Land of the 'senseless' dead
'Land of the Dead' by George A. Romero is deader than the zombies it has in it. The story is simple. Several years ago, dead people rose from their graves in search of human flesh. Like vampires, the zombies turn the live ones into zombies by biting them. The humans who managed to escape the terrible curse barricaded themselves in the city, fending the zombies off with barbed electric wire. What makes things bizarre is the fact that there is still status division in such dire times. There are the rich ones who stay in the nice high-rise building and then there are the poor normal people whose lives are limited to the basement and the ground.
Every night, the humans organized raids into zombie-ville for food and medicinal supplies. All they had to do were to release fireworks in the sky (which apparently stupefies the zombies), ransack the abandoned grocery stores and shoot any zombie that dares to cross their path. However, one of the 'smarter' zombies was infuriated by the humans' intrusion into their world. He led the zombies into the 'live' city, using guns and other 'live one' tools against the humans. 'Zombies Bite Back'... you get the picture.
Frankly, you do not buy tickets for 'Land of the Dead' and expect an enlightening experience. However, it is not wrong to at least expect the film to be entertaining. To be fair, Romero did introduce a new concept of zombies. The zombies in this movie are smart and have the capability to evolve (the horror!). However, he didn't expand on this aspect and focused his film on lengthy displays of gore. It's definitely not a film for the easily-disgusted because, despite my frequent run-ins with Quentin Tarantino productions, this is just gross.
Granted, there were a few shocking scenes as expected in a film with a 'horror' title. There were also a few attempts at humour with vague references to George Bush. However, I think the director must have been confused when he made this film. The movie is neither a 'horror' film nor a comedy. The storyline was simplistic and would have reached the audience better as a comedy but the scriptwriter tried to make the characters deeper than they should have been. Hence, he ruined the movie's potential to be a good comedy.
The acting skills of the cast were wasted in this movie. Simon Baker is a talented actor and he should have known better than to have included this movie in his portfolio. He did a very good performance of a misunderstood and 'shut off from the world' hero but this character is simply misplaced in a movie of such lack of depth. Cholo (John Leguizamo) is the cowboy among the team of raiders who is bent on getting things his way. He's a good-looking fellow and his character would have been better placed in a more thought-provoking film.
The only actor who doesn't deserve any honourable mention at all in this horrible movie, is Kaufman (Dennis Hopper). His acting was stilted and jarred with the rest of the cast. Perhaps if he had been more menacing with his lines, the whole movie might have been saved. However, due to his stupid accent, the villain in this movie is simply more repulsive than hate-inspiring.
In a nutshell, 'Land of the Dead' is simply a waste of money. Readers should avoid the movie like the plague unless of course, they are strangely inspired by scenes of extreme disgust and mindless violence (which is worrying). The actors in the show must have had the fun of their lives messing around in all that gore (like children in the mudpen) but fun to watch, this movie is definitely not.
