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Land Of The Dead.. A Rant/review

Gique

By Gique
in Film, TV & Radio

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Andsom

Andsom

Posted
Posted
You're wrong.

And quite frankly if this was a film forum instead of a gaming one, you'd have embarrassed yourself immensely.

No I wouldn't as I am this: Entirely correct.

It was alright in bits but nothing more than that. I thought it started ok but went very quickly downhill after the opening. And I think Romero has well and truly forgotten what clever satire is.

EDIT: Know what else? The Dawn of the Dead remake was much better too.

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K

K

Posted
Posted
That's a ridiculous analogy.

If I'd have said "strip the visuals" or something it might be applicable. You know full well what I meant, and it makes perfect sense. By the very nature of being a spoof and a comedy Shaun of the Dead is an inferior film. Romero is trying to make an artistic and social statement in his films, Pegg and Wright simply used his work as a backdrop to peddle the same brand of pop culture humour they used in Spaced to the largest audience possible so that they could get money to make another film for the same end. They aren't making a social commentary, nor are they making serious films.

As such I don't see how their film could be held in comparison with an original. It's nonsense.

Even by your standards Stu, I'm quite staggered by the wrongness of this statement. You're saying that because Shaun of the Dead's main goal is to make the viewer laugh, it's somehow inferior to a similar film that treats its subject with deadly seriousness? Are you joking?

Do you really think that comedies are a lesser form of entertainment?

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kerraig UK

kerraig UK

Posted
Posted
The people that rate Shaun above Land.

And you should watch Land, Kerraig, you really should.

I will in 10 years time. For now though i think Shaun is a fantastic zombie film. The characters are terribly drawn i agree, but it is funny, scary, makes lighthearted jabs at our culture and has a genuinely melancholic ending. Works for me.

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11 Herbs 'n' Spices

11 Herbs 'n' Spices

Posted
Posted
That's a ridiculous analogy.

If I'd have said "strip the visuals" or something it might be applicable. You know full well what I meant, and it makes perfect sense. By the very nature of being a spoof and a comedy Shaun of the Dead is an inferior film. Romero is trying to make an artistic and social statement in his films, Pegg and Wright simply used his work as a backdrop to peddle the same brand of pop culture humour they used in Spaced to the largest audience possible so that they could get money to make another film for the same end. They aren't making a social commentary, nor are they making serious films.

As such I don't see how their film could be held in comparison with an original. It's nonsense.

I've said it before in this thread and I'll say it again: Any film can be as deep as you want it to be, comedy or not.

Land might be an artistic and social statement (a poor laboured one, but still) but how is Shaun any less a social commentary just because it dares to have a laugh with it? Watch the beginning and notice how everyone looks to be in a zombie state before the epidemic strikes. Now, you could read into that how Edgar Wright is illustrating how modern societies, particulary those found in London, tend to be spaced out and rather stand-offish.

A comedy can have just as much social relevance and satire as any arty flick. Look at Dr. Strangelove, that's almost slapstick in its comedy (actually it is definitely slapstick by the end) but would you say that's devoid of any cultural comment?

And your analogy using Scream 3 and Scary Movie isn't exactly a fair one. Shaun pays respect to the zombie genre while the Scary Movie franchise lampoons modern horror movies, there's a difference.

I don't think comedy in any form should automatically considered any less valid just because it's a comedy. Unfortunately comedy still isn't recognised as widely as it should be in the arts. Just look at the Oscars. A cookie cutter, teary eyed performance will almost always beat a rip roaring comedic performance.

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Aurelius

Aurelius

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Watched the uncut edition this weekend. I kind of like it. It’s no match for DAWN (or the remake for that matter) but I enjoyed it more than DAY. The characters in LAND were just more likable and it had more zombies being shot to pieces. However, the story and setting felt less claustrophobic, scary, disturbing and threatening than the previous movies. It was a good movie, but I expected more from Romero so was left feeling slightly disappointed. Ow, and the live and let live ending sucked.

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roskelld

roskelld

Posted
Posted
for me, zombie films died (no pun intended) with the move from funky synth based soundtracks (Zombii 2, Day and Dawn of the Dead) to crap nu-metal and rock stuff :D

I certainly took the edge off things.

I don't necessarily feel it's the lack of synth (although I love it so), its more the nu-metal approach, it far too obvious, almost any track would work, its aggressive, its easy.

The synth, especially the Goblin soundtracks (Dawn, Suspria etc...) were so inventive, they could really twist a scene.

Playing the Warriors on the Xbox has really shown that the synth can still 'ROCK'! today, I hope we see (hear) more.

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Plissken

Plissken

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It was alright in bits but nothing more than that. I thought it started ok but went very quickly downhill after the opening. And I think Romero has well and truly forgotten what clever satire is.

Can anyone, and I mean anyone who has described the Dead films as satire please fuck off and look up the meaning of the word. Clever allegory, decent metaphor, allusion, yes, yes and yes but a fucking satire?

