Staff Review - LAND OF THE DEAD: Director's Cut

[Watcher]

Universal

LAND OF THE DEAD
Director's Cut

Released: December 07, 2005
Rating: M 15+
RRP: $39.95

DISC SPECS & SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 widescreen, 16:9 enhanced

Running time: 92.53 minutes

Audio Commentary (Director George A Romero, Producer Peter Grunwald and Editor Michael Daugherty.

Undead Again

Day With The Dead

Crafting The Dead

Ready To Roll

Resurrected Scenes

Ghoul Gags

Undead Trivia Pack

Shaun And The Dead

Master Of The Dead


CAST:
Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento, Robert Joy & John Leguizamo

Directed By: George A Romero.

THE MOVIE, THE DVD & MY THOUGHTS....
” Zombies, man. They creep me out. “
Find any mention of George A Romero and you’ll more than likely see that it’s also mentioned that he’s credited with creating the zombie movie Genre. When it comes to zombie movies, George A Romero is the man and although he has had some excellent challengers from the likes of 28 Days Later (hmm… were they technically walking dead though), Shaun Of The Dead and the recent remake of his Dawn Of The Dead, he still has a few tricks up his sleeve.

The movie is based around a well protected city where survivors are divided into two classes of society. You have the well off people who live comfortably in their big high rise apartments and appear to go on with every day life, almost ignorant of the fact that their country has become a mass feeding ground for the walking dead.
Then you have the down-trodden class of people who can’t afford to live a life of luxury and mingle out on the dirty streets amongst street traders and gamble in pit fights where some poor soul goes up against a couple of hungry zombies and dukes it out with them.
All this is overseen by a big businessman, Mr Kaufman (played by the ever so cool Dennis Hopper) who not only keeps the city limits fortified by an well stocked militia, but they also have a crew who scours the surrounding towns in a 2 million dollar vehicle called Dead Reckoning ( this was the working title of the film at one point) which is also very well fortified and decked out with plenty of firepower.
When one of his more experienced men decides to steal this big rig and threaten to turn its massive firepower on the city, Mr Kaufman uses another of his experienced men (Aussie, Simon Baker ) and a small band of fighters to go after the 2 million dollar rig.
While all of this is going on, the zombies are munching their way across the countryside and one of them is showing signs of being able to think for himself and learn things as he goes along (one of the best ideas presented in this movie).
With his ability to notice what’s going on around him, Big Daddy the zombie uses a few grunts here and there and gathers an increasing number of undead followers who all make their way to the fortified city for one hell of an all-you-can-eat session.

The movie is well paced, there is buckets loads of gore and viewers are treated to some top notch zombie visual effects. Ever see that Reach Toothbrush commercial about the flip top head? Well there’s one scene in this movie that gives the flip top head slogan a whole new meaning. God, I laughed when I saw it.

The DVD presentation shouldn’t disappoint fans as the audio and visual qualities were absolutely spot on. Most of the movie is filmed at night and there were no problem in seeing who was getting eaten and what part was being consumed. There’s nothing like the sound of the walking dead moaning from the various corners of your room either.
The extra features were numerous, informative and quite often fun to watch but don’t expect any lengthy documentaries as most of the extras range from just a few minutes to maybe 12 or so minutes in length. Shaun Of The Dead fans should look out for the feature on Shaun of the Dead, actor Simon Pegg and Director Edgar Wright, getting their cameos in the film and finally meeting George A Romero himself. Listening to George A Romero’s audio commentary is another highlight of this DVD release.

Land Of The Dead is a worthy addition to the George A Romero zombie films and this DVD release will please fans and anyone else who’s partial to a bit of flesh eating zombie action.

Land Of The Dead – Director’s Cut has a release date of December 07, 2005.