Land of the Dead- Unrated Edition

[horrorview]

Land of the Dead- Unrated Edition (2005)
Directed by George A. Romero
Starring Simon West, Asia Argento, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, and Robert Joy

As a guy who spends the majority of his spare time reviewing DVD’s, I tend to miss a lot of films when they make their theatrical run, especially those that don’t fare well enough at the box-office to be there for more than a few weeks. That was the case with George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead, a film I’d been waiting for since the closing credits of Day of the Dead two decades ago. Sadly, I was assured by many friends and fellow horror movie critics that I was better off having not seen the film, and was lead to believe that Romero had missed the mark completely with his fourth (and final?) Dead film.

Now, after seeing the film on DVD all I can ask is did we watch the same movie?

Well, we didn’t really watch the same movie as the DVD I screened was an unrated version of the film, but structurally, at least, this is the Land of the Dead that many of my friends and colleagues savaged, and I can’t, for the life of me, fathom why. I enjoyed this flick so much I watched it three times over the weekend, and liked it more with each viewing. Sure it’s silly, but I don’t watch a Romero film expecting Citizen Kane, I watch a Romero film expecting to see hippie-mentality social commentary highlighted by lots of zombies eating people in the most grotesque fashion imaginable, and that’s exactly what I got with this film.

The Earth is now a planet overrun with the walking dead, and the last remaining humans have holed themselves up in gated cities. In this particular city, the wealthy live in a luxury high-rise called Fiddler’s Green, sipping champagne and looking down at the poor folk who scrape by on the streets below. Kaufman (Hopper) is the wealthy and resourceful de facto mayor of this city, held in power by his sway over the soldiers in his hire, including a band of looters who raid abandoned towns on the outskirts of the city for food, supplies, and special extravagances for the denizens of the Green. One such raider, Riley (West), has had enough of life behind barbed wire fences and has saved his earnings for a car and a chance to move on to a place without humans- dead or alive. Riley’s second-in-command, Cholo (Leguizamo), plans to take the money owed to him by Kaufman and move into the Green. When Kaufman essentially tells Cholo that the green doesn’t accept his kind, Cholo responds by stealing the city’s ultimate weapon; the heavily armored, rocket-bearing Winnebago from hell, the Dead Reckoning. Cholo plans to blow up Fiddler’s Green unless Kaufman delivers $5 million dollars (what Cholo feels he is owed “plus interest”), so Kaufman recruits Reilly, the Reckoning’s creator- along with his savant marksman pal Charlie (Joy) and the hooker/terrorist Slack (Argento) -to get back his vehicle in exchange for a free pass out of the city.

Meanwhile, the living dead seem to be evolving, and, under the leadership of a particularly nasty and overly-sensitive zombie (credited as Big Daddy) the undead horde move toward the city, discovering that its defenses aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

Land of the Dead is great fun. I really enjoyed Romero’s vision of a post-plague world, and, while he’s never one to shy away from some sort of political sentiment, it’s never so intrusive that it gets in the way of a satisfying zombie movie. While not quite as polished as the more mainstream horror fare of late, this is a Romero flick, and to love Romero is to love and accept that his films always have been (and always will be) rough around the edges. Still, in spite of the lowish-budget ($18 million), this film looks pretty damned good, and the director has assembled his best cast since Creepshow. John Leguizamo makes for a great anti-hero, hopping around the screen with the manic intensity of a kangaroo with a beehive up his ass. He also gets some of the best lines, most of which seem improvised, adding to his hyped-up character’s self-imposed sense of urgency. West fills the “handsome lead” role fine, coming off as both tough and compassionate, while Argento delivers her best performance in an American film yet, giving Slack a sexy, tough exterior with a charmingly vulnerable side. Hopper's performance, oddly enough, is probably the weakest in the film. He’s best when he chews scenery, but here he only nibbles, and is given some of the scripts biggest clunkers. It seems as though he's there for the paycheck, while the rest of the cast genuinely look like they’re having a hell of a good time.

