Land of the Dead (2005)

Directed by George A Romero

Movie Review by Al Fleshrot

Summary
In this fourth Romero zombie movie, evil entrepreneur Kaufman has created his own empire within a fortified city surrounded by water. He resides in Fiddler's Green - a luxurious high rise in the middle of town, while the average citizens eke out a living in the streets. Riley leads a contingent of Kaufman's military responsible for collecting food and supplies from outlying towns, aided by a two million dollar zombie-slaughtering military vehicle called Dead Reckoning. On their last raid, we witness the beginnings of a zombie army led by the undead gas station attendant. Soon the zombie army is marching toward the human city. Meanwhile, Riley's second in command Cholo has aspirations of high society living, but when he is spurned by Kaufman he steals Dead Reckoning - which happens to be armed with two missile arrays - and threatens to fire on Fiddler's Green unless he gets five million bucks. Riley is sent to retrieve the vehicle and he thwarts Cholo's plans. Cholo gives up Dead Reckoning, and after getting bitten by a zombie decides to spend his last time as a human getting revenge on Kaufman. Riley takes Dead Reckoning back to town and uses the missiles to incinerate a mass of zombies having dinner on some hapless humans. Cholo doesn't make it alive, but as a zombie he confronts Kaufman. They scuffle next to Kaufman's gasoline-soaked car and both get blown up by the gas station zombie! In the end, Riley and his gang ride off into the sunset with Dead Reckoning, looking for greener pastures.

Review
A lot of zombie fans, particularly Romero fans, were very disappointed by this film. Though it has plenty of gore, body parts and zombies, it lacks the terror and isolation of the earlier Romero films. The zombies continue the advancement of Bub from Day of the Dead on a grand scale. Led by their commander, they work together, learn how to use tools and weapons, and assault the city of the living like an army. We are accustomed to seeing zombies as a horde of flesh eating ghouls, but in this film several zombies are main characters. The special effects are a mixed bag. The gore is great and the featured zombies are done very well, but many of the unnamed horde look like regular guys with a dab of make-up. My only real complaint is that the lead zombie continually gets upset as he sees his brethren being slaughtered - he even puts a few zombies out of their misery when they are maimed beyond repair. These are zombies! They just want to eat human flesh - one less zombie means more food for another.

Best Zombie Kill
The zombies have entered the city and soldiers are fighting back. One unlucky man tries to toss a hand grenade, but the cleaver wielding zombie hacks off his hand. The hand and grenade fall to the ground, and the soldier falls on top of it right before it explodes!

Best Zombie Death
Most of the zombies get a bullet through the head. But when Riley is surprised by a zombie as he tries to lower the draw bridge, he finds his gun is unavailable. He grapples with the zombie and leans out over the railing, positioning the zombie's head so that it is crushed by a piece of the machinery lowering the bridge.

Memorable Scene
When the zombie army rushes into the city, a sizable group of humans find themselves trapped between the undead and an electric fence. One of the poor suckers utters, "We're fucked". Flash forward to Riley arriving on the scene with Dead Reckoning and all we see is a bunch of zombies having a smorgasbord! Scattered moans and screams can be heard as the humans are being eaten. The buffet is cut short when Dead Reckoning fires three missiles into the zombies and body parts go flying everywhere.

Al Fleshrot wants your brains

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