist ohnehin das Interessante an Romeros Zombie-Wiederbelebungskur: Der Zuschauer empfindet stellenweise Mitleid mit den "unterdrückten" Zombies - die wahre Bedrohung ist wiedereinmal der Mensch an sich.Durch das hohe Budget überzeugt LAND OF THE DEAD auf der technischen Seite, kann aber auch durch einige gelungene gesellschaftskritische Anspielungen punkten (auch wenn diese mit dem Holzhammer verabreicht werden).
Ein Film der durchaus Spass macht.
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Zombies learning?
That's enough of that thank you.