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Official Land Of The Dead Thread

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M

Matlock

Banned
Bacon said:
Can someone tell me all of the "...Of The Dead" DVDs I should buy?
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House of the Dead
Night of the Living Dead
Dawn of the Dead (original)
Day of the Dead
Shawn of the Dead
Return of the Living Dead
 
D

Dead

well not really...yet
Bacon said:
Thanks. Any ehanced editions or versions I need to look out for?
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B0002IQNAG.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg


4 discs. 3 versions of the movie (US theatrical, Extended and Euroean) plus a 4th disc of extras. It's a fantastic set.
 
T

Tedesco!

Member
When it comes to buying a version of NOTLD, make sure you buy the one that is in the red dvd case with the tombstone on the front (Millennium Edition). That is the best version (out of hundreds?) out there. Stay away from the 30th Anniversary print. It is a piece of shit.
 
L

Litigation Manuel

Member
I had the misfortune of seeing the 30th anniversary edition of NOTLD. They added in scenes. With terrible acting. That didn't even fit the film. Luckily the original film footage more than made up for it.

Also, what other zombie films are worthwhile? I'm putting together another zombie movie marathon, so far we have Day of the Dead, Dead Alive, and the US version of Dawn. What else?
 
T

Tedesco!

Member
Litigation Manuel said:
Also, what other zombie films are worthwhile? I'm putting together another zombie movie marathon, so far we have Day of the Dead, Dead Alive, and the US version of Dawn. What else?
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Other than the Millenium Edition of NOTLD, I would suggest Shaun of the Dead, The Dawn remake (I thought it was mindless fun) and the Fulci classic Zombie 2 ( Or Zombie, it depends on which version you have). Those are the movies I would suggest as being entertaining throughout. If you want to slum it with some lesser fare; I would suggest Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Comet, Zombiez, or the Thriller video.
 
H

hiryu

Member
Return of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead (remake), and Night of the Living Dead 90s version are all pretty entertaining just not up to snuff with Romero's original trilogy. They are worth watching if you like the genre though.
 
T

Tedesco!

Member
I forgot about NOTLD '90. I liked that movie alot, maybe because it was remade with George's blessing and directed by Savini.
 
T

Tedesco!

Member
It's not bad. They take some liberties with the original script in the way the characters develope, but I didn't think it hurt the film at all....
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Tedesco! said:
It's important to note, before people start railing against Romero for his "leftist leanings" and calling the film "anti-Bush", that this script was written well before the attacks of 9/11.
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Yes, but it was also entirely re-written after 9/11 to reflect the new political and social climate of fear and osolation.

That was the first draft I got. It was called DEAD RECKONING. It was a much, much different script.....This draft was done before 9/11. As soon as 9/11 occurred, George said, "We have to change that. We can't do that."
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http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=20526

The Dead movies have all been social commentaries on their time, so I don't see any issue with it.

Harry's AICN review is up.

I can not wait to see this again. I’m so pleased. The gore had me flinching. The scares had me leaping And some of the imagery even made feel for the zombies, the people and the whole world we were looking at. After all, they’re all looking for a place to live, and they have it… in a horror fans dreams and nightmares.
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http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=20544
 
T

Tedesco!

Member
I didn't know that. I just saw Dream of the Dead, where he talks about shopping the script. He didn't mention any re-writes. Thanks for the info.
 
S

shantyman

WHO DEY!?
The origianl NOTLD is one of my favorite films, but the remake did nothing for me. I watched it once and have little desire to do so again. Tedesco is right- the characters are quite changed from the original.
 
T

Tedesco!

Member
I think the characters were altered to fit the current mood of the 90's, rather than the earlier mood of the '60s. Shantyman - You should watch it again. It's not that bad. It's definately better than I thought.
 
S

shantyman

WHO DEY!?
Here is an AP article on Romero:

LOS ANGELES - George Romero lurches among us again, doing what he does best: Creating a combustible microcosm of society, then besieging it with zombies who just can't get enough of tasty human flesh.

The director, whose 1968 chiller "Night of the Living Dead" established an entire horror subgenre, is back with "George Romero's Land of the Dead," a tale of survivors coping with legions of walking corpses outside their walled city.

It's zombie king Romero's first big film in 12 years, following a cinematic exile when he and producing colleague Peter Grunwald were unable to get their projects off the ground.

