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Land of the Dead

  • 2005
  • R
  • 1h 33m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
104K
YOUR RATING
Land of the Dead (2005)
Home Video Trailer from Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Play trailer0:26
4 Videos
99+ Photos
Dark ComedyZombie HorrorHorrorSci-FiThriller

The living dead have taken over the world, and the last humans live in a walled city to protect themselves as they come to grips with the situation.The living dead have taken over the world, and the last humans live in a walled city to protect themselves as they come to grips with the situation.The living dead have taken over the world, and the last humans live in a walled city to protect themselves as they come to grips with the situation.

  • Director
    • George A. Romero
  • Writer
    • George A. Romero
  • Stars
    • John Leguizamo
    • Asia Argento
    • Simon Baker
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    104K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • George A. Romero
    • Writer
      • George A. Romero
    • Stars
      • John Leguizamo
      • Asia Argento
      • Simon Baker
    • 719User reviews
    • 271Critic reviews
    • 71Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 2 wins & 17 nominations total

    Videos4

    Land of the Dead
    Trailer 0:26
    Land of the Dead
    Land Of The Dead: Fireworks
    Clip 1:56
    Land Of The Dead: Fireworks
    Land Of The Dead: Fireworks
    Clip 1:56
    Land Of The Dead: Fireworks
    Land Of The Dead: Robert Joy On The Make-Up And Costume Design Of The Film
    Featurette 1:55
    Land Of The Dead: Robert Joy On The Make-Up And Costume Design Of The Film
    Land Of The Dead: John Leguizamo On The Collaboration Between Cast & Crew
    Featurette 1:01
    Land Of The Dead: John Leguizamo On The Collaboration Between Cast & Crew

    Photos104

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 100
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    Top cast99+

    Edit
    John Leguizamo
    John Leguizamo
    • Cholo DeMora
    Asia Argento
    Asia Argento
    • Slack
    Simon Baker
    Simon Baker
    • Riley Denbo
    Dennis Hopper
    Dennis Hopper
    • Kaufman
    Robert Joy
    Robert Joy
    • Charlie
    Eugene Clark
    Eugene Clark
    • Big Daddy
    Joanne Boland
    Joanne Boland
    • Pretty Boy
    Tony Nappo
    Tony Nappo
    • Foxy
    Jennifer Baxter
    Jennifer Baxter
    • Number 9
    Boyd Banks
    Boyd Banks
    • Butcher
    Jasmin Geljo
    Jasmin Geljo
    • Tambourine Man
    Maxwell McCabe-Lokos
    Maxwell McCabe-Lokos
    • Mouse
    Tony Munch
    Tony Munch
    • Anchor
    Shawn Roberts
    Shawn Roberts
    • Mike
    Pedro Miguel Arce
    Pedro Miguel Arce
    • Pillsbury
    Sasha Roiz
    Sasha Roiz
    • Manolete
    Krista Bridges
    Krista Bridges
    • Motown
    Alan Van Sprang
    Alan Van Sprang
    • Brubaker
    • Director
      • George A. Romero
    • Writer
      • George A. Romero
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews719

    6.2103.5K
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    Summary

    Reviewers say 'Land of the Dead' continues George Romero's tradition of social commentary, dark humor, and gore. The film delves into class division, corporate greed, and societal collapse. It features a bleak, post-apocalyptic setting and focuses on human survival and morality. The zombies, while retaining their classic slow, shambling nature, exhibit increased intelligence and coordination. The film blends horror with social critique, though some reviewers feel the commentary is more overt and less subtle than in earlier films.
    AI-generated from the text of user reviews

    Featured reviews

    5Thirdover4

    Disappointing

    Let me start by saying I'm a big fan of George Romero's previous films, especially the dead series. I thought he really hit his stride with Day of the Dead making a slick, structurally sophisticated continuation of his original idea. Not many people can pull off a sequel and I thought he did it twice with Dawn and Day. I also think he had something quite interesting to say with each of those films, layering thematic commentary under the story without distracting from main story elements or themes. His films were always about the shortcomings of man and the inability to work together in the face of danger. His films were always about the people, not the zombies.

