Scott LeBrun George A. Romero finally was able to continue his legendary "living dead" series, 20 years after "Day of the Dead", with this apocalyptic horror / action film. Zombies are now everywhere you look, but in a community dubbed Fiddler's Green, people are protected by the fact that the city is surrounded on three sides by rivers. And zombies haven't learned to swim...yet. The less fortunate are left to fend for themselves while rich people like Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) live in luxurious high rises. Trouble arises when Kaufmans' errand boy Cholo DeMora (John Leguizamo) is not compensated for his services, and becomes disgruntled, stealing a cutting edge vehicle called Dead Reckoning and intending to use its weapons."Land of the Dead" in no way compares to Romeros' original trilogy: "Night", "Dawn", and "Day". Nothing here is destined to become iconic, although Dead Reckoning is itself pretty cool. The action is decent, the violence and makeup effects good (despite the overuse of digital gore), and some of the supporting characters (like Robert Joy's slow witted burn victim Charlie) are interesting or amusing (Leguizamo is great fun). However, Romeros' expected social commentary component may be a little too on the nose and unsubtle here, with the upper class seen as largely villainous and the unruly lower class left out in the cold. Kaufman in particular is pretty one dimensional, but Hopper is good in the role.Simon Baker ('The Mentalist') is a passable hero, but he is very well supported by Leguizamo, Joy, the sultry Asia (daughter of Dario) Argento as a hooker whose fortunes keep changing, and Eugene Clark, who gets the showcase role of "Big Daddy", a zombie with an especially commanding presence who is shown to be able to communicate with and lead others of his kind. Horror / zombie buffs will appreciate the cameos by a select few performers.There's nothing special here, but "Land" does entertain in capable enough fashion.Seven out of 10.

Leofwine_draca After countless zombie rip-offs, spin-offs and comedy, the man who single-handedly invented the genre returns with the long-awaited fourth 'dead' film. Sadly, LAND OF THE DEAD is separated from Romero's trilogy not just by the long years that have passed since 1985's DAY OF THE DEAD. LAND OF THE DEAD is content to offer a straightforward action-flick and in this instance, it plays a lot like the previous year's DAWN OF THE DEAD remake. Scenes of atmospheric horror are thrown aside in place of gore, and indeed the bloodshed is what this film focuses on; there's more grue and gut-ripping here than in the first three films put together, and Romero positively wallows in the violence and carnage.The story is wafer-thin, and things haven't really progressed on the planet since DAWN OF THE DEAD happened. Humans are walled up inside a compound, zombies rule the street, and a massive armoured vehicle (just like the one in the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake) figures in the proceedings quite predominantly. Scenes of plot exposition are countered by lots of shooting and subsequent images of zombies being splattered; it's a veritable bloodbath here, and extra gravitas is brought about by Greg Nicotero's special effects; they're more realistic, and bloodier, than ever. The zombie make-up is spot on, with each zombie looking particularly individualised now, although I could have done without some of the CGI effects that ruin the authenticity a little bit.Romero's casting, however, is spot on, aside from his bizarre choice for lead role; Simon Baker, an Australian unknown, is far too vanilla and clear-cut as the hero, and totally uninteresting as a result (his boring character in the script doesn't help much either). Better are the supporting players, including John Leguizamo in one of the biggest and best acting performances I've seen him give, and the ever-sexy Asia Argento as the kick-ass heroine – Argento does this sort of thing in her sleep, and should have been cast in the RESIDENT EVIL movies in my opinion; she would have been ten times better than that talentless Milla Jovovich. Elsewhere, Dennis Hopper chews the scenery with aplomb, and seems to be having a great time as always; his enthusiasm kind of rubs off. Best of all is Robert Joy as a sniper sporting horrific burns injuries, and subsequently looking even weirder than usual. The big black zombie guy is also great.

Gregory Mucci When I watch Land of the Dead, being a tremendous fan of the original trilogy, I can't help but think that director George Romero is showing us what we all ask about Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain; with what and where would they be taking their respective genres and artistry if they hadn't met an unfortunate and abrupt end. We wonder if Hendrix would have taken a path more directed at blues or whether Kurt Cobain would have broken off and created more mature and thoughtful solo material. We won't ever know, but with Romero we are luckily able to see what paths he has taken to evolve and shift with the new age of horror and cinematic elements. With Land of the Dead, we aren't just watching the latest tale in zombie horror, we're watching an author and artist evolve, utilizing new skills and painting an apocalyptic and grim landscape with a couple new tricks. Witnessing the unveiling of this new piece isn't without its pangs and pitfalls however. The overuse of CGI elements strips us of that authenticity that Romero established with Night of the Living Dead. I mean, the zombies hanging severed head flipping up to bite its victim is eye rolling, as is all the digital bloody head shots, but it's the execution that's at fault here; what we have is a director testing out new materials and it's a whole lot of fun watching him work. There are some unbelievable set pieces here, oozing with a decayed atmosphere that only masterful brush strokes could create. We are also given some of the goriest and entrail ripping death scenes to date, and for that I say "I'm not worthy!"With Land of the Dead, we are lucky enough to be able to feast our eyes on a man at work who has started from a patch work crew and equipment in Night of the Living Dead to a much larger budget. Laying the groundwork for not only an entire genre but filmmakers to come, George Romero continues to evolve and push using a larger canvas and the practice of incorporating new cinematic tools, albeit a bit to our dismay. However, as a huge fan of the legend and the work he has produced, I can forgive a couple of missteps to be able to slip into a truly fun and inspired world crafted by one of the greatest in the business.

Nick Retzlaff This movie starts off with the old Universal pictures opening. Then after the opening credits roll the movie starts off in some old town where some survivors try to find medicine. We're also introduced to this big van/truck/tank called Dead Reckoning that shoots down most of the zombies there. After that the survivors to this island city which is supposed to be their home.There's also one place in the middle of it all in called Fiddler's Green where people forget about the zombies. While everyone else outside lives dirt poor like in the Edgar Allan Poe story Mask of the Red Death where the prince has a big party in the castle and forgets about the plague outside.There's also this on guy Cholo, played by John Leguizamo, tries to get a place in Fiddlers Green by persuading the owner. Played by Dennis Hopper and this movie was when I was starting to noticing him. There's also a sense of deja vu since both actors were in the Super Mario Brothers Movie if you remember that at all.When Cholo doesn't get his place he takes Dead Reckoning and threatens to destroy the city. The stars of Shawn of the Dead are in this bar scene also as zombies since George Romero was a fan of the movie. There's also a zombie, Big Daddy, then gets an army of zombies and slowly make they're way to the city. When they rise out of the water it like from the scene from Carnival of Souls. That was from what I've heard of it that is, but I'll have to see Carnival of Souls myself one day.When the main hero get's to Dead Reckoning he reasons with Cholo and they go back to the city. Which is getting overrun by the zombies and the Ton Savini biker makes a cameo as a zombie. Some of the blood is CGI which is fine by me since he probably had a small budget.This movie also has a dark setting, literally, which creates a lot of atmosphere. Not as good as Night, Dawn, or Day but maybe because there was so many zombie movies around at the time it came out. I might not review Diary of the Dead or Survival of the Dead since I saw a but of Survival of the Dead and thought it was kind of dumb. Also for Diary of the Dead's way of filming as a home video horror movie I don't quite like. That sub-genre is just a little too overused a bit but I like the idea of that anyone can be a filmmaker.