Land of the Dead (2005)

Synopsis: The last few remaining humans have walled themselves up inside a city while the undead control the rest of the world. The only time that they venture out is to bring back supplies. The movie begins with a group of survivors lead by Riley (Simon Baker) and Cholo (Leguizamo) scrounging thru a small town for supplies while killing any zombies that they find. Here we also are introduced to Dead Reckoning an armored vehicle built by Riley for Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) who is the leader of the city. On this particular raid the survivors come into contact with a zombie that is referred to as Big Daddy. Big Daddy has enough intelligence to realize what is happening and after the survivors withdrawal with their supplies decides to follow them. Upon returning to the city Cholo goes to see Kaufman expecting to be allowed to move into Fiddler’s Green, an exclusive community were all of the upper class lives. We find out that Cholo has been taking out Kaufman’s “garbage” i.e. getting rid of the bodies for him. When Cholo realizes that Kaufman isn’t going to let him live in the Green with the nice folks and is about to have him disposed off all hell breaks loose. Cholo makes off with Dead Reckoning and threatens to destroy the city unless Kaufman coughs up a pile of cash. Soon Riley is dispatched to recapture Dead Reckoning all while the zombie army lead by Big Daddy is overrunning the city.

The Good: Guys after almost 20 years I was able to watch a new Romero zombie epic! The cast is pretty good with genre vets Dennis Hopper and John Leguizamo chewing up the scenery. The script is interesting and contains the expected social commentary Romero is known for. The movie is also paced pretty well with several tense and scary moments. I was surprised how much gore managed to survive the fact that this is a studio film shot to be released in the theaters. Add to that cameos by Tom Savini and Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) and you have a great zombie movie with a lot of appeal.

The Bad: I never thought that I would complain about the effects in a George Romero zombie. Why KNB decided to use CGI in a Romero zombie film just boggles the mind. I don’t mind that they used GCI to make a few of the “featured” zombies that would have been impossible to do with practical effects. But for god sakes why use CGI for the muzzle flashes? This was very disappointing. I also question the casting of Simon Baker as the lead character Riley. Personally I don’t think that Baker can act his way out of a paper bag and this movie did not change my mind.

The Score: 2.5 out of 4

While this isn’t Romero’s best effort I really like this movie. It has its flaws (too much CGI!) but is still a Romero zombie film, which I never thought that I would see.

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