    But now he has tried so hard to make a political statement that he has hammered into his own genre at the expense of the film. It was interesting in Day when the scientist discovers that a zombie can regain some latent memory and begin to function in a more human way. I was very powerful when that zombie musters up just enough motor skill and latent memory to shoot the villain. It feels like a stretch to say that the zombies, or even the one zombie, in Land could make a conversion of understanding that leads an all out revolt. On an intellectual level, I understand it, but it just didn't work for me. This seems to me like a bigger deviation from the Romero concept then some of the things complained about in the many Romero inspired films recently.

    The world described in the previews and press material doesn't seem fully realized. There is a huge divide between the rich and the poor. Why? How did it get that way. It doesn't seem like that would function well under the circumstances of the world as it is, especially in a small society. Why don't we find out anything about how this place works? How does Denis Hopper maintain his power? It is presented as a concept without any real thought. In the original film "The Island of Lost Souls" Doctor Moreau controls his population of beasts with fear. He cracks the whip, recites the law, and talks about the house of pain, which the audience knows to be the doctor's laboratory, but the beasts know it as a building where screams are heard. This is a stunningly well designed political metaphor. In Land of the Dead, I couldn't help thinking that the underlying political message was driving the story and that questionable things were written into the story for the wrong reasons. Money is a major plot device. Denis Hopper tries to escape the city with two large bags of money. What good is money outside the city? I was wondering, what good is money inside the city? Money only works if people believe in the underlying value of it. Most countries in the real world can't keep a stable currency. There is an aerial shot of the city during the day showing the streets deserted. Why are the streets deserted? Where are all the people? Later we see the same shot only the streets are now filled with Zombies. The characters keep talking about going to Canada as a safe haven. Why? Why is Canada safer than the United States. I was left to believe that this was more political commentary. Why are the Zombies trying to get to the city? They seem to be driven by some underlying, dare I say it, political motivation.

    The film as a whole seemed less like a story of characters in a horrific world established in the earlier films, and more like a series of one dimensional vignettes based on thin political ideology – Rich verses poor, violence in America, mismanagement of government in post 9-11 society, negotiating with terrorists, yeah we get it. Not so subtle.
    7joestank15

    Not bad, but not great

    Land of the Dead - The 4th part of George A. Romero's zombie quadrillogy. It's been decades since the dead began to walk the Earth, and now they practically own it (except for Canada for some reason). There is one last little mega-city that is surrounded by electric fences, armed patrols and barbed wire on one side, and nothing but water on all other four sides, because the dead supposedly don't like water. Despite the fact that the surrounding lands are rife with zombies, this metropolis is incredibly corrupt. All thanks to evil bureaucrat Kaufman (Dennis Hooper, who I had a ball watching) who makes all but a select few rich folks (who have never seen or fought a real zombie) live in slums. There you can get your picture taken with zombies, or watch zombie fights (they fight over animals and the occasional human). There are a few mercenaries paid to make runs in a giant tank truck for precious commodities in the outside world.

    Now I like George and could thank him endlessly for starting the zombie franchise, but he has always favored gore just a little more over character development, and has always liked his zombies just a LOT more than his humans. Heck in this movie, the zombies are practically the good-guys! They're just like you and me, except they rip people's arms in two (and I do mean length-wise) and tear belly button rings out of people. They are actually pretty intelligent and moderately fast at walking. By far the biggest threats in Romero's movies (most notably "Big Daddy" (Eugene Clark). For the most part though, it works, and it's good gory fun. Except the character development thingy. While I don't begrudge Romero for having fun with his zombies, I wasn't too sympathetic to Riley (Simon Baker) or Slack (Asia Argento). Riley, like Romero it seems, is just tired of character development as he has Riley say "I'm fed up with back-stories". But Riley dear boy, that's how the audience grows to care about you. Slack almost kills several of her fellow team-mates and does not grow at all, but that's the script's fault. Both of these characters, however are played well for what the actors are given.

