■ Movie review
Although not completely ‘Dead,’
latest Romero film lacks substance
The director puts out an original movie, but it doesn't
compare to the others in his masterful zombie series
BY RYAN NYBURG
PULSE EDITOR
George A. Romero is a zombie
movie visionary, a very small niche
he fills with gusto. He both invented
and transcended zombie films with
his landmark “Night of the Living
Dead,” setting the ground rules for
zombie cinema (they stumble
around, eat flesh and fall when shot
in the head) while also turning
zombies into more than just mind
less killers. The first film used
|zombies as an expression of 1960s
social tension. The sequel, 1978’s
“Dawn of the Dead,” turned them
into a rotting satire of American
consumer society. “Day of the
Dead,” hindered by budget prob
lems, never reached its full potential
but still managed to touch on 1980’s
ra-ra militarism.
And now we have “Land of the
Dead,” more than likely the conclu
sion to the series. The world is now
dominated by the walking dead. The
surviving humans live in sealed-off
urban centers and raid empty towns
for supplies. The film opens with the
zombies beginning to show disturb
ing signs of intelligence, remembering
behavior from their human lives. In
an obvious but still wickedly funny
allegory, the raiders use fireworks to
distract the zombies so as to gun
them down. We then move on to the
urban center, where uber-capitalist
Kaufman (a surprisingly low key
Dennis Hopper) rules the city from a
sealed-off skyscraper, taking the best
of what it brought in for him and his
fellow bourgeois and leaving the
scraps for the rabble below.
The allegory often threatens to
overtake the plot, but Romero keeps
things moving at a solid pace. The ac
tion really gets going when Kauf
man’s gofer Cholo (John
Leguizamo), pissed because he is
kept from getting a room in the tower,
steals the city’s most powerful mili
tary vehicle and threatens to bring
the place down. Kaufman sends the
head raider and the vehicle’s design
er Riley (a rather wooden Simon Bak
er) out after him. He’s joined by his
simpleton friend and a hooker he
saves from a bar (Robert Joy and Asia
Argento, respectively) as well as a
few military clowns.
While the film works on many
levels, overall it is not the success
many were hoping it would be. The
whole film is shot in the gritty dark
ness of urban decay, which can be
affecting at times but often creates a
tone of bland sameness. While the
script is intelligent and fast paced, it
replaces the hopeless nihilism of the
first three films with a hopeful pop
ulism (not a good trade if you are
trying to scare people). What the
film lacks most of all is simple
frights. This is not a frightening
movie and not nearly as disturbing
as Romero’s best work. It’s a film
that wants to be epic but stretches
itself thin, losing the gritty violence
of the original trilogy in the process.
Romero just does not seem to be in
his element here. His best films take
place in claustrophobic situations.
The farmhouse of the original film,
the shopping mall of the sequel, the
low ceiling caves of “Dawn”; each set
played a vital role. But in “Land” we
have a rather indistinct urban waste
land that could have been imported
from a dozen other films.
When compared to recent horror
releases, the film is entertaining
and original in its conception.
But as an entry in the “Dead” series
it seems insubstantial, not to
mention unnecessary.
ryannyburg@dailyemerald.com
022423
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
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Basketball players,
dancing stars win
coveted ratings race
BY FRAZIER MOORE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Viewers got into dribbling and
dancing on ABC again last week.
Offering relief from summer re
runs, the last two games of the
National Basketball Association fi
nals took the first and third slots
on the week’s ratings roster, while
ABC's unexpected summer hit,
“Dancing with the Stars,” claimed
second place, according to
Nielsen Media Research.
Even so, CBS remained the
most popular network overall
and, other than NBC's “Law & Or
der” rerun, CBS series repeats
filled out the rest of the Nielsen
top 10.
CBS' special, “AFI: 100 Years,
100 Movie Quotes,” ranked 11th.
A “Dateline NBC” special with
Katie Couric interviewing “run
away bride” Jennifer Wilbanks
ranked 13th. The premiere of
NBC's much-hyped reality series,
“I Want to be a Hilton,” was 29th.
For the week, CBS averaged 7.5
million viewers (5.2 household
rating, 10 share), while ABC had
7.2 million (4.8 rating, 9 share).
NBC had 6.0 million (4.3 rating, 8
share), Fox 4.9 million (3.2 rating,
6 share), UPN 2.7 million
(1.8 rating, 3 share), the WB 2.2 mil
lion (1.5 rating, 3 share) and Pax TV
520.000 (0.4 rating, 1 share).
NBC's “Nightly News” won the
evening news ratings race, averag
ing 7.5 million viewers (5.4
household rating, 12 share).
ABC's “World News Tonight” had
7.3 million (5.2 rating, 12 share)
and the “CBS Evening News” 6.4
million (4.6 rating, 10 share).
A ratings point represents
1.096.000 households, or 1 per
cent of the nation's estimated
109.6 million TV homes. The
share is the percentage of in-use
televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of June 20-26
the top 10 shows, their networks
and viewerships: NBA Finals
Game 7: Detroit at San Antonio,
ABC, 19.0 million; “Dancing With
the Stars,” ABC, 15.5 million;
NBA Finals Game 6: Detroit at San
Antonio, ABC, 13.5 million; “CSI:
Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS,
12.3 million; “Two and a Half
Men,” CBS, 10.9 million; “CSI: Mi
ami,” CBS, 10.4 million; “Without
a Trace,” CBS, 10.3 million;
“Everybody Loves Raymond,”
CBS, 10.1 million; “Law & Order,”
NBC, 9.5 million; “60 Minutes,”
CBS, 9 million.
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