This review contains spoilers.
Land of the Dead is a post-apocalyptic horror movie that premiered in 2005. The movie is directed and written by George A. Romero. The movie stars Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper, and Asia Argento. A feudal like government exists in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where a city of humans hold out against the hordes of the undead. The undead meanwhile evolve and begin reasoning.
Land of the Dead is a movie that is incredibly theme heavy. This theme carries on into the movie in many ways and even ways that does not make sense. Land of the Dead has a theme of capitalism and greed being the primary focus. The zombies themselves can be seen as the downtrodden and the people that are thrown away. The zombies themselves begin evolving and eventually topple the city of Fiddler's Green.
The main character of this movie are Riley Denbo played by Simon Baker. Riley and his crew are survivors that work for Paul Kaufman. The crew wish to retrieve the armored vehicle "Dead Reckoning" from Cholo who stole it. This plot is really meant to make Fiddler's Green weaker to the zombie attack. It felt contrived and as the armored personnel vehicle should have been more heavily guarded.
Anyone that expected a straightforward zombie movie with survival themes will not find it here. The humans in this movie are the focus with the zombies being lead by "Big Daddy." The zombies and the humans are the focus here and not on simple survival. This is shown clearly in the ending where the survivors from Fiddler's Green are shown allowing the undead to leave. This is one of the aspects of the movie that makes it hard to appreciate. The undead are always this enemy that will kill the living, but the main characters allow them to leave.
The overall direction of the movie is adequate and anyone expecting thrills from a zombie movie will get that here. This movie does have twists in its story that makes for a non-generic zombie movie.
I would recommend "Land of the Dead".
Grade: C.
Land of the Dead is a post-apocalyptic horror movie that premiered in 2005. The movie is directed and written by George A. Romero. The movie stars Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper, and Asia Argento. A feudal like government exists in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where a city of humans hold out against the hordes of the undead. The undead meanwhile evolve and begin reasoning.
Land of the Dead is a movie that is incredibly theme heavy. This theme carries on into the movie in many ways and even ways that does not make sense. Land of the Dead has a theme of capitalism and greed being the primary focus. The zombies themselves can be seen as the downtrodden and the people that are thrown away. The zombies themselves begin evolving and eventually topple the city of Fiddler's Green.
The main character of this movie are Riley Denbo played by Simon Baker. Riley and his crew are survivors that work for Paul Kaufman. The crew wish to retrieve the armored vehicle "Dead Reckoning" from Cholo who stole it. This plot is really meant to make Fiddler's Green weaker to the zombie attack. It felt contrived and as the armored personnel vehicle should have been more heavily guarded.
Anyone that expected a straightforward zombie movie with survival themes will not find it here. The humans in this movie are the focus with the zombies being lead by "Big Daddy." The zombies and the humans are the focus here and not on simple survival. This is shown clearly in the ending where the survivors from Fiddler's Green are shown allowing the undead to leave. This is one of the aspects of the movie that makes it hard to appreciate. The undead are always this enemy that will kill the living, but the main characters allow them to leave.
The overall direction of the movie is adequate and anyone expecting thrills from a zombie movie will get that here. This movie does have twists in its story that makes for a non-generic zombie movie.
I would recommend "Land of the Dead".
Grade: C.