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movie review - Land of the Dead

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2005.03.04

This is a zombie apocalypse movie from George Romero, who invented the genre. It's an updated version that I suspect is going for a "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" vibe, trying to show us what society after the apocalypse looks like. Unfortunately, it's a bit one note and also fairly ham-fisted. Society is basically comprised of the elites that run every damn thing, and the underclass that does their bidding. Meanwhile, the zombies appear to have a sense of mission, and in one of those classic tropes they "seem to be evolving".

Dennis Hopper does what he can with the material as the inevitable bad guy in survivor society, but it's generally a mess and by the ending I just really wanted it over-with.

Not recommended.

rand()m quote

Selfish leaders increase risk by placing themselves first. It's a fundamental mistake to assume that what is good for us personally is mutually exclusive to what is good for everyone. That kind of zero-sum game is for cowards, and in the end, we all pay the price for this type of latent, toxic leadership.

—Col. Eric G. Kail