MOVIE REVIEW - Land of the Dead (2005)
Director: George A. Romero
Starring: Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper, John Leguizamo, Asia Argento
Romero returns with the fourth and possible final installment in his zombie saga. This time we join some of the last surviving humans as they have walled themselves into a city that is surrounded by water. Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) is the man who runs the city and he sends out Riley (Simon Baker) and his crew of militants to search for food in abandoned towns. It is on one of these scavenger trips that Riley discovers something about the zombies that worries him. They are trying to be like humans. They are evolving.
This time around the zombies are characters themselves lead by Big Daddy (Eugene Clark), who is the first one to start realising how to do things and to the point of almost having feelings. It's a funny moment when at the sight of the death of a fellow zombie he yells out in anguish. But the scariest part is when he gets hold of a gun. I mean fighting off hoardes of the undead is hard but when they are armed with M16s it can be a little more difficult.
Now in this day and age some 2o years on from his last episode, 'Day of the Dead', gore plays a big part of horror flicks and this is no exception. In fact Romero has pulled out all the stops he is relentless in showing the sights and allowing us to hear the sounds. There is almost no end to the squishing and squelching sound effects on top of people having large bites taken out of them. One bite in particular is the woman with a belly ring, well you can imagine.
Another plus point is since his older films Romero can now actually get good actors to play the zombie-fodder. Simon Baker is commanding in the lead role and John Leguizamo is suitably cocky as the expert zombie-killer. Then the cream of the crop in this movie is Dennis Hopper, is the very dislikable corrupt boss of the city, he plays the bad guy so well.
The Good: Very well acted for a horror. The master is back in control.
The Bad: It's a zombie-horror not exactly to everyone's tastes
The Ugly: Gore, blood, gore, squelch, scream, slurp, munch, blood.
Overall: A triumphant return. 8/10
Starring: Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper, John Leguizamo, Asia Argento
Romero returns with the fourth and possible final installment in his zombie saga. This time we join some of the last surviving humans as they have walled themselves into a city that is surrounded by water. Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) is the man who runs the city and he sends out Riley (Simon Baker) and his crew of militants to search for food in abandoned towns. It is on one of these scavenger trips that Riley discovers something about the zombies that worries him. They are trying to be like humans. They are evolving.
This time around the zombies are characters themselves lead by Big Daddy (Eugene Clark), who is the first one to start realising how to do things and to the point of almost having feelings. It's a funny moment when at the sight of the death of a fellow zombie he yells out in anguish. But the scariest part is when he gets hold of a gun. I mean fighting off hoardes of the undead is hard but when they are armed with M16s it can be a little more difficult.
Now in this day and age some 2o years on from his last episode, 'Day of the Dead', gore plays a big part of horror flicks and this is no exception. In fact Romero has pulled out all the stops he is relentless in showing the sights and allowing us to hear the sounds. There is almost no end to the squishing and squelching sound effects on top of people having large bites taken out of them. One bite in particular is the woman with a belly ring, well you can imagine.
Another plus point is since his older films Romero can now actually get good actors to play the zombie-fodder. Simon Baker is commanding in the lead role and John Leguizamo is suitably cocky as the expert zombie-killer. Then the cream of the crop in this movie is Dennis Hopper, is the very dislikable corrupt boss of the city, he plays the bad guy so well.
The Good: Very well acted for a horror. The master is back in control.
The Bad: It's a zombie-horror not exactly to everyone's tastes
The Ugly: Gore, blood, gore, squelch, scream, slurp, munch, blood.
Overall: A triumphant return. 8/10
posted by Ozark at 6:25 PM
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