Land of the Dead

[SixStrangSmoker]

Yeah i'm sure theres one of these somewhere, but there needs to be one under Romeros Dead films.

Saw the pics up on Arrows main page of George laying some whoopass Director style on the set.
Cannot wait!:D

[pyscho dude]

Oh Romero's lost it. This movie is gonna blow dog chunks. Walking zombies? How lame.:D

[TheRecluse]

I can't wait to see Land of the Dead. I've been waiting for Romero to get back into the Dead franchise for years now. Within 30 seconds of first reading that Romero took up this film, I was covered head to toe in my own DNA..... try and get that image out of your head.:D

[EvilDeadGirl]

LMFAO@Recluse. Ah good stuff. Thanks for the image.

I can't wait for this film. I finally get to see a Romero Zombie movie in the theatre! W00t!

[Mr-Blonde]

George Romero back at the helm of the Dead franchise is indeed something to celebrate! This film almost never got made at all. Romero has been trying to get this one off the ground for twenty years now. And now after all this time, the film is scheduled to open October 21. I for one plan to be there opening night.

For the latest info on the progress of Land of the Dead check out my Land of the Dead SPOILERS (http://www2.joblo.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=86683) thread. :cool:

[Romero's Dead]

It's a great thing, indeed. I was just lucky enough to enjoy the whole trilogy just a few months before this new film was announced. I got pretty lucky, unlike some big Romero fans here! :p

[pyscho dude]

This is actually good timing because I'll be 17 before this gets released and I'll be able to actually go up to a theatre by myself and watch it. I can't wait. :D Well actually I can but I don't really want to but I'll end up having too because I can't just watch it but If I could just watch it I would but since I can't I won't be able to but ...

[EvilDeadGirl]

Anyone pick up the recent issue of Fangoria? They have a pretty nice little peice in there about Land of the Dead and George's relationship with Dario Argento and Asia. Good read and some nice bloody picks.

[zombievictim]

Might have to pick that up

[Cronos]

im sooooo looking forward to this, i just hope it gets a cinema release in the UK

[zombievictim]

By the time its released in the UK you'll be able to buy it on DVD in the US

[Wolfman]

This movie sucked so bad I thought I was watching Jaws 4 again.

For one, the CGI effects were bad. George, you've got Tom Savini on call any time you want him. He even made an appearance in your damn movie. Let the man do what he does, and don't CGI your zombie effects. Did I pay 7 bucks or am I watching this on the sci-fi channel?

Second, the plot had more gaping holes than a San Fransisco leather bar. So Dennis Hopper owns the skyscraper? That's nice. What about the other fifty buildings in the city? The ones that nobody is living in? Why don't you move into those and fix them up nice? And what the hell is Hopper paying these people with? Money??? The stores ain't open, George. So Hopper's security guard can take his $30K a year paycheck and go down to the corner store and still not buy anything because there are zombies everywhere. I know you're stuck in the 60s, George, but the rich and powerful just aren't that scary when the dead are rising from the grave and the banks aren't open because the city is on fire. Hopper, stick to playing King Koopa the next time you're in a Leguizamo movie. That plot was more believable. Why is Leguizamo after money anyway? I repeat: there's nowhere to spend it, John!

Finally, learn from Speilberg. The monster is scariest when it's not on the screen. Close-ups of a zombie walking down the street and scratching its ass just doesn't do it for me. Far away shots of a shambling horde is spooky, and following it up with a close-up of a rotted what-the-hell-was-that makes the audience jump and gasp. Extended scenes of Gas Station Gary and Softball Sue walking down the street moaning with a glazed look in their eyes just reminds me of that time I visited my grandparents in the old folks home.

[SixStrangSmoker]

I have to disagree.

Spielberg should learn from Romero, not the other way around. Spielberg uses te same plot devices and close up camera angles of peoples faces staring off into the distance in EVERY film.

[TheDeadWalk]

Money is still valuable in this America, because there are still other outposts where you can spend the money, and Canada is also mentioned. Cholo's goal was to take the money and go elsewhere with it.

The other fifty buildings in the city are most likely being used to sleep in and fix up, but they probably don't have running water or money for a generator, so they stand outside and keep fire. Kaufman's fiddlers green is where all of the luxuries are at. You can't just get a bunch of friends and fix up a place with electricity and running water if the man is keeping you down.

What the folks DO with the money is shown by the soldiers raiding the old towns and taking the old goods and bringing it back into the outpost for sale, with a good chunk going to Kaufman. Cholo in the beginning is interested in getting liquors at the old store, because he knows how valuable it is to the people back home.

The people buy goods with it to keep them happy, and make them feel comfortable and safe, like neat canaries in a cage.

[Wolfman]

Originally posted by TheDeadWalk
Money is still valuable in this America, because there are still other outposts where you can spend the money, and Canada is also mentioned. Cholo's goal was to take the money and go elsewhere with it.

