Land of the Dead (2005)

The living dead have taken over the world, and the last humans live in a walled city to protect themselves as they come to grips with the situation.

Director:

George A. Romero

Writer:

George A. Romero

Stars:

Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper

2 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Simon Baker	...	Riley Denbo
John Leguizamo	...	Cholo DeMora
Dennis Hopper	...	Kaufman
Asia Argento	...	Slack
Robert Joy	...	Charlie
Eugene Clark	...	Big Daddy
Joanne Boland	...	Pretty Boy
Tony Nappo	...	Foxy
Jennifer Baxter	...	Number 9
Boyd Banks	...	Butcher
Jasmin Geljo	...	Tambourine Man
Maxwell McCabe-Lokos	...	Mouse
Tony Munch	...	Anchor
Shawn Roberts	...	Mike
Pedro Miguel Arce	...	Pillsbury

Storyline

Now that zombies have taken over the world, the living have built a walled-in city to keep the dead out. But all's not well where it's most safe, as a revolution plans to overthrow the city leadership, and the zombies are turning into more advanced creatures.

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Plot Keywords:

skyscraper | mercenary | burnt body | electrocution | black humor | 

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Taglines:

The dead shall inherit the Earth.

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive strong violence and gore, language, brief sexuality and some drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Pan-Européenne [fr] Universal [de]

Country:

Canada France USA

Language:

English Spanish Italian Polish French

Release Date:

24 June 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dead Reckoning

Filming Locations:

Brampton, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£870,285 (UK) (23 September 2005)

Gross:

£2,088,987 (UK) (7 October 2005)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Atmosphere Entertainment MM, Exception Wild Bunch

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min 97 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At the beginning of the movie, if you listen carefully to the tuba and tambourine zombies in the town bandstand they are playing notes from 'The Gonk', the mall music from Romero's Dawn of the Dead.

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Goofs

At the start, when the Skyflowers stop and they are leaving the supermarket, 3 zombies are shot by the guy in the truck. The third zombie falls before being shot.

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Quotes

Manolete: [about the rapidly adapting zombies] Do you really think they can cross the river?

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Crazy Credits

The old mid-1930s Universal Pictures logo begins the film.

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Connections

Referenced in Midnight Movie Review: Halloween Horror Top 25, nr. 5: 28 Days Later (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Speak Too Much"
Written by Gabriel Isaac Mounsey
Performed by R3kl355 / Mass

User Reviews

Not bad, but not great

Land of the Dead - The 4th part of George A. Romero's zombie quadrillogy. It's been decades since the dead began to walk the Earth, and now they practically own it (except for Canada for some reason). There is one last little mega-city that is surrounded by electric fences, armed patrols and barbed wire on one side, and nothing but water on all other four sides, because the dead supposedly don't like water. Despite the fact that the surrounding lands are rife with zombies, this metropolis is incredibly corrupt. All thanks to evil bureaucrat Kaufman (Dennis Hooper, who I had a ball watching) who makes all but a select few rich folks (who have never seen or fought a real zombie) live in slums. There you can get your picture taken with zombies, or watch zombie fights (they fight over animals and the occasional human). There are a few mercenaries paid to make runs in a giant tank truck for precious commodities in the outside world.

Now I like George and could thank him endlessly for starting the zombie franchise, but he has always favored gore just a little more over character development, and has always liked his zombies just a LOT more than his humans. Heck in this movie, the zombies are practically the good-guys! They're just like you and me, except they rip people's arms in two (and I do mean length-wise) and tear belly button rings out of people. They are actually pretty intelligent and moderately fast at walking. By far the biggest threats in Romero's movies (most notably "Big Daddy" (Eugene Clark). For the most part though, it works, and it's good gory fun. Except the character development thingy. While I don't begrudge Romero for having fun with his zombies, I wasn't too sympathetic to Riley (Simon Baker) or Slack (Asia Argento). Riley, like Romero it seems, is just tired of character development as he has Riley say "I'm fed up with back-stories". But Riley dear boy, that's how the audience grows to care about you. Slack almost kills several of her fellow team-mates and does not grow at all, but that's the script's fault. Both of these characters, however are played well for what the actors are given.

Surprisingly the secondary characters are far more endearing. Cholo (John Leguizamo) was not only believable as a merc, but I was quite sympathetic to him as he realized that he was a pon. "Pilsbury" (Pedro Miguel Arce) and Charlie (Robert Joy) are endearing and funny.

So the effects are good. The story is iffy. The acting is good. The character development is iffy. The ending is really lame. This gets an overall B