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Land of the Dead, in contrast, can be watched anytime
– anytime that you’re not eating or about to eat
or have just eaten or are thinking about food. Believe me:
it won’t stay down.
The king of the zombie movie, George A. Romero (Night
of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead), returns to
the franchise that he made his name on. Understandably, he’s
got a bit more money, a few more cohorts and some significantly
bigger stars to help him out now though.
Proving he’s far from a Hollywood snob, Aussie actor
Simon Baker [TV show 'The Guardian'] plays one of several
un-bitten beings – John Leguizamo, Asia Argento and Dennis
Hopper play others – that are doing battle with the zombies
that have taken over our world. And, well, that’s about
it.
Land of the Dead is pretty much what you expect it
to be – blood and guts, guys in well-designed monster
masks, dimly lit sets, and hordes of testosterone. No, it’s
no Oscar Winner. But at the same time, if you loved Romero’s
originals, you’ll get a kick out of this too.
It returns the increasingly popular zombie film to its roots
– a fun, monster movie with plenty of ick and
ee-yoo. If you can stand holding off on that bowl of
spaghetti marinara, you’ll enjoy it too.
DVD Extras
Universal has put together a pretty impressive DVD package
here. In addition to an enlightening and amusing audio commentary
by Romero and his crew (which you’ll find both in ‘special
features’ and in ‘languages’ – just in
case you missed it first time around), there’s also an
entertaining behind-the-scenes look at the film with star
John Leguizamo.
Other extras include an amusing featurette about how the
guys from Shaun of the Dead got involved (in a ‘cameo’
capacity), a short but exhaustive making-of, a couple of featurettes
on how they concocted the monsters and the effects for the
film.
But that's not all. There's some deleted scenes, as well
as a couple of ‘head scratchers’, notably ‘zombie
casting call’ which seems to be simply a couple of minutes
of bad CGI characters dancing to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’.
Conclusion: Movie 70% Extras: 75%
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