You can't spend American dollars in Canada today, much less in a post-apocalyptic future. Even if there are other outposts, why would anyone give a crap about little green pieces of paper? A post-apocalyptic world is a completely different economy.

The other fifty buildings in the city are most likely being used to sleep in and fix up, but they probably don't have running water or money for a generator, so they stand outside and keep fire. Kaufman's fiddlers green is where all of the luxuries are at. You can't just get a bunch of friends and fix up a place with electricity and running water if the man is keeping you down.

Think for a second, man. That one tower isn't going to have all the luxuries. Every skyscraper in the downtown area is going to be exactly like that. There are lots of luxury apartments downtown. There's no reason you can't walk into one and just start living there. Ever watch Night of the Comet? Running water and electricity? They've got a running power plant in the city. The city water supply is operational. All they have to do is turn it on. The people who know how to operate the power plant would be the ones with power. Why should I listen to an old guy with no real skills? Watch the Mad Max movies. What's an old guy with lots of money? As good as dead.

As for "the man" keeping you down, that's ridiculous.

What the folks DO with the money is shown by the soldiers raiding the old towns and taking the old goods and bringing it back into the outpost for sale, with a good chunk going to Kaufman. Cholo in the beginning is interested in getting liquors at the old store, because he knows how valuable it is to the people back home.

The people buy goods with it to keep them happy, and make them feel comfortable and safe, like neat canaries in a cage.

Certainly there's going to be a market for some old goods. And an economy of some sort will evolve. But why would you give anything to Dennis Hopper? He doesn't provide you with fuel. He doesn't provide you with bullets. He doesn't know how to treat injuries. He doesn't know how to keep the electricity going. He has no valuable skills. Why is anyone listening to him? Because he used to have money? That money is gone. The bank? It's on fire. Those investments he made? Those businesses are gone. The money is only worth anything if the people in the city decide it's worth something. If you're in the desert dying of thirst, a glass of water is worth a lot more than a million dollars. The new currency would be ammunition, medical supplies, and spare parts.

[Wolfman]

Originally posted by SixStrangSmoker
I have to disagree.

Spielberg should learn from Romero, not the other way around. Spielberg uses te same plot devices and close up camera angles of peoples faces staring off into the distance in EVERY film.

There's a reason nobody besides horror geeks ever thinks of Romero when they think of great directors. It's because he's not one. Monsters look fake. It doesn't matter if it's CGI or makeup. If you close-up on a monster for long enough (more than 2 seconds), it'll look fake. Romero still hasn't learned that.

[TheDeadWalk]

In the short-term, bullets, medical packets, guns, armor, etc. are the most valuable items.

In the long-term, when society has learned to re-group itself, they will either keep or shed those things as value, and find new valuables.

Service jobs (like a medic) will not last as being a leader in a new structured economy after 10 years of the dead walking the earth, and thus being forgotten about.

Kaufman has stayed in power because his former life shows that he was obviously a big businessman and knew how to run things. Ever think that maybe he's in that position because he thought of the fact that the city could survive in Pittsburgh because of the three rivers that could block off the zombies? He was an intelligent man with an education, and obviously knew what needed to be done for this society to work.

Also you have to figure when a big structured society comes into play like that, from the very get-go leaders are assigned, the same way there was ranking officers in Day of the dead, and people respected that because they didn't want anarchy, they wanted to attempt to live normal lives.

I mentioned Canada, but Cholo wasn't real interested in that. Nearby, he wanted to go to Cleveland after he dealt with some issues, but I would like to think he either wanted to travel east, or head to some other outpost in the midwest or take the reckoning as far to some place like Arizona where the heat would obviously have a huge factor against the living dead.

To say that years after the zombie apocolypse meat, medical packets and bullets will be the currency is possible, but not definite. If it were definite, then we wouldn't have ever evolved to money today. Just like the zombies evolved, the humans too evolved back into their situation of old. Who cares about little green pieces of paper today? Quite a few people. Years later when people are safe enough and have forgotten about the dead, they will go back to a neutral currency. Of course Mad Max has us looking at gasoline and water as major currency, but in Mad Max, Max didn't know where the hell he was going tomorrow. He was making ends meet to stay alive. In Land, there is more than enough to go around for those that hogged it all up first. Those that barter and see currency as water/food were the poor out on the street.

This society showed people in fancy dresses sitting inside luxurious restaurants fine dining. They weren't starving like in Mad Max. When your society gets bigger and richer, your needs and wants change.

As for fixing up another building, with the power in the infastructure, Kaufman would be the type of guy to say that you would need to purchase a permit off of him or something before you would be allowed to move in.

A leader like him is obviously appointed at the beginning of the epidemic either because he is a strong politician in the community, or a strong politician made him the appointee. You need a pencil pusher to manage and think how the economy is going to thrive, do the accounting and try to maintain a currency system. You can't just let a grunt do that, grunts are for firing weapons and not leading communities.

I think the time for bartering for food/water/med packs was in the Dawn of the dead era. This society is light years ahead of that part of the outbreak.

