Land of the Dead *** (2005, John Leguizamo, Asia Argento, Dennis Hopper, Simon Baker, Robert Joy) – Classic Movie Review 7705

Writer-director George A Romero’s lustily and impressively done Land of the Dead is the 2005 sequel to Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985).

In Romero’s story, the last remaining human survivors are living in a walled city to keep the living dead out after the dead have taken over the world. But, unluckily, the zombies are mutating into more alive and advanced creatures that can speed along and think for themselves, developing their intelligence. This simple but brilliant idea makes the zombies far more dangerous and the movie far more exciting,

Dennis Hopper stars as Kaufman in Land of the Dead (2005).

John Leguizamo, Asia Argento, Dennis Hopper (as Kaufman), Simon Baker, and Robert Joy star at the head of a solid cast, playing interesting characters and chewing on decently written dialogue. On a fairly low budget of $15,000,000, Romero’s zombie movie impresses visually as well as in the scenes of zombie action.

It is notable in the technical department, with impressive makeup and creature FX (Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero), and outstanding work on production design (Arvinder Grewal), picture editing (Michael Doherty and sound editing.

As you would expect, it is rated R for pervasive strong violence and gore, strong language, brief sexuality and some drug use.

Land of the Dead runs 93 minutes and 97 minutes in the director’s cut.

George A Romero (1940–2017) is the director of Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7705

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