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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

4th Romero Zombie movie

22:42 / 02.09.02

SPOILERS ON LINK

Not entitled ‘Twilight of the Dead’ or even ‘Dusk of the Dead’ (that’s just silly), Romero has named his fourth entry ‘Dead Reckoning’. The title’s a departure from the norm, but the formula isn’t...

20:06 / 03.09.02

taaasty...

one can only hope he'll get it made.

The narrative seems really similar to early Cronenberg: isolated, wealthy (gated) community falls to rapidly spreading pestilence.

I wonder if zombie movies only do well in Republican administrations....

19:08 / 04.09.02

oh my shit! this is great news! i am ejaculating in my mind as i speak!

09:59 / 22.09.03

Ooops not all well in the world of Romero and Dead Reckoning. See here for full details. It appears that George left the Anchor Bay/Dario Argento funded budget for more money from Fox. The latter transpires to require two versions, with and without splatter. George quits.

Though things are set for the Dawn of the Dead remake

11:03 / 22.09.03

Studios just don't seem to get it - if you don't want a film full of blood and nastiness, don't fund fucking horror movies! Jezzus.

unheimlich manoeuvre

11:11 / 24.09.05

*Buummmp*

I saw Land of the Dead last night. Assuming I did my maths right that is his fourth?
It was odd seeing it directly after watching the news. The similarities between the setting and the abandoned streets of Houston or the desolation of New Orleans...

It was grand if much more an action movie than zombie one. Don't really get the same sense of helplessness when the heroes are that well armed.
The special effects were AWESOME!1!! Stomach churning, face ripping, bowel spilling, zombie goodness.
Loved the clown and the cameo by Sex Machine.
Anyone else seen it?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:25 / 24.09.05

Not yet... I'm going this week and I can't fucking wait.

D Terminator XXXIII

13:58 / 26.09.05

Saw it a couple of months ago. Was extremely disappointed by it.

Problem no. 1: Romero has, regrettably, been outdone by a smarter, younger breed (i.e. Shaun, 28 Days Later, the Dawn remake). His storytelling method is oldschool, and not in a good, flattering way.

Problem no. 2: The cast. I like Argento in theory (her movie sounds like the lark I miss from my present film diary). I really like John Leguizamo. The lead & Hopper - meh. They just don't appear to be cinematic characters, so weak is the presentation that I felt nothing but indifference throughout the movie.

Problem no. 3: The political commentary -- entirely predictable. Neither provocative or deep.

I felt wronged.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

20:36 / 01.10.05

I enjoyed it... but it was by far the weakest of the four. I think a lot of it had to do with the setting- with the first three, it was our own modern society we were watching collapse. This time, it was an invented, "post-Dead" society that was under threat. I spent too much time wondering what had happened in the intervening years, whereas in the first three, there's the immediacy.

Also

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The ending wasn't as hopeless as I like my zombie moving endings to be, really.

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On the plus side- Asia Argento. And, well, zombies, obviously.

Don't get me wrong- it was a very good film, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again. I just don't think it was quite worth the 20-year wait. As Bae says, the stakes are higher now, with some great zombie movies being made by a new generation... but these were proper Romero zombies, like I've been waiting for.

And yes, the satire was far too heavy-handed this time. The idea that the rich fuck over the poor was pretty much the entire premise, leaving little room for interpretation.

Overall, though, I have to say I enjoyed it a great deal. But it did seem a little short.

00:33 / 02.10.05

It was an ok action movie, but for me lacked the cloying depression and claustrophobia of earlier zombie films. The “horror” in zombie movies are not normally the gore and splatter but in the sense of sheer hopelessness and a real sense of loss. This movie had neither.

The heavy handed social commentary is embarrassingly obvious, and the narrative tactics used near the start to make us empathise with the zombies are more akin to early world war two movies than what we are used to now.

But as I said it’s an ok action movie and found myself exclaiming “holy shit! Did you see that!” a couple of times despite myself.

Ps did everyone spot the cameo of Simon Pegg and Edger Wright? (sp)

09:24 / 02.10.05

hecky hecky fun i thought, plenty of me and the misses rocking in our cinema seats like beavis and butthead going 'yeaauurrh' at the many excellent death moments which was exactly what i was hoping for. 'tongue being pulled out the mouth' and 'forearm being pulled in half' were two of the best.

with regards to the satire, has anyone seen day of the dead recently? what's the satire there? reaganomic bunker mentality? stephen king? bit wide, blunt and vague even back then - i actually came away thinking events had been quite kind to this movie - as a post 9/11 comment it was a bit nothing, as a post new orleans movie it was right there: black/blue collar rebellion, zombies appearing from the water, ground-level humans trying to do good being suppressed by the moneymen etc.

it's not a cameo by sex machine from dusk til dawn, it's a reappearance by a baddie character who's turned into a zombie in the second film? btw, why wasn't savini involved in the effects this time? maybe his rates are too high nowadays.

important points though, not mine i admit, sorry sun: where do these hitec '14 rounds a second' guns come from? not many gun factories left, surely. ditto the fashions - it would have been more effective if everyone was dressed like no new clothes had been made since the late seventies, but i guess they do answer that by fudging the timeline in the pre-credits sequence.

overall, better than any of the recent zombie slew, except shaun of course.