[Wolfman]

Until you have a continuous production of goods, you'll remain in a simple barter economy. Society would need more than 10 years to return to anything resembling a regular economy. Of course, there are other problems. What are these people eating? Did you see any cows? Where was the food grown? You can't live off of scrounged canned goods forever.

[Graveyard Walk]

****Spoilers****





I'm not even sure if anything new can be added to discussion either from fans or haters, but I for one loved every second of it. I never once looked at it to compare with other dead movies, even out of the Romero world. I just looked at it as a continuation. I was sold with the opening with Universal using one of its old school logos to kick the film off. Yes, it is a more simple movie than the previous efforts, but on a plus side, the movie never got boring that way. And it does have a lot of read between the lines stuff going on.

There were a lot of bleak scenes I really enjoyed, and I think it caught an astonishing glimpse of an apocaplyptic world that Romero had been building up to with his previous dead films. I wouldn't want it looking any other way. I also think that a community of materialistic and greedy people keeping the less fortunate out of their hair, as well as using them like errand boys is more than believable.

As far as zombies being smart or stupid, it doesn't affect me. I have the same feeling about it as I do with the debate about running zombies or walking zombies. I don't find the idea of an intelligent zombie any more ridiculous than a dead person coming back to life and moving around, in reality. But in the same breath, I think everything evolves. People, cats, dogs, whatever. And that's the message I got back when Bub was trying to read Salem's Lot upside down in Day of the Dead. As far as Romero skipping away from his original intent as humans being a comparison to the living dead, I think he's still pretty well on track. Land shows humans can be just as bad, if not worse. Strong debate (which usually evolves into bickering) over which characteristics a living dead person has being more believable is a mystery all its own.

I can't say Romero dropped the ball. I mean damn, before Bruiser, he hadn't made a movie since The Dark Half. And even though I enjoyed Bruiser, I have to say this is quite a leap up and a more appropriate comeback into film making.

Land in no way could ever please every Romero fan, not even if it had been made a week after Day of the Dead, or ten more years from now. It's just simply natural for vast differences of opinion. People who hate it don't make me mad. I find the debate quite interesting, when both sides have something to say other than "It ruled!" or "It sucked!".

[Alzabra]

Folks I Liked Night of the Living dead and Dawn of the dead(and the re-make) but day and land of the dead were absolute pants!!

Day of the dead was terrible with crack soldiers(i use the term crack very lightly as I would prob trust my 5 year old nephew more with my life) trying to defend an underground base, sorry folks but lets be honest Zombies cant break down a fortified base!!!. Land spends far to much time on tryin to locate a lost truck that they have made to save the city from certain death instead of the zombie invasion of the world.

Its doesnt bother me too much about Zombies communicating but 1 main Zombie who guides the pack and leads them through battles.......If anyone had common sense in the movie take a gun and blast his brains out( saves the hassle of a zombie leading the rest ) and we would have a much better movie( u cant have a main zombie in a film)

Also I felt they didnt spend enough time showing you the citys after the infection desimates the world, it would have made it more interesting if they had the storieline made between a few left outposts rather than 1 daft city thats defended by Gimps(aka fully trained soldiers who couldnt defend themselves never mind a city.

I know true Romero fans will try and defend this film but there is no need to waste ur breath because its terrible!!

[Septicfish]

*May Contain spoilers*
I've recently seen Land of the Dead and to be fair thought it was pretty lame... Allow me to elaborate... for starters the gore was up to standards which was to my liking but that was about it... The whole "zombie's are getting smarter" ploy seemed quite good but when it turned out that just one black zombie was so much more intelligent than all the other mindless ones it started to get a bit old... especially as he stayed as the main leader of them all throughout the rest of the film!! On another note John Leguisamo was good and the rest of the cast, Dennis Hopper all seemed to fit the bill. I guess what I'm saying is I expected more from it and expected a bit more of an ending.. coz to be fair it pretty much ended how it started with not much solved apart from the city walls were down and hopper was dead.

7/10 could've been better but still a good zombie flick.

[Wolfman]

You know, the smart zombies thing might have actually been cool, except for the fact that the one smart zombie in the movie was only as smart as virtually every single zombie in the original film.

So he learns how to use tools? Big deal. They did that in the first movie.

[Cronos]

saw Land last night and loved it, Romero's direction was /great, the film moved along nicely (although it seemed to go too fast...i wanted more Romero zombie action). the performances were mostly excellent, although there were a couple of moments where the line delivery was very bad. the script was mostly good although wasnt anything new for this type of film. Land definitely looked great though, the direction and cinematography were excellent, the lighting was also great. the effects, both practical and CG were excellent as well, the zombies looked great and when anybody (dead or alive) lost a limb, a head, blood, got shot, stabbed etc it looked great. it also had a decent but also forgettable soundtrack

still at the end i was left with a kind of empty feeling...i wanted more Romero zombie action :D

still its great to see Romero's back on the map and i cannot wait for his next offering (or the unrated Land dvd)

9/10