Land of the dead - Movie review

[wacki]

After much anticipation (maybe too much) I finally saw the movie. It was good. You could easily tell it was a Romero flick due to the politics/psychology of the characters. It wasn't like 28 days or Dawn of the Dead (2004). I don't know if I would consider this Romero's masterpiece but it was one of his better flicks. If you're a Romero fan you will most likely love this movie. If you are a 28 Days fan I can see you enjoying this flick but not getting terribly excited about it. I can also see you loving it. If you are a survivalist kind of person you will probably love this movie.

On a side note:

Normally when I watch these flicks I'm drunk and it's late at night which I think adds to the effect of the movie. This is the first time I saw a movie like this in the theater (and during daylight). I think that was a mistake. /images/graemlins/frown.gif I think I'm going to keep the tradition of getting drunk off of wine and then watching a scary/zombie movie. Then again, I'm not a big fan of movie theaters anyway. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

EDIT: really good review on rotten tomatoes.

[Alobar]

if you have to have alcohol in order to enjoy things, you have a problem wacki




I'm just giving you [censored] dude /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Im supposed to go watch this tonight, ill let you know how it is drunk and in the dark /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Willluck]

what else has Romero done?

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]
what else has Romero done?

[/ QUOTE ]

if you have to ask....

[thirddan]

all the dawn of the dead, day of the dead, night of the dead movies...

i saw this yesterday, and while not a big zombie movie guy i thought it was enjoyable enough...

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
what else has Romero done?

[/ QUOTE ]

He created the Zombie genre

Night of the dead (original and remake)
Day of the dead
Dawn of the dead (original and NOT the remake)


Plus a ton of other movies and the TV series Creepshow
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001681/

He has another zombie movie scheduled to be released in 2007.

And Alobar. I hate you. None of my Bloomington friends are Zombie freaks. /images/graemlins/mad.gif

[Blarg]

Another one in 2007? What's that one going to have going on in it, Wacki? Will it be a continuation of this one somehow?

Btw, I agree that seeing scary movies in the daytime isn't the way. Comedies and horror movies both are completely different, and better, experiences when seen with a lot of people, and horror movies are way better seen in the dark. Horror movies are 90% atmosphere anyway.

[whiskeytown]

I just saw it -

thought it was great - Every Romero flick is more then a gore fest - it's a commentary on the times - this is a commentary on how our world is increasingly becoming more of a have/have not society - it MAY take a stab at the use of unnecessary violence in society as well - (don't think so, but the whole mess started cause they shot the hell out of the town for no reason whatsoever) -

I can't wait to see if he gets another one - we gotta see how this does - medium sized budget + major promotion should = major box office draw - I'm hoping -

RB

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]

I can't wait to see if he gets another one - we gotta see how this does - medium sized budget + major promotion should = major box office draw - I'm hoping -

RB

[/ QUOTE ]


http://www.countingdown.com/movies/3504564

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
I think I'm going to keep the tradition of getting drunk off of wine and then watching a scary/zombie movie.

[/ QUOTE ]

POTD?

[whiskeytown]

but Diamond Dead isn't part of the series - it's just something else he's working on - another horror story (just like those dead sea-logged people in Creepshow weren't part of the zombie story)

I was reading about this for yrs on homepageofthedead.com - he had a shitload of budget issues to get this going, but the success of 28 Days Later/DOTD remake/Shaun of the Dead convinced financiers to back him - and they made him shoot in Toronto, which stretched the budget something fierce -

Easily the best movie he's ever done from a stylistic point as well - real actors go a LONG way to making it good - LOL - Dennis Hopper is perfect as a bad guy - LOL - and he's always had budget problems, but if this one takes off, that'll be the end of that for a while -

RB

[rusellmj]

LOTD- Fast or slow zombies?

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
LOTD- Fast or slow zombies?

[/ QUOTE ]

Mostly slow, but some moved pretty fast. No running zombies, it was kind of a mix. Which was much better than the old super slow zombies IMO.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]

Easily the best movie he's ever done from a stylistic point as well - real actors go a LONG way to making it good - LOL - Dennis Hopper is perfect as a bad guy - LOL - and he's always had budget problems, but if this one takes off, that'll be the end of that for a while -

RB

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. I can't believe the movie only cost 15 million to make. That flick was really well made for a mere 15 million.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418819/business

As for profits of movies this is one thing I don't understand. DotD cost 56 million to make an promote. The sales were $102,356,381 world wide. With half of that being overseas.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=dawnofthedead.htm


However:

The studios typically get 80 percent of first-week ticket revenues, a percentage that goes down as time passes if the movie endures, that is to bring the studios aggregate average closer to 50 percent.

http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-117638-16&type=Analysis

However, the worldwide cut is only at about 40%. Given these numbers:

80% * opening weekeng of $26,722,575 = $21,378,060

.5 * 32,298,382 (non opening weekend) = $16,149,191

.4 * 43,335,424 (overseas) = 17,334,169.6

= a grand total of $54,861,420.6 which is just short of the cost to make the movie. My percentages were probably conservative so lets say the movie broke even or made a small profit at the box office. So DVD sales were pure profit. Was this movie a big success? /images/graemlins/frown.gif




28 days later had a budget of only 8 million and 7 million for promo but did 82 million in sales which means it was a huge success.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=28dayslater.htm

[wacki]

Just noticed that resident evil grossed 102 million and the budget was 53 million. That is similar to DotD which was 56 million and grossed 102 million.

The neat fact is that the sequal to resident evil had a budget of $70 million which means either the movie made a lot of money or somebody was an idiot. Since they botched up the story line so badly I'm guessing both.

I guess I just don't understand the financing of it all. 20 million budget increase is huge for a movie that seemed to break even at the box office.

[Blarg]

Hollywood is famous for funky accounting. One typical thing they'll do is take a really successful movie and bundle it with losers and then sell the whole package's cable rights or foreign or DVD rights, and do the accounting for the whole, then break it up. I'm not saying that well, but the idea is, that you bundle up Star Wars with four movies that are good for going straight to cable. When all the money comes in, which is almost entirely for Star Wars, you ascribe the income to the package and divide by five, saying Star Wars only got 1/5 of the returns it really did. That's one way many movies and t.v. series have made enormous sales and still come out with supposedly only modest or even negative returns -- their returns get averaged out of existence.

[wacki]

wow, 74% on http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/land_of_the_dead/

Really good reviews.

[wacki]

Bumping cuz of this thread. (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=2761440&page=0&view=colla psed&sb=5&o=14&fpart=1)

I wish I could join threads.

[ClaytonN]

That would be nice

And yea, I fit into the category of "28 days later" fans.

It's a good story, don't get me wrong, but I was expecting this movie to scare the crap out of me. Beyond the skateboarder guy getting taken apart, there are no "scare you out of your seat" moments. I mean, not even close. And that's probably why I gave a more dissenting review, because I expected something different.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]

It's a good story, don't get me wrong, but I was expecting this movie to scare the crap out of me. Beyond the skateboarder guy getting taken apart, there are no "scare you out of your seat" moments. I mean, not even close. And that's probably why I gave a more dissenting review, because I expected something different.

[/ QUOTE ]

As private joke alluded to, Romero's movies are much more intellectual. This is why his movies always get really good reviews. Example Day had 100% at rotten tomatoes

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1005339-dawn_of_the_dead/

night had 78%
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1031183-night_of_the_living_dead/

day was 86%
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/day_of_the_dead/

If he added some fright I think his movies would sell a lot more. It's too bad because his movies all have a solid base they just need some dressing.