Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Land of the Dead

Land of the Dead

**1/4 out of *****


 

Last week I watched Land of the Dead. It is a movie I have wanted to see for quite a while. It stars basically a bunch of unknowns and Dennis Hopper. It is the forth of five Dead movies directed by George A. Romero. It is also the one that takes place the furthest in the future. The movie basically follows this premise, years after Night of the Living, Diary of the, Dawn of the, and Land of the Dead, humans are now living in Pittsburgh. Why Pittsburgh? Because it is surrounded by water on all its sides and protected by barriers where there isn't water. In this city, almost all live in poverty except for a rich few who live in the skyscraper called Fiddler's Green. It is the hope of all the poor in the city to someday be able to live in this perfect city within a building. Dembo leads a team in a vehicle he made called Dead Reckoning to neighboring towns to collect medicine and food. He is noble but kind of a loner. His second in command is Cholo, played by Leguizamo. Cholo likes to collect alcohol and cigars to sell within the city for high profit. Dembo is brought out of retirement to take down Cholo, who steals the Dead Reckoning and threatens to blow up the Fiddler's Green, when Kaufman (Hopper's character), who runs the city, won't allow him to buy a place there despite him having enough cash. Oh, and zombies are starting to think and act on their own and are about to invade the city, but that is more of a subplot than anything.


 


 

I like the movie but it isn't fantastic. I felt like the Cholo/Dembo storyline could have been developed. I felt like Hopper was fantastic but was barely in the movie. I felt like everything was forced and gory just to be gory. You know, to get a rise out of the audience. Also, the movie had the "hooker with a heart of gold character". That is the character whom, despite being a prostitute or otherwise unsavory woman, becomes a hero by the end of the story and displays values you wouldn't assume she has. All of Romero's zombie movies have the main battle be between two human elements rather than humans vs. zombies. This movie makes this more evident than any of the other zombie movies. Does it work? Yeah. Could it have been better? Probably. Also, I liked the whole, zombies acting more human element. That hasn't been done before. Overall, there are better zombie movies out there but this one is worth watching if you like gore and a simple, easy movie.

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