Artfire Films, Romero-Grunwald Productions, USA, 2007.
Film students go to forest to film a horror movie when media starts to broadcast news about dead coming back to life. Director-wannabe Jason (Joshua Close) films the collapse of the society with his camera. Joshua, his girlfriend Debra (Michelle Morgan) and a bickering group of students hit the road in a camper van. There is also their teacher, drunk Professor Maxwell (Scott Wentworth).
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| Debra |
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| Tracy (Amy Lalonde) and Gordo (Chris Violette) |
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| Jason |
The influence of mass media has changed as everybody can make films nowadays with their own point of view. Romero's social criticism is targeted this time on overconfidence on technology and he moralizes about everybody willing to film awful accidents. And the people who are just filming when they should be helping their friends to fight zombies. Maybe film making is the real zombie virus as anybody who grabs a camera must keep filming even as they may die doing that. The heavy-handed message is repeated over and over again so it gets old and tiresome fast. It is like old man shaking his fist and raging: "In my youth there were only three TV-channels! Who needs Youtube!" And then a guy hits himself in the head with a scythe. It is hard to take anything seriously after that. It gets too cynical and nihilistic to be a working dark comedy or fun zombie culling movie either. Only near the end it had some classic Romero creepiness. It is not one of Romero's brightest moments although I have heard that the sequel "Survival of the Dead" is worse.
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| Professor Maxwell |
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| Tony (Shawn Roberts) |
Also the Amish guy should have been around longer. Maybe he could have said something witty about modern technology.
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| Samuel the Amish Farmer (R.D. Reid) |
"Orphan Black" star Tatiana Maslany has a small role. Quentin Tarantino, Stephen King and many other famous people can be heard as voices in radio broadcasts.
Rating: 
Average
Average
Starring: Michelle Morgan, Joshua Close, Shawn Roberts, Amy Lalonde, Joe Dinicol, Scott Wentworth, Philip Riccio, Chris Violette, Tatiana Maslany, Todd Schroeder, Daniel Kash, Laura de Carteret, Martin Roach, Megan Park, George Buza, Tino Monte, Matt Birman, Greg Nicotero, Donna Croce, Nick Alachiotis, R.D. Reid, Scott Gibson, Jamie Bloch, Kyle Glencross, Boyd Banks, Janet Lo, Jack Birman, Trish Adams, Alan Van Sprang, Ron Payne, Shelley Cook, James Binkley, Anthony Cancelliere, Wes Craven (voice), Alexandria DeFabiis, Guillermo del Toro (voice), Ara Katz, Stephen King (voice), Mani Nasry, Simon Pegg (voice), George A. Romero, Tom Savini (voice), Quentin Tarantino (voice)
Director: George A. Romero
Minä pidän Land of the Deadista, mutta olisin toivonut ettei Romero olisi enää palannut zombieaiheen pariin laisinkaan, sillä ei vielä se että niin Diary kuin Survival of the Dead ovat molemmat aivan kauheita elokuvia ja vaikuttavat enemmänkin joltain näiltä nykyajan zombievillityksen mukanaan tuomilta halpaimitaattoreilta, mutta kun niistä tulee väkisinkin mieleen että Romero teki ne vain pakon edessä jotta sai edes jotain töitä. Mistä kertonee jo sekin, että 2000-luvulla hän on ohjannut vain kolme elokuvaa ja ne juurikin nuo zombieleffat, joista viimeisinkin on niinkin kaukaa kuin vuodelta 2009. Romerossa on ainesta muuhunkin ja hän on sen monta kertaa osoittanutkin, riippumatta siitä ovatko ne olleet kaupallisia menestyksiä. Todella masentavaa on, että näköjään tuottajien ohella fanitkin haluavat Romeron tekevän vielä zombieleffoja, vaikka ovatkin haukkuneet nyt tehdyt. Eivät he ole mitään oikeita faneja. Let my Romero go!
ReplyDeleteKyllä tosiaan taitoa löytyisi vaikka mihin aiheisiin.
DeleteOlisi edes nyt viety niitä Landin ideoita älykkäämmistä zombeista eteenpäin, mutta tuntuu että Dead-sarjassa mentiin pikemminkin askeleita taaksepäin.