Land of The Dead

[sal]

I got the chance to see it yesterday and I loved it. While I wouldn't put it on the same level as "Night of the Living Dead" or the original "Dawn of the Dead", it is much stronger than "Day of the Dead", and FAR superior to any of these other so called "horror" movies coming out. Seeing this movie was like a breath of fresh air. It is very refreshing to see that some directors still have the balls to put such horrific images on the screen. Fans of the series should really like this one. It has strong doses of Romero's trademark social commentary to go along side LOTS of really gory scenes of zombies feasting on human flesh. Plus some great comedic moments as well. Dennis Hopper is fantastic, and the rest of the supporting cast does a good job as well. Those who are not fans of the series may not appreciate what Romero is doing here, but nonetheless it is without a doubt a worthy entry to the series.

[BruceW]

Sal, what you have to remember is "Night of The Living Dead" was the FIRST George Romero independent film, no money, very low budget, and yet is a classic. Land of The Dead is his fourth and definitely the best out since Dawn of The Dead which was his third.

Zombie films are not new. They made them back in the 30's and 40's with Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and those guys. But the zombies were not central characters then. They are now.

Agreed, Land of The Dead, is waaay better than all the imitators that have been in between. George is the King. Dennis Hopper was great in this one. I still have not seen Shaun of The Dead, which was supposed to be very good but I think was from England film makers. Did you see that one???

The remake of Dawn of The Dead with Ving Rhames and Sarah Polley, was very good also.

Edited June 27, 2005 by BruceW

[sal]

BruceW, wasn't Dawn of the Dead the second one, and Day of the Dead the third?

I hope my comments weren't mis interperted as me disliking Night of the Living Dead. It is probably my favorite of the series.

I agree that Land of the Dead is the best one since Dawn of the Dead.

I haven't seen Shaun of the Dead, but its been on my list to rent for quite some time now. It has now moved to the top of that list, and I will probably pick it up soon.

[BruceW]

Sal,

Yeah, I may have 2 and 3 turned around, but all three were great. There were so many imitators during the 2 and 3 that sometimes I get them all mixed up. But George is the man. When I saw LOTD, there was a lady in the audience saying she had been witing 20 years for this. She was not disappointed either.

Shaun of The Dead was on pay per view a couple months ago and I missed it. The last listing I saw was at 3 in the morning and I just figured it was running all day the next day. WRONG, I totally missed it because of that last listing. It hasn't been back since. It is not in Blockbusters or anywhere. It was made in England I believe and so there might be some distribution rights involved, you know, money. It is already out on DVD in England. I saw that on some website.

[BruceW]

Just went to Upcoming Movies and saw through searching DVD's etc., that Shaun of The Dead IS available on DVD. It has to be ordered for $15.21. Probably a mailing charge also.

[patricia]

Sal, what you have to remember is "Night of The Living Dead" was the FIRST George Romero independent film, no money, very low budget, and yet is a classic.  Land of The Dead is his fourth and definitely the best out since Dawn of The Dead which was his third.

I don't think that any of the similar films, or sequels to "Night of the Living Dead" came anywhere near the creepiness of the original low-budget film.

I have the Anniversary edition, which was two tapes, the second of which is interviews with Romero, John Landis, Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper and Sam Raimi. Facinating discussion of the genre. The budget was practically nothing and the story was the thing. The last scene was genius.

I haven't seen the latest one, directed by Romero, but "Night..." was a masterpiece of the genre, IMO.

Edited June 27, 2005 by patricia

[Jazzmoose]

I agree with Patricia, although I'm only comparing "Dawn"; haven't seen the others. While "Dawn" was a fun film, and had it's points in the quality ledger, it couldn't carry the original's jockstrap. The original Night of the Living Dead was one of those films where magic happens.

[BruceW]

I agree with Patricia, although I'm only comparing "Dawn"; haven't seen the others.  While "Dawn" was a fun film, and had it's points in the quality ledger, it couldn't carry the original's jockstrap.  The original Night of the Living Dead was one of those films where magic happens.

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It is always like that, the original is best, so much mystery and unknown. The sequels always have that aspect eliminated no matter how good the movie.

[Swinger]

What makes Night OF The Living excellent is that you can download it as well on your computer

http://www.archive.org/details/night_of_the_living_dead

[Alexander]

Okay, so I went out and rented all three original "Dead" films over the weekend and watched them pretty much back to back. Some thoughts...

I LOVE the fact that all three films have strong leading roles for black actors. This was a very unusual choice for the eras in which these films were made. During this period, black dudes were sidekicks who usually got killed before the end of the second reel. Not only do all three black males make it to the final reel, in the second and third films they are among the sole survivors! Very cool. While there were no real decent female parts in "Night of the Living Dead," both "Dawn" and "Day" had meaty roles ("Day of the Dead's" heroine can be ranked with Sigourney Weaver's Ripley and Linda Hamilton's character in "T2" in terms of butt-kicking movie women of the late 70s through early 90s). Although I enjoyed all three films (in spite of, rather because of, their stomach-churning excesses), I have to say that "Day of the Dead" was my favorite. I loved the setting (the isolated military base - smack in the middle of Florida, no less) and the antagonism between the science team and their military protectors. It said a great deal about the hubris of Reagan's Cold War. Moreover, Howard Sherman's peformance as Bub (the zombie with an individual identity) was among the best in the series. He projected a soulfulness that reminded me of Karloff in "The Bride of Frankenstein." Actually, all three films had surprisingly strong performances considering that these films were made on low budgets with unknown casts. The films were often extremely well-written in places, demonstrating considerable wit on Romaro's part.

I'm looking forward to seeing "Land of the Dead" at some point in the near future. I can only imagine how shocking these films must have seemed on the big screen!

BTW: the poster for "Dawn of the Dead" scared the living crap out of me when I was a kid. That's probably the reason I hadn't seen any of these films until now...

[Shawn]

This was a great film, probably the best I've seen so far this summer.

I'm so glad that after all these years, George is still able to disguise social commentary as a horror film...and be successful on both scores. Far superior than Day Of The Dead, this film easily ranks up there with the first two.

First off, it's nice that he finally had enough budget (although still a measly 10 million) to pull off the vision he wanted and to get it in wide distribution. Because of all the films over the years that have ripped off this franchise, it saves him the necessity of spending a long time on setup before jumping right into the story. I did love the way it used the old Universal airplane logo and started in B&W...that was ultra classy.

In each successive film, the zombies have evolved...in this go round, they are not only copying the things they did while still alive...but they are becoming their own society, learning how to reason, re-learning that even they have to fight to survive. When the main zombie figures out how to use the machine gun...then teaches the others...I wanted to cheer.

This is the first film in the series where i found myself more frightened by some of the humans in the story...and it's shifted to the point where your sympathies start to turn towards the zombies. There is a horrifying scene with zombies hung upside by their feet, with targets on their chests...tell me that the humans aren't worse...

Still not for every taste (and definitely not for the squeamish), but well worth the investment....it works on both the primal level...and will have you actually thinking as you leave the theater.

I will be very interested to see if there is an "unrated" version that will come out on DVD.

[RDK]

I had some involvement with this so I'm very glad to hear that people are enjoying it, but for me it's a big step down from Romero's original NOTLD or even last year's remake of Dawn.