The Undead Live On
Romero Gives the Dead One More Shot

After bringing the dead to life in the 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead, satirizing the "mall mentality" of shoppers in 1978's Dawn of the Dead, and pondering the military in the 1985 Day of the Dead, it would seem that director George A. Romero has said enough about zombies. Apparently not. The master returns to his zombie horror roots this summer in what can best be described as an afterthought. While Land of the Dead is an adequate follow-up to the previous Dead films, it doesn't offer much that hasn't been done before.

Land of the Dead
The dead are back and making an organized assault on the human outpost, in George Romero's latest zombie horror film Land of the Dead. (Universal, 2005)
Directed by: George A. Romero
Written by: George A. Romero
Starring: Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper,
Asia Argento, and Eugene Clark

Rated R (for pervasive strong violence and gore, language, brief sexuality and some drug use)
Running time: 97 min.

FilmGuru's Rating : 6 out of 10.

Following the zombie outbreak of the previous films, it appears that humanity has adapted to this undead invasion. Humanity lives in protected cities while raiding the smaller communities for food and supplies. The undead inhabit the areas outside these protected cities, so raiding parties are well armed. Leading these raiding parties is Riley (Simon Baker) a nondescript hero type who wants to see the masses of human folks do more than survive. Acting as a foil to Riley is Cholo (John Leguizamo), who -- in addition to his work on the raiding party -- also does certain dirty work for the city's top dog, Kaufman (Dennis Hopper). Maybe it's typecasting to suggest that Kaufman must be bad because Hopper is playing the character. Nevertheless, it is obvious that Kaufman is the king of his glass tower and he doesn't care about the thousands of refugees living homeless on the streets below.

Just as the humans have grown a little smarter about dealing with the undead, so the undead are getting a little smaller too. One former gas station attendant nicknamed Big Daddy (Eugene Clark) is a little quicker than the rest. He moves a little faster, reacts a little sooner, and thinks -- actually thinks! -- about what he is doing. When he stops to pick up a machine gun, it is apparent that this guy is different. Like a queen bee, Big Daddy soon organizes the other zombies into an undead army to strike out at the living.

While the testosterone posturing between Riley and Cholo is nothing less than predictable, Romero tries to keep it interesting by throwing other characters into the mix. Fighting alongside Riley is a mentally challenged young man named Charlie (Robert Joy) who seems, despite his disability, to be an excellent shot with a rifle. Riley and Charlie also pick up a woman who they save from becoming undead dinner in a strange cage match in an underground fighting ring. Slack (Asia Argento) provides some eye candy, but does little else.

Like Romero's other Dead pictures, Land of the Dead seems to be trying to achieve social satire. If Kaufman is a caricature of the rich (or big business), it seems to follow that Romero is suggesting that the "have nots" are waiting to overthrow the "haves" in a class struggle. Even this, unfortunately, is hardly new ground and seems a little silly in the context of a film about the undead. (In fact, the undead make no differentiation between rich and poor and eat them both. They do fixate on Kaufman's glass tower, but only because it is lit up and guides them like a beacon.) The question of class structures in a post-apocalyptic society is interesting, but Romero doesn't explain how it could evolve when survival is more important than monetary wealth.

The only sanity in the film is the mentality of those who feel the need to escape. Riley and others don't want to make the world a better place or try to rebuild civilization. Far from it. They only want to go up north where people are scarce and (by logical extension) zombies would be less likely.

Despite the plot holes and the paper-thin characters, Land of the Dead does one thing well. It provides a wonderful zombie gore-fest, the likes of which have not been seen by Romero since the mid-'80s. This is not to say that other zombie films have not filled the gap and even advanced the genre. Recent offerings like 28 Days Later... and the romantic comedy spoof Shaun of the Dead are great examples of recent zombie films. Nevertheless, Land of the Dead offers Romero's unique vision of the genre. With unabashed scenes of undead eating the living and zombies being ripped apart by machine guns, there is enough stage blood in the film to fill every swimming pool in California. This is classic zombie-mania.

For fans of last year's Shaun of the Dead there are some interesting guest cameos. Writers Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright appear as photo booth zombies.