land of the dead review

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Average Ratings

Value for Money	7.5/10
Overall rating	7.5/10

50% Recommended1 out of 2 Reviews

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By Stunt Gerbil on 26th Sep 2005

Stunt Gerbil's Ratings

Starring Actor/Actress	Dennis Hopper
Where Did You See It?	Cinema
Value for money	10/10
Overall value	10/10
Stunt Gerbil's recommendation

Good Points

Great acting, script, story and set pieces.

Bad Points

Not good if you are squeamish.

General Comments

George A Romero has returned to his zombie film series for the fourth time, with perhaps his greatest and most ambitious movie yet.
In the last film, Day of the Dead (1985), military and scientific communities were presented as the real menace to society, as zombies outside the compound began to be realised as sympathetic victims. This theme continues in Land Of The Dead, as the cult director offers his most complex and political vision of society. The zombies are now a sad underclass living outside a walled city, run by a rich elite, overseen by the presidential Kaufman, a gangster come politician, played with gravitas by Dennis Hopper in his best role for years.
Meanwhile the middle and working classes fight for scraps in communities fuelled by drugs and other vices.
These include a bunch of fighters who work for Kaufman, scavenging for supplies in towns swarming with zombies. This dirty and dangerous work is getting dirtier and dangerous by the minute, as the zombies are getting hungrier and learning to manipulate tools, weapons, and organize themselves. Things get even more dangerous when the status quo is threatened further, when one of the mercenaries Cholo (John Leguizamo) is double-crossed by Kaufman and turns on his boss threatening to bomb the city. It is left to his colleague Riley (Simon Baker), the moral hero figure, to save the day.
The pace to this film is relentless, with constant scary tension and downright gruesome action transfixing you to your seat, including the occasional blood fest. The plot, which could be so formulaic in other hands, is also continually gripping, largely as a result of the understated performances and the layers upon layers of social and political observation that Romero piles on.
Hopper, especially, excels and there are nice references to 'not doing deals with terrorism', 'jihad'; as well as numerous in-jokes, one liners, and references to the previous films, including an appearance towards the end of special effects wizard and long-term Romero collaborator Tom Savini, reprising his biker role from Dawn Of The Dead - however, this time back as a zombie.
This is one of the best examples of a great piece of cinema masquerading as a B movie I have seen in a long time. A terrific entertaining piece of cinema, which although ostensibly just a genre movie, manages to work on all kinds of different levels.

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