Land Of The Dead DVD Review and a note on Blockbuster

I ended up buying Land Of The Dead yesterday on DVD because, I tried to rent it Tuesday at the local Blockbuster and couldn't find it anywhere on their shelves. More on that in a moment.

My wife and I watched Land Of The Dead last night and I must say that I'm highly surprised. I had pretty high expectations for the film considering that the original Dawn Of The Dead tops my list of best horror films. I didn't set my expectations too high though. I figured that maybe Romero would have gone a bit soft over the years, and maybe the higher budget might be a hindrance for him.

I was completely wrong. Land Of The Dead far surpassed my expectations. It's a fun, fast, and decently intelligent zombie film. Eventhough Romero hasn't made a film in years (Bruiser...gack), the film is still a near masterpiece.

The film revolves around a group of people who leave the safety of Pittsburgh in order to go into the zombie infested towns and loot food and medicine for the rich crowd that live in Fiddler's Green, a mansion of a skyscraper.

The two main looters are Riley and Cholo. Riley is just doing it to help the residents out while Cholo is doing it so that he can get in good with the head of Fiddler's Green, the evil Kaufman (Dennis Hopper). They cruise around, with a team of others, in a huge truck known as "Dead Reckoning" which uses fireworks to distract the various zombies. Well that is until Big Daddy comes along.

Big Daddy is one of the things that I thought I would hate most about the film. A zombie that has thought? A zombie that gets upset when the other zombies get killed? Before seeing the film, I thought it was an insanely stupid idea, but Romero really made it work. It does kinda make sense that after all of these years, the zombies would begin to evolve. They aren't just walking corpses anymore...now they are something different...a new type of creature. What worked the best for me was how Big Daddy learned things. He didn't just pick up a gun and know how to use it. He learned by accident, just as he does about other things in the film.

The acting in this film is actually really good. I was not familiar with Simon Baker (Riley) before seeing this film but I must say that he did a damn fine job. The same could be said about the always hot Asia Argento.

Then there is John Leguizamo, who I'm giving his own paragraph just because that's how much I respect him after watching this movie. I have never been a fan of his, and he was at the top of my "actors I wish I could assassinate" list after seeing The Pest. I've never thought him to be a good actor, but now I've completely changed my mind. He was fantastic as Cholo, and he adds a depth to a character that would have normally been flat. I do believe this is the first film that I've seen Leguizamo in that I didn't hate him. I hope he keeps up this kind of work.

Now, on to the most important part of any zombie film: The Gore. Romero certainly did supply the gore in this flick. Keep in mind that I did see the Unrated Version, but I'm sure it was quite gory in the theater as well. We get heads blown away, fingers chomped on, intestines being eaten, people blown up, burned, etc. I was completely surprised at just how gory the film was. Romero hasn't lost his edge at all.

Which brings me to the overall look of the film. It doesn't look like a Romero film. When I think of Romero flicks, I think of grainy, cheap flicks. Here, we get a highly polished Romero film.

Overall, I loved the film. It's great seeing Romero going out there and showing the kids how it's done. Although the film doesn't look much like a Romero film, you can just feel him behind the camera. This is a fantastic addition my Romero library. To put things in perspective, I found it to be the 3rd best of the NOTLD films, right after Dawn and Night. Day is still in last place for me.

Now about Blockbuster:

I mentioned earlier in the post that I couldn't find a copy of Land Of The Dead at Blockbuster. I didn't mention or ask anything about it to any of the employees due to the fact that I knew I would probably add it to my collection at some point, so I might as well buy it now.

Then yesterday, I was reading a post on another board saying that someone else couldn't find it at their local Blockbuster. They called and asked their local store about it and were told that their Blockbuster, nor any other would be carrying the film due to the political message/nature of the film.

Now, I know that Blockbuster edits films before you rent them. I know they are a company with very political roots....but not renting out Land Of The Dead just because Kaufman is a metaphor for Bush? It's ridiculous that they wouldn't carry it!

I have yet to inquire about it at my local store. Has anyone else ran into this? Does your local Blockbuster carry it on DVD?

Post Edited (10-20-05 07:37)