    Surprisingly the secondary characters are far more endearing. Cholo (John Leguizamo) was not only believable as a merc, but I was quite sympathetic to him as he realized that he was a pon. "Pilsbury" (Pedro Miguel Arce) and Charlie (Robert Joy) are endearing and funny.

    So the effects are good. The story is iffy. The acting is good. The character development is iffy. The ending is really lame. This gets an overall B
    kleiner_fuchs

    a sad failure

    There are films that had great potential but failed and it is so very obvious what went wrong that it's hard to believe that no one during production noticed it. "Lady Jane" (1986), "Lost in Space" (1998) and "Planet of the Apes" (2001) are some examples.

    The potential of "Land of the Dead" lies solely in the fact that legendary filmmaker George A. Romero returned to the theme that made him famous. It is said that only after the success of modern zombie films like "28 Days later" and the "Dawn of the Dead"-Remake, Romero was given the money to make his own new zombie film. How ironic that he, who invented the modern zombie film, would now produce a film that is inferior to Zack Snyder's Remake of the Romero-directed "Dawn of the Dead".

    FEAR is essential for any zombie movie. The feeling of "no way out". The foreboding that it will all be over soon. Hopelessness. Terror. Madness. If you know Romero's "Night of the living Dead", or its two sequels, you know the feeling.

    "Land of the Dead" has no such thing. No one seems to be afraid. There is no sense of confinement. The guards of the city can drive around in their armored truck. When they do, there is no sense of terror to see that all of the country is now in the hand of the dead (just think back to the intense opening scenes of "Day of the Dead").

    I know what you say know: Romero wanted it that way. He wanted to show how the remnants of human society got used to the zombies around them, oblivious to the threat. Still, it doesn't work. How can a horror film work when we never see horror and fear, REAL fear, on one of the actor's faces? To make it worse, there is no story in the film that would be exciting or interesting enough to make up for the lack of horror.

    Due to the weak story, the acting is mediocre as well. For example, look at how Asia Argento is used, or mis-used, in the film. She is introduced by a scene where she fights against zombies in an arena. I said to myself: "I love Asia Argento. This is gonna be great!". In the next scene, Asia undresses, showing off her smart black bra. I thought: "This is even better!". Then... she puts on a chaste garment and, except for shooting a zombie now and then, does practically nothing for the rest of the film. What a waste of talent. Dennis Hopper, the other star of the cast, doesn't seem too excited about his part either. All he has to do is perform his usual bad guy routine. When given the chance, he can be one of the best actors ever (did you ever see Bruno Baretto's "Carried Away"?). Waste of talent.

    And, by the way, I missed Tom Savini's unique special effects that contributed so much to the horror of Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" and "Day of the Dead".
    tracylong-09623

    Romero's zombies with a twist

    Zombie films are a dime a dozen and even the ones that are lacking are enough of an entertainment. Romero's Land of the dead comes across as generic. Despite being steeped in darkness, it lacks the taut pacing and nerve-jangling suspense of 28 Days Later, and doesn't have the tongue-in-cheek approach evident in Shaun of the Dead. It's got great makeup, though. Credit Gregory Nicotero (who replaces Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead's Tom Savini) for making the zombies more frightening than campy. Ultimately, however, copious gore and rotting flesh can only do so much for a movie, and the lack of ambition in Romero's storyline is where Land of the Dead fails. The movie will appeal to those with a penchant for zombie flicks, but is unlikely to reach further - not even to the broader "general horror" market. It's not startling or frightening enough. However, this is a zombie film and that in itself makes it worth a glance.
    6SpotMonkee

    A flawed but entertaining B-movie

    George A. Romero's long-awaited return to the genre he helped create is a very, very mixed bad if not a consistently entertaining one.

