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8
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10 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Troy
Howarth |
Mercenaries
fight to survive as the living dead grow in numbers and learn
to evolve...
For horror fans, the arrival of the fourth
chapter of George A. Romero's possibly still-on-going zombie
series was as big an event as, say, the latest chapter of Star
Wars to sci-fi buffs. The Pittsburgh maverick hadn't made a
film since 2000's indifferently received Bruiser,
and the fact that he was back on familiar ground swelled zombie
fans with high expectation. The question became, would he be
able to deliver, or would the moment, as it were, have passed?
Despite enthusiastic reviews, the film was met with indifference
at the U.S. box office, failing to make nearly the same dent
as the remake of Romero's best loved work, Dawn
Of The Dead. Commercial failure to one side, the film emerges
as one of Romero's most interesting and polished accomplishments.
As with earlier entries in his zombie saga,
the film uses the genre as a springboard for social commentary
and satire. The character of Kaufman (Dennis Hopper), a self-serving
businessman with a God complex, is clearly modeled after President
George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. At
one point, when under pressure from the mercenaries, he even
barks, "We don't negotiate with terrorists." Romero
wears his political leanings on his sleeve, though this shouldn't
come as a surprise from the man who made Night
Of The Living Dead and Dawn Of The
Dead. If Night serves as
a kind of commentary on the impact of Vietnam and the way it
deadened American sensibilities, and Dawn
worked overtime as a satire of U.S. consumerism, and Day
Of The Dead sought to cut through the malaise of the Reagan
years and the way we became distrustful of our military, then
Land offers some fairly bold comments
on the war in Iraq and the way the 'common man' has been used,
chewed up and spit out by the upper echelons of the government.
Yet while Dawn, for all its good
intentions, is flawed in the way it overstates its message,
Land is closer in tone to the EC
Comics ghoulishness of Night and
Day. It doesn't shy away from actually
making some points about the society in which we live — thus
setting it apart from most contemporary horror films — but ultimately
Romero has his eye firmly on delivering the goods on a purely
entertainment-driven level. In effect, it's the kind of film
one can enjoy on a purely superficial level or dig a bit deeper
into in order to take away its 'message', but it never succumbs
to the temptation of preaching to the audience in a heavy-handed
manner.
Produced
on a bigger budget than the earlier installments, Land
boasts impressive production values, high octane action sequences
and a fine cast. Simon Baker makes for a likable, stolid lead.
He basically embodies a spirit of optimism combined with a world-weary
attitude; he's the one who makes idealized comments about "looking
for a world without fences," while proving himself more
than capable where action is required. John Leguizamo (Carlito's
Way, Spawn) steals a lot
of scenes and gets a lot of quotable lines ("Looks like
God left the phone off the hook") as Baker's antagonist,
the opportunistic Cholo. In many respects, Cholo is one of the
film's most interesting characters, undergoing a transformation
that gives the film some dramatic spark. Dennis Hopper (Apocalypse
Now, Easy Rider) is admirably
restrained as the Bush/Rumsfeld parody (odd to note that Hopper
is a die-hard conservative in real life; one wonders if he was
at all uncomfortable with the writer/director's political 'agenda'),
but he has a few moments of humor that stand out. ("Zombies,
man —
they creep me out.")
Asia Argento (The
Stendhal Syndrome, Trauma)
doesn't have a lot to do as Slash, a prostitute who joins Baker's
ragtag army after falling afoul of Kaufman, but she makes for
a spunky and super-sexy heroine, thus continuing Romero's tradition
of not casting females in the usual damsel-in-distress stereotype.
The standout performance, however, comes from Robert Joy (Amityville
3-D). Already a familiar face in Romero's work (he showed
up briefly in The Dark Half), he
takes what could have been a clichéd character —
the slowwitted, battle-scarred gun expert with a heart of gold
—
and makes him into a thoroughly endearing and three dimensional
human being. His performance includes a number of wonderful
character touches and self-deprecating humor; he truly is the
film's emotional center. Romero buffs will get a kick out of
seeing Tom Savini, reprising his role from Dawn
Of The Dead, albeit in undead form. Simon Pegg and Edgar
Wright (the star/co-writer and co-writer/director of Shaun
Of The Dead, respectively) also show up in zombie cameos
during the memorable nightclub sequence.
Technical credits
are impressive. Shot in Super 35, this is the first of Romero's
films to utilize the 2.35 aspect ratio, and he seems at home
in the format. Some of the images are stunningly realized, including
a gorgeous shot of the zombies rising from the water surrounding
Pittsburgh (unlike the earlier films, this was shot in Canada,
but Romero stays true to his 'burgh roots by making it fairly
obvious that the action is unfolding in the same location),
and Romero makes good use of color to contrast the haves (rich
reds and browns) with the have-nots (drab grays and blues).
The music score is serviceable, nothing more, but it doesn't
hurt the proceedings one iota. The special makeup effects by
Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger are simply excellent, at least
equaling Tom Savini’s (rightly) celebrated work on Day
Of The Dead. A few digital effects look a little unconvincing,
thus betraying the low budget, but overall the film achieves
a scope that is impressive and believable.
Though not perfect
—
if anything, the film feels a little short; the pacing is very
well sustained, but one misses some of the in-between stuff
that typified Romero's earlier films —
Land Of The Dead stands out as
an imaginative continuation of its creator's signature subject
matter. Far from feeling like a stale rehash of old ideas and
images, it unfolds with breathless enthusiasm and shows that
Romero still has what it takes to compete with the 'big leagues'.
Artists with his integrity and sincere devotion to his fan base
and genre aren't exactly a dime a dozen; here's hoping he's
give more opportunities to strut his stuff.
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| Universal's
release of the unrated director's cut of Land
Of The Dead
is sure to please Romero buffs. This cut runs a total of four
minutes longer than the 93 minute theatrical cut (issued simultaneously
as a fullframe-only DVD, with some of the same extras). The additions
are mostly extensions of violence trimmed from the theatrical
version (as Romero notes on the commentary, some of the blood
was blackened for theaters, bits of digital trickery were employed
to obscure some of the juicier shots, and trims were made to a
number of different shots), as well as an extended sequence in
which Cholo finds a suicide victim who turns zombie in the Kaufman
complex. This version is appreciably 'wetter' than the theatrical
cut, restoring some eye gouging and intestine munching that put
it firmly in the visceral tradition of his earlier works. The
2.35/16x9 image is razor sharp, colorful and rich with detail.
There is no print damage or authoring flaws to complain of, and
the framing looks absolutely right. The 5.1 audio mix has a lot
of punch; dialogue comes through clearly, and the music and sound
effects provide plenty of oomph. Extras include a commentary
track with Romero, producer Peter Grunewald and the film's editor,
a making of featurette, segments on the film's special effects
(green screen and makeup effects), a music video set to clips
from the film, a storyboard and production art gallery, a humorous
video diary of a day's shooting by Leguizamo, a segment on Baker
and Wright meeting with Romero to do the film, various scenes
that didn't make the final cut (all lumped together as a continuous
segment rather than split into chapters), and a segment on the
extras who showed up to play zombies. Apart from the music video
and the "zombie casting call", which feel like filler,
the remaining items all have points of interest. If the commentary
doesn't have quite the same spark as some of Romero's earlier
commentary tracks, it's still engaging and informative, with Romero
again proving to be a down-to-earth, unpretentious artist who
refuses to take himself too seriously.
10/23/05 |
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