Film Review: Land of the Dead

By Patricia Lamkin

We all know the classic zombie formula: they're dead but not dead; they move slowly, but they're relentless; they hunger for human flesh, but this isn't brain food; and most importantly, the living work together to survive the undead.

In The Land of the Dead, George Romero's latest installment to the genre, the very time tested formula that he created gets turned around: zombies work together to survive, and are more interesting to watch than the living.

In the wake of the zombie plague, the living try to lead normal lives in a fortified city protected by rivers and an armored tank called the Dead Reckoning. Millionaire and entrepreneur Kaufman (Dennis Hopper), now controls this decadent society, where the "haves" live in a high rise country club, and the "have nots" in homeless squalor. As the evolving zombies learn how to attack the city, commander Riley (Simon Baker) and a handful of soldiers, must stop an insane lieutenant Cholo (John Leguizamo) who now threatens the city in the very tank Riley designed to protect it.

Though Romero goes above and beyond this time with zombie gore and social commentary, unfortunately the living dead in Land of the Dead are the main characters. Dennis Hopper's evil entrepreneur offers up the best laughs with his deadpan delivery: "Zombies, man. They creep me out!" As for the good guys, we do not get as emotionally invested or even amused. Instead of coming from different walks of life, as in previous Romero films, the reconnaissance crew all are sprung from the same generic military seed. Even the prostitute Slack (Asia Argento) mysteriously has a military background. The rest have great potential to be interesting, such as Pillsbury, the giant Samoan (Pedro Miguel Arce), but he is barely used, despite his tremendous presence. "Everybody has a story," says Slack to Riley, but unfortunately Romero isn't interested in the human stories this time around.

However, if zombie carnage is more appealing to you than human stories, than for you Romero delivers with plenty of playful, dare I say it, "overkill." If that's your cup of tea, like your undead heroes, you are bound to "eat it up." B -