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Features: Unrated, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), DTS 5.1, Dolby Surround Sound, Feature Commentary, Featurettes, English, French, Spanish Subtitled
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!
What is UMDTM?
UMD, Universal Media Disc, is a brand-new and groundbreaking optical storage
medium, designed for the high speed and efficient delivery of digital
entertainment content that can store up to 1.8 GB of digital data on a 60mm
disc -- or an entire feature film on a single UMD video. All UMD DVDs are
produced in Widescreen and encoded using advanced AVC compression. UMD for PSP
will play on the new PlayStation Portable handheld entertainment system.
Specifications
Diameter: 60 mm
Maximum Capacity: 1.8GB (Single-sided, dual layer)
Laser wavelength: 660nm (Red laser)
"An excellent freakout of a movie." Manohla Dargis, New York Times
"Land of the Dead is worth the wait..." Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
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 | Audio Commentary | | Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo | | Featurettes: Undead Again - The Making Of Land Of The Dead; The Remaining Bits; When Shaun Met George; Bringing the Dead to Life | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Universal |
| Release Date: 10/18/2005 |
| Running Time: 97 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2005 | | Catalog ID: 28626 | | UPC: 00025192862625 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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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 James Berardinelli's ReelViews 6 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? - James Berardinelli
Variety.com 8 of 10
George A. Romero shows 'em how it's done in Land of the Dead, resurrecting his legendary franchise with top-flight visuals, terrific genre smarts and tantalizing layers of implication. Nerve-shredding fourth installment may not fully reclaim the visceral or satirical impact of the writer-director's 1978 masterpiece Dawn of the Dead, but it's still a satisfyingly splattery feast of guts and ideas. - Justin Chang
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