"I missed the '90s," Romero, 65, told The Associated Press. "My partner and I were in development hell for about eight years and never got anything done."

Along with 1978's "Dawn of the Dead" and 1985's "Day of the Dead," Romero's films include the '70s cult flicks "Martin" and "Season of the Witch" and bigger studio fare such as 1982's horror anthology "Creepshow" and 1993's "The Dark Half," both in collaboration with Stephen King.

But zombies have been his calling card. Countless imitators have adhered to the rules Romero laid down. The creatures move slowly and stiffly, as if struggling with rigor mortis. They hunger for living human flesh. If bitten, a person inevitably dies and comes back as a zombie. And the only way to kill a zombie is to shoot it in the head.

"There were zombie films prior to George, but he pretty much invented the cannibalistic aspect," said Edgar Wright, director and co-writer of the affectionate Romero homage "Shaun of the Dead." "What we now think of as zombies really are Romero zombies."

For all the larger-than-life terrors such as Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein's monster, Romero's zombies arguably are the most frightening because they're just plain folks, albeit decomposing ones.

"Land of the Dead" features a zombie in a cheerleader outfit. Three zombies holding musical instruments hang out on a bandstand, one brainlessly tooting its tuba. Another zombie in a gas station attendant's outfit has a vestigial desire to pump fuel for vehicles that will never arrive.

"It's the neighbors, man," Romero said. "That's the scariest thing in life, the neighbors. Who am I going to move in next to?

"I don't think metaphysically about this. It's not about death or an afterlife or anything like that. This is a new situation, it's a change. A new species that just happens to be related to us."

After "The Dark Half," film after film fell through for Romero. The only movie he had managed to make was 2000's low-budget thriller "Bruiser," which virtually no one saw.

The recent onslaught of zombie copycats — including the "Resident Evil" flicks, "28 Days Later" and a remake of Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" — made the time ripe for the creator himself to resurrect his franchise.

"Land of the Dead" stars Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper and Asia Argento.

Like Romero's previous zombie tales, "Land of the Dead" offers gore galore yet transcends the blood-and-guts genre with heavy doses of satire and social commentary.

"It's a very clever thing to use horror as a metaphor, and George does that very well, like dealing with people's fears and insecurities amid the blood and gore," said Simon Pegg, star and co-writer of "Shaun of the Dead," about two London slackers bumbling their way through a zombie invasion. "He manages to combine the visceral and the splatter with real brains."

Pegg and "Shaun" director Wright had cameo roles in "Land of the Dead" as zombies at a photo booth.

The new movie is the most expansive of Romero's zombie tales and features his biggest cast yet, both living and dead. When it comes to directing his zombie players, Romero continues to take a hands-off approach.

"George is a great believer of not giving you too much direction when you turn into a zombie, because he wants you to find your inner zombie," co-star Leguizamo said. "He wants you to really find your own tics and mannerisms ... So everybody's not doing the same thing."

Each film has been a product of its times.

After an early career in commercials and industrial films, Romero shot "Night of the Living Dead" in stark black and white with a documentary style that fit the naturalism overtaking American cinema in the 1960s. The tale of bickering people trapped in a farmhouse surrounded by hungry zombies reflected the decade's social unrest.

"Collapse of the family unit, lack of communication, people not being able to get it together. `Should we stay upstairs or go down to the basement?' Instead of trying to really sort of pull together and address the problem," Romero said. "Just missed opportunities. The '60s in a nutshell."

"Dawn of the Dead" was a perversely funny condemnation of mall culture, featuring survivors who take refuge against zombies in a shopping center. When zombies manage to get inside, they passively ride escalators and mindlessly window shop for savory morsels — essentially, the same thing they did while living.

"`Dawn of the Dead' is bawdy. It's this comic book, and it's in your face with the criticism of consumerism," Romero said. "It was the beginning of logo shirts and murder for Nikes. It was that period in time."

"Day of the Dead" reflects the cold opportunism of the 1980s, centering on scientists and military officers performing experiments on zombies in a bunker, where humans begin devolving amid the new world order of the undead.

"Land of the Dead" is a have and have-not story — timely, given the current focus on the chasm among classes in the United States. An elite few live the good life in a skyscraper while the masses suffer in squalor. Mercenaries scour the suburbs, gunning down zombies and foraging for groceries for the urban privileged.

