George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead, the fourth in his legendary zombie-plagued film series that began with 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, begins with a series of faux-news broadcasts that bring us up to speed on the absolutely dreadful state of humanity in the throes of an advanced zombie apocalypse.
Speaking of which, humanity has created themselves a series of heavily fortified city-states… which brings us to Pittsburgh.
Lording over the Pittsburgh stronghold is Kaufman (Dennis Hopper, Blue Velvet) who resides in the luxury apartment complex of Fiddler’s Green along with all the other well-to-do fat-cats. Protecting the interests of the Green, and providing valuable supply runs and zombie elimination services, is the crew of the armored battle wagon Dead Reckoning lead by Riley Denbo (Simon Baker) and his second-in-command, Cholo DeMora (John Leguizamo, Spawn).
Now, our boy Riley is ready to pack it in and head to Canada to getaway from it all with his sidekick, the deformed sharp-shooter Charlie (Robert Joy)… but a slight problem will make that rather difficult.
As fate would have it, Cholo has been denied a residence in Fiddler’s Green (despite having accumulated the funds to do so) so he exits stage left with Dead Reckoning, and if he doesn’t get what he wants… namely a fuck-load of cash, it’s bye-bye to the Green thanks to a shit-ton of missiles aboard the Reckoning.
Kaufman is pretty pissed about all of that biz, and he calls in Riley to retrieve the vehicle, which will be dicey enough… but when you factor in the rapidly evolving (in intelligence anyway) zombie hordes, shit may be downright impossible… but at least he has the help of Charley and a hooker named Slack (Asia Argento, Trauma, The Stendhal Syndrome)… so… to be fair, she too is good with a gun…
Blasting back into the dead zone in a post-911 America (though the flick was shot mostly in Canada), Romero delivers another heaping helping of social commentary filtered through Grand Guignol theatrics with Land of the Dead!
Playing with a larger budget, Romero was able to deliver bigger set pieces and spectacle this go-around… such as the aforementioned tank-like Dead Reckoning vehicle for one, undoubtedly pricey, example… and this contributes to suitably ramping the level of action that had been growing in the series since 1978-9’s (depending on where you live) Dawn of the Dead… and a fun call-back to that film is included here, but I won’t spoil it for those that have yet to see the film…
Speaking of ol’ Dawn, this production definitely has the mega-gore of that entry which is always a plus in my beastly book… but with that being said, the dark, night-drenched settings make some of that splendid splatter a tad hard to see in spots (as opposed to say the florescent lights of a Monroeville Mall for example).
Additionally there’s an absolute army of zombies on display with unique make-ups among them all; including the now-iconic Big Daddy (played with amazing pathos by Eugene Clark), the former proprietor of a gas station who has become the first zombie truly capable of using weapons, tools, and reason all at once… which makes him the de-facto leader and teacher of the grizzly gut-munchers.
Among the cast are the aforementioned famous faces; Hopper, Leguizamo and Argento… all of whom give solid performances to no great surprise… but Romero also continues his trend of casting less universally known actors to star in his features; here represented by Baker and Joy who bring a healthy dose of that Of Mice and Men gravitas, if not it’s overall nihilism… which is odd to say considering the ghoulishly grim situations our heroes find themselves in…
As for those that are interested in how those “grim situations” came to be, Scream Factory has you covered fully over the course of 3 discs, with Disc 1 containing the unrated cut of Land of the Dead along with two archival audio commentaries; one featuring Romero, producer Peter Grunwald, and editor Michael Doherty… and the other featuring Matt Blazi, Glena Chao, Michael Felsher, and Rob Mayr, who just so happen to be some of the picture’s zombie performers. Taken as a whole the commentaries feature in-depth detail on the film’s production with plenty of first-hand anecdotes!
Disc 2 contains a Blu-ray edition of the unrated cut, along with the aforementioned commentaries but there’s much more to be had here!
Included in the mix are a host of archival featurettes including a “making of” piece, a look at the film’s make-ups (followed by a brief effects reel), pieces on the film’s green screen and CG test work, storyboard comparisons, a glimpse behind the scenes of the film’s production hosted by Leguizamo, and a piece focusing on Shaun of the Dead’s Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright participation in the movie.
Moving on to Disc 3 we get a Blu-ray of the film’s theatrical cut followed by archival interviews with Leguizamo, Joy, and actors Pedro Miguel Arce, Eugene Clark, Jennifer Baxter, Boyd Banks, & Jasmin Geljo.
After those we get Dream of the Dead from director Roy Frumkes (Street Trash) which provides a fly-on-the-wall look at Land of the Dead‘s production (this can be viewed with commentary from Frumkes, and is followed by a selection of deleted scenes from the documentary), as well as deleted scenes, a photo gallery, and the film’s trailer.
Although not his last Dead film, Land of the Dead is a strong coda to the zombie-ravaged world Romero created and there’s plenty of high octane action and gut munching to satisfy popcorn munchers and gore-hounds alike!
