Random Movie: Land of the Dead (2005)

Written by: PBF

Land of the Dead is the last Romero “Of the Dead” film before the series gets sort of rebooted with Diary of the Dead. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), it is the last one that was fairly decent the whole time.

The dead now outnumber the living. In Pittsburg, most, if not all of the survivors have fled to the city. The city is enclosed by rivers and an electric fence, which is patrolled by military. Within the city is Fiddler’s Green which is where the rich dwell. It has luxury living, a mall, restaurants. Outside of Fiddler’s Green is where the poor people live. People are hungry, ill, and cannot afford medicine. Riley Denbo (Simon Baker), possibly the prettiest man of the zombie apocalypse, and Cholo DeMora (John Leguizamo) are the commander and second in command (respectively) of the Dead Reckoning. The Dead Reckoning is a gigantic mobile assault vehicle that is used to travel out in to the apocalypse to retrieve supplies (food, medical, etc) and distribute them to the poor back in the city. The vehicle has armor, multiple cameras, an arsenal of weapons and can fire fireworks or “sky flowers” in to the air. The zombies are fascinated by the fireworks and will stare at them rather than feeding. One zombie, who was a gas station attendant, seems to have broken the hypnosis that ensues and starts communicating with other zombies. Eventually they become unaffected by the fireworks and even learn to fire weapons. The “lead” zombie then zombie convinces the rest of the undead to follow him toward the city. Denbo and DeMora have decided that this night will be their last night commanding the Reckoning. Denbo will take his car to Canada, and DeMora will try to get his place in Fiddler’s Green. He brings cigars and champagne to Kaufman (Dennis Hopper), the man who runs the city (and whom DeMora has been working for) and explains that he has saved enough money to move in to Fiddler’s Green. Kaufman declines his request, and fires him. Pissed, DeMora then takes the Dead Reckoning with the crew (sans Denbo) out of the city. He tells Kaufman (who has not paid him for his services) that unless he gives him $5 million, he will blow up the city. Unwilling to negotiate, Kaufman hires Denbo to retrieve the Reckoning and DeMora, either alive or dead. Denbo, Charlie (burned by a fire, slightly retarded) and Slack (hooker, played by Asia Argetno) were all arrested following a shootout. Denbo agrees to the job under the condition that Charlie and Slack go with him. Kaufman agrees and further supplies him with three more people: Manolete, Motwotwn and Pillsbury. As they head out of the city to find DeMora, the ever evolving zombies move toward the city.

Perhaps it was my disdain for the last 2 I watched (Diary and Survival) that cause me to come in to this with no expectations and a little bit distracted. Whether it was that or sloppy story telling, it took a few minutes for me to get a grasp hold of what was going on. There are a lot of story elements to keep up with and they don’t entirely connect in to fluidity until the Reckoning is stolen. Even though this made for a choppy pace, the story is quite intriguing and engages you enough to still understand it until it picks up. Again, social commentary abounds, and I find it interesting (and quite believable) that even after a zombie outbreak, humans would still be separated by class.

The film is certainly better acted than the following 2 (which for some reason I viewed before this one) and the zombies are still somewhat frightening, much like the social structure they are attempting to destroy (eat the rich!). The film is simply well balanced in all aspects, something that is definitely lacking in Diary and Survival.

I am actually more angry at Diary and Survival now having watched this. It really would have been interesting to see how far evolved the zombies become, and what happens as a result. This is abandoned with the regression in timeline (despite the use of Alan Van Sprang who plays 2 different military characters throughout all 3 films), although in Survival, the inhabitants of Plum Island are attempting to make the zombies “learn.” I questioned the significance of doing that in my review of Survival, as they were merely being taught to eat animals rather than humans. However, in Land, they are learning on their own, and their attack of the living takes on a more personal meaning as they are attacking the humans that are attacking them, and not simply looking for flesh to eat (eventually). This could have led to a more organic co existence (rather than forced, as in Survival). For example, the zombies may have turned to only dispatching dickheads, instead of everyone. Or it could have led to a smarter zombie that eventually was responsible for the complete eradication of the human race. All of this is moot, as we are left with 2 of the worst zombie installments ever. Better luck next film.