As I said, I didn’t see the theatrical cut of this film, so I’ve no basis for comparison as to how much more violent this unrated version is, but I will say that this cut is an absolute bloodbath. Heads are torn off, hands split in two like wishbones, and bellyfuls of smoking entrails abound. This is old-school violence, here, and this is one of the few “unrated” DVD’s I’ve seen that live up to the hype. There has to be at least ten minutes worth of stuff here that would never had made it past the MPAA, and this cut is easily the most violent of Romero’s series.

So what’s wrong with Land of the Dead? Romero still wears his conscience on his blood-soaked sleeve, but Land of the Dead's social commentary (that of a class war between the rich, the poor, and the dead) pales in comparison to Night of the Living Dead's meditation on racism, or Dawn of the Dead's swipe at consumerism. I also found the film to be a bit on the short side, but that also left me wanting more, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sadly, the film tanked at the box-office, so while Land of the Dead ends with a great set-up for sequels, one doubts we’ll be seeing the further adventures of the Dead Reckoning crew anytime soon.

Upon first glance at the special features, it looks as though Universal has loaded this Unrated Edition with tons of extra goodies, however, upon closer inspection it’s more a matter of quantity over quality. In addition to a feature length commentary by Romero and his producers, there are a few short featurettes that offer a nice amount of behind-the-scenes footage, including a funny look at Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s zombie cameo. The rest of the features are of the “blink and you’ll miss them” variety, including an absolutely worthless segment called “Zombie Casting Call” which features horribly animated CGI zombies dancing to a blues riff for all of thirty seconds or so, and some hastily assembled deleted scenes, most of which feature no audio.

While this is obviously not the classic end to the franchise we were all hoping for, Land of the Dead is certainly a worthy sequel, and further proof that, when it comes to gory zombie fun, Romero is still the man.

Movie- B+
Extras- B

[Jay]

Always thought Leguiziamo was never given proper credit for his roles, always like seeing stuff he's in

Nice review, still keep meaning to rent it

[horrorview]

Actually the movie comes out this Tuesday, so you haven't missed it yet

[Jay]

good, I never watch them in theaters anymore, waaaayyy too expensive. Last movie I think I saw in theater was Pirates of the Carribean

[steve12553]

I haven't seen a Romero film since "Dawn of the Dead" in 1979, which I thought was hilarious (for the right reasons). I may have to see this one.

[RumblePen]

I still need to see this. I was interested in it just for the fact that it was a zombie movie by the man who virtually created zombie movies. Dawn of the Dead is way up there on my list of favorites. I like the idea of trying to survive, gathering up weapons, and having no remorse for using them (hey they're already dead, smoke em!) I love the little sequence in Dawn where the hillbillys go on a hunting spree. Zombie apocolypses seem like a real hoot.

I haven't seen any of the other recent zombie movies, mainly because they all seem to contain the three things I can't stand: computer generated gore, matrix style hyper action, and techno music.

There was a zombie flick I vaguely remember seeing as a kid called "The Night of the Comet". I have to watch that one again too.

[colgate]

[QUOTE=horrorview]Land of the Dead- Unrated Edition (2005)
Directed by George A. Romero
Starring Simon West, Asia Argento, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, and Robert Joy

Unrated Version LOL. What, do they pork the entrails before eating them? Marketing, gotta love it.

Which reminds me of a movie I snuck into the drive in to watch back in the early 70's. Andy Warhol's Frankenstein. "I must put life in the gall bladder!" And then proceeds to do just that. Gawd. Honestly today's horrow movies don't have anything on the late 60's early 70's.

[horrorview]

Originally Posted by colgate

Which reminds me of a movie I snuck into the drive in to watch back in the early 70's. Andy Warhol's Frankenstein. "I must put life in the gall bladder!" And then proceeds to do just that. Gawd. Honestly today's horrow movies don't have anything on the late 60's early 70's.

AHAHAHAHA!! That movie's classically bad stuff!!

[Spagg]

Great review! I saw the movie at the theater and loved it. I can't wait to pick up the DVD Tuesday.

[horrorview]

EDIT TO MY REVIEW: SIMON BAKER playes Riley and not SIMON WEST. Simon West is a director! Sorry

[illuminatus]

Great review, watched the movie last night with the roomies, and we loved it!