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Land of the Dead

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 4:37 am
by Brandi
Saw a sneak of it at midnight. Now I'm not really a Romero aficianado, being more partial to vintage Universal and Hammer horror; I have seen Night of the Living Dead but not Dawn or Day (not yet, anyway).

I liked it. It's quite gory (I suspect not quite as gory as Dawn was, though who knows what'll get put back in the DVD release), twistedly funny in spots, and generally well put-together. It's also interesting to see a film that relies mostly on practical effects in the brave new CGI age.

Won't go into the plot overmuch to avoid spoilers, but it seems to build on ideas in the previous films to the effect that the living are much more of a menace to themselves than the dead are.

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 10:12 am
by ScS of the Fraternity
Sounds awsome, can't wait to see it.

So to clarify for Romero-novices like me, is this supposed to be a sequal to the the first Dawn and Day of the Dead, or is it a sequal to the contemporary Dawn of the Dead?

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:10 pm
by maraudar
So to clarify for Romero-novices like me, is this supposed to be a sequal to the the first Dawn and Day of the Dead, or is it a sequal to the contemporary Dawn of the Dead?
Novice? Bad, bad ScS.. Immediately go out and rent the others and watch them... As to your question, it is not a direct sequel to any of them but does draw some elements from the earlier movies as well as a a cameo from a earlier character..

Maraudar

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 9:17 pm
by ScS of the Fraternity
Well, just saw Land of the Dead tonight.

Pretty good. Nothing amazing, but pretty good.

There was a whole lot of class-war propaganda in it - sterotypical rich, dumb Americans being eaten by the zombie proletariate.
I think I would have liked the movie better if some of the characters weren't so damn stupid. Half the time I felt like shouting at the screen - "Don't do that, you fool! A zombie is just going to come from the shadows and eat your useless brains."

Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 2:30 am
by Brandi
There are rumors that if this film does well enough Romero will use it as the start of a new trilogy...

... and I have a sneaking suspicion that his ultimate idea will be that by the events in the third film, the living and the dead will be almost indistinguishable except by look and smell.

And given a couple of conventions I'd been to, I might rule out smell as one of the differences.

Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 2:45 am
by Coan
Brandi wrote:And given a couple of conventions I'd been to, I might rule out smell as one of the differences.
Zinger.

Personally I'm a big fan of using practical effects instead of CG. I don't care what some people say about 'it being so realistic' I can still tell the difference. But with real effects my mind is more willing to suspend disbelief.

Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:24 pm
by Brandi
CG has its uses-- there are things it can do that would be very very expensive to do with practical effects (in particular, massive crowd scenes where everyone in the crowd would need extensive makeup).

Bad CGI can look stunningly bad, though.

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:27 am
by Cole Deschain
Tom. Savini. RULES.

Yeah... that about says it...

Playing his same old character from Dawn. Gotta love it.

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 7:11 am
by Drinnik Shoehorn
Cole Deschain wrote:Tom. Savini. RULES.

Yeah... that about says it...

Playing his same old character from Dawn. Gotta love it.
Didn't he die in Dawn?

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 8:45 am
by ScS of the Fraternity
Coan wrote:I'm a big fan of using practical effects instead of CG. I don't care what some people say about 'it being so realistic' I can still tell the difference. But with real effects my mind is more willing to suspend disbelief.
Indeed, but even Land of the Dead had the same problem, albiet in less quantities.


Spoiler:






The explosion in the grarage, for one. You could see the bodies tossed away by the force, and it was clear that they were CGI effects.

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 10:21 am
by Cole Deschain
Drinnik Shoehorn wrote:Didn't he die in Dawn?
Yeah. So?

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 2:40 pm
by Drinnik Shoehorn
Has anyone spotted Simon Pegg yet?

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 4:15 pm
by Brandi
ScS of the Fraternity wrote:The explosion in the grarage, for one. You could see the bodies tossed away by the force, and it was clear that they were CGI effects.
Yes, that was one of the few CGI shots in the film, and I didn't really have a big beef with it (I suspect in this case the cost of the stuntmen for a more dangerous stunt might've been an issue).

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 4:16 pm
by Brandi
Drinnik Shoehorn wrote:Didn't he die in Dawn?
Yes. :twisted:

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:37 pm
by Jasper
From what I heard Pegg is the zombie tied to the swing set.