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.

Land of the Dead (2005): Dir: George A. Romero / Cast: Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper, John Leguizamo, Asia Argento, Robert Joy: Sickening horror film symbolizing the downfall of society. The dead are alive but this time they are slowly learning to think for themselves therefore becoming more dangerous. Had they been able to think for themselves, then perhaps they would be involved in a film better than this one. We see victims eaten alive in gory detail by zombies as well as humans executing them. We never learn where these creatures come from and the problem is not so much solved as it is accepted. George Romero directed four of these films including the overrated black and white original Night of the Living Dead. He is skilled at delivering the lifestyles of zombies but fails in creative human characters. Simon Baker as the hero is totally flat. He apparently created a weapon called Dead Reckoning for which he now must retrieve. Dennis Hopper as the rich human tyrant is the best role. He rules the city not realizing that it will all come undone. John Leguizamo is interesting as he develops a scam against Hopper in answer to cheated services. Asia Argento is reduced to a prop. She is first rescued from potential zombie sacrifice. Robert Joy is also cast as one of the guys accompanying Baker for a little zombie safari hunt. Designed as a graphic rush for pointless carnage. Score: 4 / 10

After producing a highly successful trilogy and the most notorious zombie films, Romero launched his 4th film Land of the Dead, putting him in a pressure situation to pull off another classic. Even though it's respectable of Romero to make each film unique and sort of evolve through each stage of film-making, it seems he lost a bit of touch when creating Land of the Dead. The zombie's make-up, walking motions and the traditional ghoulish completeness was missing or not executed to Romero's standard. Furthermore, the special effects seemed to be too modern and had less attention to detail in death scenes. There is one really cool scene that sticks out when two zombies rip a hand apart but that's about all that's memorable.With all that being said, it's not to say Land of the Dead was completely lousy since his characters and storyline maintained my viewing interest. Dennis Hopper, Simon Baker, Asia Argento and John Luguizamo were all excellent, as well as the supporting cast members like Robert Joy and Joanne Boland. The most important thing when watching this movie is to expect a quality or traditional nature of Romero's previous three films, he always seems to throw some curve balls. If that's done as a viewer, perhaps some enjoyment can be found when checking out Land of the Dead.

Everyone was surprised that after 20 years George Romero announced he'd be making another sequel in his DEAD series. Personally, I wondered how it would be in comparison to his original trilogy. It was opening night, the theater was packed, the lights went out, and the movie began. Now the story: Some time has passed since the zombie plague started. The country has been decimated and large groups have banded together into cities. In one city, the looks mysteriously like Pittsburgh, the rich, headed by Kaufman (Dennis Hopper,) have taken over a high-rise called Fiddler's Green. The poor are left on the streets with gambling, vices and filth. Every so often, a roving band of raiders goes out to collect supplies. As the film opens, we meet the raiders as they attempt to raid a small town. The raiders, headed by Riley Denbo (Simon Baker,) have discovered that the zombies are learning to be human again. They can grunt to each other to communicate and have started learning how to use tools, weapons and strategy. To make a long story short, tragedy befalls the raiders. Back in the city, one of the raiders named Cholo (John Leguizamo) has been secretly working for Kaufman. When Kaufman betrays their deal, Cholo decides to seek his revenge by stealing an armored truck, threatening to bomb the city unless Kaufman pays him $5 million. So Riley is sent out, along with some friends, to stop Cholo and get back the truck. Meanwhile, a large horde of zombies is slowly moving towards the city... And yes fellow gorehounds, there is a big bloody finale! Overall, I was pleased with the results. The tone, while horrific has a wicked humor streak. This is perhaps the only Romero film where the zombies are viewed as sympathetic and not just flesh-crazed monsters. The special effects and make-up are top-notch. Acting by all is superb. While some have questioned Romero's credibility as a horror director from this point on, I still say the man hasn't lost one iota of his talent. Case in point: I dare anyone to watch the scene where a man is eaten alive by three zombie clowns. So go ahead, I dare you to watch this movie!