Film Reviews

Land of The Dead

• Rating:
• Director: George A Romero.
• Starring: Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento, Robert Joy.
• Details: US / 93mins / 15A

All hail the return of George A. Romero, he who re-animated the zombie movie in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead. That film begat the sequelsremakes Dawn of the Dead (1979), Day of the Dead (1985), Night of the Living Dead (1990) and Dawn of the Dead (2004). Romero also inspired a generation of shockers and mock shockers directed by the likes of Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, Brian Yuzna, Stuart Gordon, and their many imitators. Romero's first film was later seized on by critics who read into it a message for the times. Accordingly Romero is now selling Land of the Dead as a commentary on Bush's America. Evil leader Kaufman (Dennis Hopper, in snooze mode) presides over a priveleged white elite in the 'Fiddler's Green' enclave of an island city. Within the city there is a lawless underclass who, kept in place by Kaufman's machinations, survive by scavenging for non-perishable goods outside the city where legions of hungry non-perishable zombies stumble about. Antagonists Riley (Baker) and Cholo (Leguizamo) dream of different kinds of escape while a lesser character, Mulligan (Bruce McFee - hilarious Irish accent!), wants to overthrow the regime. Romero sensibly keeps romance out of it and the plot hinges on the awakening of a basic intelligence among the zombies. They take their first evolutionary steps like the apes dicovering the use of tools in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The sequel will probably tell us the zombies are the good guys after all.

Review by Ted Sheehy