From George A. Romero comes the much anticipated "Land of the Dead," the fourth entry in his highly-acclaimed living dead
series. Romero, one of the few whose name alone draws audiences to his zombie films, has a lot to live up to, however - not only does he have to compete with the glory of his own films, but he also has to deal with the fact that in this day and age, many audiences are looking for the quick and exciting rather than anything too satirical.
Luckily, "Land of the Dead" balances itself pretty well with a great mix of political satire and gore, and is by far one of the more unique zombie films I''ve seen. Set presumably years if not decades after "Day of the Dead," humans now live in isolated cities and only go out into the zombie-infested wild when they need food and supplies. Though the threat of a zombie invasion is always looming, the real problems remain within the city walls, where the rich have taken to high towers while the poor are forced to live in slums. Even worse, the zombies are beginning to involve - one zombie in particular is beginning to show signs of intelligence...
The world Romero has created is a great one, not too surprising considering he''s had three prior movies to develop it. The separation of the rich and poor adds an intelligent element to the film, though as one might suspect from an hour and a half zombie flick the ideas are never completely fleshed out - forgive the pun. Even when the zombies aren''t in the picture the movie is dynamic and interesting, though things definitely pick up when the creatures are around.