The wealthy use fear of zombies to control the living population, an angle Romero uses to comment on the post-Sept. 11 world.

"Since 9/11, a fear came into it, and people have capitalized on how productive fear can be as a device," co-star Baker said.

Romero doubts he ever will do a movie resolving his zombie-vs.-human scenario but he thinks his films have been moving toward some degree of peaceful co-existence between the living and dead.

"When you think about how do you solve this problem, there has to be some degree of that," Romero said. "But the zombies also have to cooperate with that. I think one of the things is, they have to learn to eat something else."
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B

Baconäger

Member
BTW, why are there so many versions of the Evil Dead series? I need to know which versions of the dvds to get for all 3 movies...
 
T

Tedesco!

Member
Your best bet would be to ask Wilco.

Personally, I think the best editions are:

--Evil Dead 1 in the necronomicon case
--The standard Evil Dead 2 release ( Though they are releasing a special edition, I think ala the necronomicon edition)
--Ash vs. Army of Darkness: Bootleg Edition.

Back to LOTD.... AICN has put up yet another glowing review of the film. I think this film is going to surprise a lot of people.....
 
W

Willco

Hollywood Square
Tedesco! is mostly right.

There's a LE Evil Dead II tin case DVD that's awesome, but hard to find and they're going to be releasing another SE in the Necronomicon form.

As for Army of Darkness, if you have a region free DVD player, the obvious route is the MGM Region 3 version of Army of Darkness. The picture quality is far superior to either Anchor Bay R1 or R2 releases, and it sports the best sound mix of all the DVD releases so far. If that's not something you can do, then I guess it's to the pits with those blood thirsty sons of whores!
 
T

Tedesco!

Member
I didn't mention the tin because it's so damned hard to find, like my Hellraiser tin. I didn't know the region three AOD had the superior picture quality. Not that I will buy it again, but it's good to know. :D
 
W

Willco

Hollywood Square
Bacon said:
Jesus, that's awful. They ever planning on making a better version of Army for the US?
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From what I've been able to understand, and someone who knows DVD licensing better is free to step in and elaborate (or really explain), it's that R1 and R2 releases are by Anchor Bay and R3 is done by MGM. Now MGM apparently has a much better print of the film that was easier to clean up for the DVD release, and from what I can gather, legal stipulations prohibit them from sharing that print with Anchor Bay.

So as long as that's the case, I don't think you'll see much improvement from the Anchor Bay releases. I hear it's not entirely their fault and that seems realistic, as they've done a bang up job on the packaging and visuals for the first two films and several other genre flicks as well.
 
S

Suerte

Member
In other news, does anyone know if Land has a UK release date? I looked on IMDB and it just has "September", surely that can't be right?!
 
O

ohamsie

Member
I thought this movie was going to be a straight up zombie horror movie, but I just saw a commercial where zombies were playing instruments in a gazebo. So is it a comedy, or does it just have comedy elements, or what?
 
T

Tedesco!

Member
ohamsie said:
I thought this movie was going to be a straight up zombie horror movie, but I just saw a commercial where zombies were playing instruments in a gazebo. So is it a comedy, or does it just have comedy elements, or what?
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It's straight up horror. The zombies playing instruments are just the zombies doing what they used to, what they "remember".
 
T

Tedesco!

Member
I saw Batman on Saturday, Serenity last night, and Land of the Dead is tonight! This is definatley a good week for movies!

The rating is supposed to be a "hard" R. From what I've read so far; this is supposed to be the goriest of all of Romero's films.
 
S

shantyman

WHO DEY!?
Tedesco! said:
The rating is supposed to be a "hard" R. From what I've read so far; this is supposed to be the goriest of all of Romero's films.
Click to expand...

That seems impossible. How could they get away with the torso tearing in Day of the Dead in an R movie? Maybe if Spielberg directed it. :)
 
T

Tedesco!

Member
Maybe there are more gore moments than there were in Day. If the gore is anything like the trachea scene from the international trailer; we'll have nothing to worry about.
 
C

Coin Return

Loose Slot
Actually there are some dark comedy elements in LOTD, according to some reviews. Speaking of reviews, Land is now fresh at Rotten Tomatoes at 67%, while Herbie and Bewitched are rotten at 45% and 29%.
 
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