Land of the Dead

this is one of my favorite zombie movies

The Zombie Master!

Pretty rad little entry into the Dead series. Obviously not on par with the original 3, but it's far better than the two that followed. I like the idea of building the city and the commentary of class separation.

Nice story and some cool action make this a worthy sequel to "Dawn of the Dead". I would have preferred it if the flick was a little less gory and more scary, but all in all it's still an enjoyable watch...

I like zombie movies, I like them a lot. I'm also not a fan of horror movies. Given the fact this focuses purely on the zombie apocalypse and not trying to constantly jump scare instead makes it very fun to watch. The idea of a high class society is quite novel although it will never stop being frustrating to see the poor attempts people make to stay alive. It's quite old now, but still pretty good.

In its predecessor, _Day of the Dead_ , the writers attempted (successfully, IMO) to give some sense of emotion/feeling to "Bub". Here in _Land of the Dead_ they attempted to capitalize on and even escalate that same "still sorta human" sense but - for me, anyway - it just didn't work. This particular story was very shallow and really seemed to have no substance to it. You had one (at least) semi-thinking undead but the rest still seemed to be just working on zombie instinct alone: shuffle along, grab anything that comes close enough that you don't have to outrun it, and bite it. The antagonists (I'm assuming that was supposed to be Kaufman and Cholo) didn't really have enough of a negative vibe to really draw you in, like the "Captain" did in _Day of the Dead_. All in all, it was really difficult to buy into ANY of this particular story as there were really no characters - not even Simon Baker's "Riley" - that were strong enough to elicit any kind of attachment, good or bad. I don't know... It just didn't do much for me.

George Romero delivers yet another provocative and intriguing zombie tale with Land of the Dead. In the aftermath of the zombie-pocalypse, a fortified city comes under attack when zombies start evolving beyond their primary urge to feed. Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento, and John Leguizamo all give strong performances and create some interesting characters. Just as the genre had started to become stale, Romero found a new place to take it. Yet this transition into an “evolved zombie” is a bit awkward, and the social commentary in the film is extremely heavy-handed. Still, Land of the Dead presents an intriguing tale and an interesting new breed of zombies.

When humans are worse than zombies, Romero retells zombie stories

Pretty much Romero pulling influence back in from all the people he’s inspired with his original living dead trilogy. I see hints of Raimi, Craven, Snyder and Wright all over this. Unfortunately, he’s also lost what made these films interesting to begin with in the process. It’s louder and more bombastic than the original trilogy, but there’s also more of a bland, by the numbers feel to it. The satire and symbolism, which were once sharp and subtle, are on the nose and heavy handed here. I’m also missing the personal signature Romero once brought to the table, as the directing here feels very anonymous (no atmosphere, sound and score choices feel more Raimi/Wright than Romero, no interesting stylization to the dialogue or acting). I guess it’s watchable as a watered down, commercial horror flick with no real inspiration behind it, but that shouldn’t be the bar here, especially given that it’s Romero. It’s still somewhat effective on a surface level though (some good moments of building tension, great make-up, couple of surprising twists, the acting’s fine despite a lack of characterization).

4/10

About zombies for zombies. Very dissapointed.