| | | Combo Format HD-DVD & DVD: Both Versions on One Disc!|The Dead Shall Inherit the Earth.
Features: DVD, Unrated, Dolby, Digital Audio, Dolby Digital (5.1), English, Spanish, French
Packed with more heart-pounding and blood-curdling thrills than any theater could show, this special Unrated Director s Cut unleashes the ultimate vision of George A. Romero s latest living-dead shock-fest! Starring Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper and John Leguizamo, Land of the Dead finds humanity s last remnants battling to survive the unspeakable truth: The ravenous zombie hordes besieging their fortified city are evolving!System Requirements:Running Time: 97 MinutesFormat: HD DVD
"...top-flight visuals, terrific genre smarts and tantalizing layers of implication...a satisfyingly splattery feast of guts and ideas." Justin Chang, Variety
"An excellent freakout of a movie." Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
"Land of the Dead is worth the wait..." Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
"...could well be Romero's masterpiece...state-of-the-art makeup and visual effects..." Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter
"Romero's newest is a horror movie for hard-core fans of the gory and the gruesome and a classic genre film for genre aficionados." Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Editor's Note
Zombie movies slip in and out of fashion, but it's always a special occasion when the man who helped turn the undead into a worldwide phenomenon decides to add an installment to his ongoing saga of flesh-eating films. George A. Romero's zombie movies have all appeared in different decades, beginning with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD in 1968, DAWN OF THE DEAD in '78, and DAY OF THE DEAD in '85. Romero skipped the '90s, but a zombie renaissance in the early 21st century (28 DAYS LATER, SHAUN OF THE DEAD) finds him back in the directors chair.Often seen as allegories for their times, Romero's films have been connected to societal events such as the consumerism of the '70s (DAWN OF THE DEAD) and the spread of the AIDS virus in the '80s (DAY OF THE DEAD). With 2005's LAND OF THE DEAD, Romero positions the bulk of his story in a giant skyscraper which houses the last humans left on the planet; although his intentions are foggy this time, LAND appears to be Romero's commentary on the post-9/11 political landscape. The zombies only bother crews who venture outside the makeshift city for supplies, but the people are kept sedated by their leader, the irascible Kaufman (Dennis Hopper), who exaggerates their threat. What Kaufman doesn't realize is that the zombies are learning skills they half-remember from their old selves, leading to some impressively blood-soaked scenes of tumult. In an unusual move for Romero, Hopper is joined by name actors such as John Leguizamo and Asia Argento. The film greatly benefits as a result, successfully portraying an atrophied civilization that has regressed to a primitive state, allowing its undead tormentors to sense that a free lunch may be just around the corner.
| Features | The Remaining Bits: These Tasty Deleted Scenes Are Definitely Not Your Average Leftovers! | | Audio: English, Spanish Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: Spanish | | Featurettes: Undead Again - The Making Of Land Of The Dead - Go Behind The Scenes & Onto The Set For An Insider's Look At The Blood, Sweat &...More Blood That Went Into The Creation Of George A. Romero's Most Spectacular Zombie Film Yet, When Shaun Met George - Stars From The Cult Hit Shawn Of The Dead (Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright) Have Some Ghoulish Fun With The Cast & Crew During Their Cameos, Bringing The Dead To Life - The Film's Makeup Artist, Greg Nicotero, Offers Insights Into The Fine Art Of Crafting A Convincing Creepy Creepy Zombie, Scenes Of Carnage - A Killer Music Video Featuring The Movie's Most Outlandish Scenes, Zomie Effects - From Green Screen To Finished Scene - See How Zombie-Action, An Unfinished Set & Computer-Generated Imagery Combine To Create The Chilling Illusion Of Reality, Bringing The Storyboards To Life - A Step-By-Step Comparison Of Storyboard Drawings & The Final Terrifying Result Captured On Film, Scream Tests - Zombie Casting Call - Real-Life & Computer-Generated Zombies Strut Their Undead Stuff, & A Day With The Living Dead - From "First Call" To "Wrap," Star John Leguizamo Takes You On A Humorous Personal Tour Through An Entire Working Day | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | This Is An HD-DVD Made For HD-DVD Format Players Which Produce Higher Quality Picture & Sound |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Universal |