    Romero's greatest strength as a director have always been his creativity, creating iconic moments and literally raising the zombie from the ground up on low budgets and tight schedules. Thus, it's more than a little disappointing to see LAND, the first in his DEAD series to see major studio backing and his highest-budget to date, be so riddled with a distinct lack of imagination. Romero's depiction of a zombie-infested, post-apocalypse never feels as bleak or gritty as the brief glimpses afforded in his predecessors. Characters still speak of things like cars, countries, and pop culture in the present tense; what's left of society still somehow needs and uses currency that should've long ago been rendered worthless. The class divide still looks like the class divide now, shopping malls and luxury highrises replete with waiting lists and Boards of Directors are still open and operational as usual. It all feels artificial, incomplete; not completely surprising for a script strung together from unused pieces of DAY, but nonetheless disappointing.

    The blockbuster budget is both a blessing and a curse. The scope of the film, though grander and more far-reaching then any of its predecessors combined, still feels claustrophobic and (ironically) devoid of life, and not in the good way. A long-dead Pittsburgh is never more than a few samey, empty-looking suburban streets with a suspicious lack of decaying carcasses and overgrown plant life. DAY's opening three minutes of a long-abandoned, desolate Orlando is more chilling and more grounded then anything this film has to offer. The relatively-straightforward plot often feels meandering and listless, going off on random tangents and introducing a rotating cast of wacky side characters more memorable than any of our leads. Said supporting cast, including standouts John Leguizamo, Robert Joy, Dennis Hopper, Eugene Clark, and Asia Argento, are this film's salvation, giving memorable and borderline-campy performances to make up for the nothing lead that is Simon Baker. He's a bland, generic "blonde hero guy" who's supposedly a misanthropic anti-hero but never comes across as anything more then mildly whiny, existing solely to perpetuate an already blatant political allegory that beats the audience over the head with how obvious it is. Then again, his spotlight is often drowned out by the mass of other supporting characters, which proves another fault by Romero. There are too many characters, and only so much runtime.

    And yet in spite of that, the film's still immeasurably entertaining. Romero injects that indelible "X" factor that permeated his previous works and made them so beloved. The zombie makeup and gore effects, courtesy of Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero, are as good as they've ever been (save for some questionable CGI). The aforementioned supporting cast is lively and plays off each other well. And the action is as solid and gloriously pulpy as its ever been, one of the few areas where the budget really shines. Romero's no slouch, even at his most average he's still miles ahead of many other directors in the same sphere. LAND is deeply flawed, deeply imperfect, but then again you could say the same about what came before. It's still a solid B-movie, and at the end of the day that's all George ever wanted to make.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Partly based on the original, much longer script for Day of the Dead (1985).
    • Goofs
      At the start, when the Skyflowers stop and they are leaving the supermarket, 3 zombies are shot by the guy in the truck. The third zombie falls before being shot.
    • Quotes

      Kaufman: In a world where the dead are returning to life, the word "trouble" loses much of its meaning.

    • Crazy credits
      The old mid-1930s Universal Pictures logo begins the film.
    • Alternate versions
      Available in an uncut and unrated version on dvd, restoring both gore and dialogue cut from the theatrical version.
    • Connections
      Edited into Cent une tueries de zombies (2012)
    • Soundtracks
      Speak Too Much
      Written by Gabriel Isaac Mounsey

      Performed by R3kl355 / Mass

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    FAQ

    • How long is Land of the Dead?
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    • Why was this film going to be called "Dead Reckoning"?
    • What's the name of the luxury high rise where all the rich live?
    • Where are Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 24, 2005 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • France
      • Canada
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • Spanish
      • Italian
      • Polish
      • French
    • Also known as
      • Tierra de los muertos
    • Filming locations
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    • Production companies
      • Universal Pictures
      • Atmosphere Entertainment MM
      • Romero-Grunwald Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $15,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $20,700,082
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $10,221,705
      • Jun 26, 2005
    • Gross worldwide
      • $47,074,133
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 33 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • DTS
      • Dolby Digital
      • SDDS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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