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roskelld

roskelld

Posted
Posted
satire, term applied to any work of literature or art whose objective is ridicule. It is more easily recognized than defined. From ancient times satirists have shared a common aim: to expose foolishness in all its guises—vanity, hypocrisy, pedantry, idolatry, bigotry, sentimentality—and to effect reform through such exposure. The many diverse forms their statements have taken reflect the origin of the word satire, which is derived from the Latin satura, meaning “dish of mixed fruits,” hence a medley.

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Andsom

Andsom

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Posted
Can anyone, and I mean anyone who has described the Dead films as satire please fuck off and look up the meaning of the word.  Clever allegory, decent metaphor, allusion, yes, yes and yes but a fucking satire?

"A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit."

What's the problem?

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Plissken

Plissken

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Posted

I sat through Dawn of the Dead and thought it was a nicely observed allegory. Cleverly written metaphor. It is, however, first and foremost, a horror movie but it had an intelligent point to make about humanity and it made it.

Calling it a satire is like saying "Escape From New York" is a satire. "Independence Day" has that lovely sequence in Area 51, which pokes fun at military spending, does that make it a screwball comedy?

"The ... Dead movies are satires" is one of those great afterthought sacred cows of the film world, right up there with "Even in 1977 Lucas always intended to make 9 films".

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Goose

Goose

Posted
Posted

Satire, screwball or a look at man's struggle using zombies as metaphors for something - none of this changes the fact that this was a bad movie that would have gone straight to video where it not for Romero's name being attached.

A zombie movie that contains less gore than two episodes of CSI: Las Vegas. Who's unrated version adds back more gore (in which case, was there ANY gore in the unrated version?)

The opening 15 minutes of Dawn of the Dead 2004 had more frenetic scenes, gore and shocks even if Romero released his "honest guv'nor, it's the director's cut" DVD that ran for 10 hours. (this version does not exist)

I give Romero credit for kickstarting the zombie genre, for making two, if not three, seminal zombie movies. But that guy wasn't involved in this movie. Maybe it was budget, studio interference or just a poor idea, but in my book this was a bad movie.

Yes, make a horror movie with a message but don't try to pass it off as a horror movie if it only contains just enough gore (!) to secure an R rating. Let's dig Lucio Fulci up and get him to make a zombie movie.

And FUCK OFF with the Nu-metal!! You can just imagine the studio meeting

Director: We need some haunting music for this scene, something like John Carpenter used to do.

Exec: We have this new death metal band. They'll do perfectly and we can spend more on the music video than the FX budget. We'll shifts some albums!

Director: Oh.

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Andsom

Andsom

Posted
Posted
"The ... Dead movies are satires" is one of those great afterthought sacred cows of the film world, right up there with "Even in 1977 Lucas always intended to make 9 films".

Don't be silly sadsack. Dawn of the Dead attacks a human folly. And it does it using humour, no? So it fulfills all the criterea of being a satire.

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Rowan Morrison

Rowan Morrison

Posted
Posted

Right, they finally delivered LotD, so I watched it last night (unrated version, natch). Yeah, I liked it. I don't think it really needed the zombie evolution thread - it would have worked just as well (maybe better) if they'd been as mindless as is in the previous films - but it didn't bother me half as much as I thought it would, and kudos to Romero for not ploughing exactly the same furrow. The characters were on a cheesy par with Day, no problem there, and in the unrated version at least there was enough well-done, gleeful gore to keep me happy.

It could have been better - the sequences around the dock with the skateboarder had tons more potential, and if you're the kind of person who likes to pick at plotholes in a zombie movie, there's plenty to work with - but I'm glad I watched it and the box deserves to go on the shelf next to the others.

None of which stops Shaun being an excellent comedy and an affectionate, decent zombie film. And if you can't see the satire (and general humour) in Dawn... well, just forget about it an enjoy the horror. Everyone wins!

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Rowan Morrison

Rowan Morrison

Posted
Posted
Shaun is a "decent" zombie movie? :o

I wonder how many of you would've been happy with Romero allowing his characters to get past zombies by mimicking them...

Stu, man, it's a comedy. Comedic situations will arise, and surely you grok that it's the fact that acting your way through a crowd of zombies is so ridiculous (within the genre's logic) that makes it funny? Asking us what we'd think if something from Sean happened in a Romero film is... frankly, it's bizarre. Would you be happy with a Leone Western if scenes from Blazing Saddles were included?

If you don't like it, that's your bag - but if you can't see the love and respect for the genre that Sean has, it's a rum do. The original Dawn is a great social zombie film, and Sean is a great comedy zombie film. We can have both.

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Andsom

Andsom

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Posted
If you think a pie fight is satire, then I;m going to give up even trying.

Man stop being a fanny. The pie fight is slapstick. I neve said qit was satire. I was using it to illustrate that the film doesn't take itself too seriously; that it has very strong elements of comedy as well as horror.

Let me break it down into its simplest for so you can understand why the film is satirical (not the pie fight):

By portraying the population of a shopping mall literally as mindless zombies its taking a wee fly swipe at consumers as a whole. Yes it's a metaphor as you said. But it's also a humorous wee dig. It is toungue in cheek. It is satirical.

I cannot make it any simpler than that for you.

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