| Release Date: 9/26/2006 |
| Running Time: 97 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2005 | | Catalog ID: 27844 | | UPC: 00025192784422 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew | Asia Argento | | Dennis Hopper | | John Leguizamo | | Simon Baker | | Arvinder Grewal - Production Designer | | Douglas Slater - Art Director | | George A. Romero - Director | | George A. Romero - Writer | | Johnny Klimek - Original Music By | | Jon P. Goulding - Art Director | | Michael Doherty - Editor | | Miroslaw Baszak - Cinematographer | | Peter Grunwald - Producer | | Reinhold Heil - Original Music By | | Steve Barnett - Executive Producer |
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"[A]n excellent freakout of a movie....One of the enormous pleasures of genre filmmaking is watching great directors push against form and predictability, as Mr. Romero does brilliantly in LAND OF THE DEAD." 06/24/2005 p.E1Los Angeles Times
"[The film] reveals that Romero remains the master of a genre he reinvented." 06/24/2005 p.E8 USA Today
"[The film] does have an 'old friends' dimension that warms the heart as its familiar-looking zombies eat hearts..." 06/24/2005 p.5E Uncut
"This is zombie infestation writ large, hundreds lurching through a nocturnal wasteland, photographed in an impressively desolate palette." 10/01/2005 p.138 Sight and Sound
"Paradoxically, this is the most hopeful film in the series, in that it presents a genuine movie-style hero in Simon Baker's handsome and compassionate Riley..." 10/01/2005 p.76 Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 5 -- "[The franchise] sprouts a new one, and a good one....[Argento] comes off like a tatted-up Meg White..." 10/20/2005 p.92 New York Times
"Mr. Romero is one of the great form-givers of the horror genre....The fresh element here is that the zombie underclass has evolved a leader of sorts, who possesses both a sense of historical self-awareness and an ability to use automatic weapons." 10/18/2005 p.E3 ReelViews 7 of 10
George A. Romero may have been the originator of the modern zombie movie, but, at least with Land of the Dead, he hasn't done much to refine it. The zombies are creepier looking than in the past, and the gore is more hard-core, but the story still boils down to the same old, same old: humans running away from hoards of slow-moving zombies. In a strange way, the film feels like a hybrid of last year's Dawn of the Dead remake crossed with Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later. There's a sense that Romero has run out of ideas and is recycling. (I felt the same way about the third installment of this four-movie series, Day of the Dead.) The title, although appropriate, breaks the cycle. First, we had Night of the Living Dead. Then, it was Dawn of the Dead. Next, Day of the Dead. Shouldn't this have been Twilight of the Dead?...In the final analysis, 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. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
Now this is interesting. In the future world of "George A. Romero's Land of the Dead," both zombies and their victims have started to evolve. The zombies don't simply shuffle around mindlessly, eating people. And the healthy humans don't simply shoot them. The zombies have learned to communicate on a rudimentary level, to make plans, however murky, and to learn from their tormenters. When the zombie named Big Daddy picks up a machine gun in this movie, that is an ominous sign...The puzzle in all the zombie movies is why any zombies are still -- I was about to write "alive," but I guess the word is "moving." Shooting them in the head or decapitating them seems simple enough...It's good to see [Romero] back in the genre he invented with "Night of the Living Dead," and still using zombies not simply for target practice but as a device for social satire. It's probably not practical from a box office point of view, but I would love to see a movie set entirely inside a thriving Fiddler's Green. There would be zombies outside but we'd never see them or deal with them. We would simply regard the Good Life as it is lived by those who have walled the zombies out. Do they relax? Have they peace of mind? Do the miseries of others weigh upon them? The parallels with the real world are tantalizing. - Roger Ebert
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