Land of the Dead and War of the Worlds (Movies)
George A. Romero's Land of the Dead
Probably the biggest disappointment that came from this movie is its title. Not so much in that George Romero's name is in it -- I mean, after more or less inventing the zombie genre, I think the guy's earned it -- but rather in the fact that the thing that's "of the Dead" is some geographical region, not a time frame. I mean, come on, couldn't we have had "Noon of the Dead" or "Dusk of the Dead?" "Week of the Dead" even? "Vernal Equinox of the Dead?" "Three-Day Weekend of the Dead?" There were a lot of viable choices here.
Anyway, here's a quick rundown of the plot: Dennis Hopper and some richies live up in a big tower, everybody else has to make their way through life down on the streets, poor, but protected from zombies by electrified fences. The richies have given them bread-and-circus-style activities to keep them occupied. A member of a group of semi-mercenaries that gets supplies from the outside for the richies decides to rebel, steals a huge tank-style thing, and threatens to blow up richie tower. Meanwhile, a group of zombies led by the coolest character in the movie, Awesome Black Zombie Gas Station Attendant, heads for the city and revenge for their re-killed bretheren, apparently.
All in all, the movie was extremely pretty okay. Nothing to write home about, but reasonably entertaining, with some good gore moments. Romero doesn't even bother with subtlety with his anti-aristocratic social commentary (the most subtle moment comes when we see that fireworks, presumably a symbol of blind patriotism, distracts the zombies from their goal), and there are some awful line deliveries of equally bad lines (mostly from Hopper).
The main character, played by Simon Baker, is affably forgettable. Not bad by any means, but not even in the league of someone like Ben from "Night of the Living Dead." Leguizamo manages to be reasonably un-annoying in his part as the rebellious supply-gatherer. Asia Argento does a pretty good job of being tough and hot at the same time, which is kind of her thing.
Not a bad use of an hour and a half. Not terribly memorable either. This one's outshined by Romero's previous zombie efforts (except "Day") and "28 Days Later," which remains a modern zombie masterpiece, but it's still better than that terrible "Dawn of the Dead" remake and most of the other schlocky horror stuff out there. C
War of the Worlds
Before I get into this review, I just want to say that I don't get why aliens in alien invasion movies always, and I mean always are these unstoppable creatures that only have one weakness. It's like every one of them is Superman, only insectoid and evil. I mean, come on, do you think any species smart enough to build interstellar ships would be that tough? Seriously, they'd be nerds. All you'd have to do is send out a couple of football players after them and they'd run home.
All I'm saying is, I'm gonna write a script for an alien invasion movie someday, and in it, the aliens' one weakness will be shotgun blasts.
Ah, Spielberg. It's hard to tell if you've just been phoning it in these past couple of years or really trying to push the boundaries of what you're known for. At the very least I can tell you really tried on this one. And for the first hour, maybe even the first hour-and-a-half, it shows.
That part of "War of the Worlds" is a great movie. An outstanding movie. There's humor, there's some real family tension, there's a real convincing feeling that this guy, Ray Ferrier, just has no idea what to do with his kids. But far beyond that, once the action starts, it's really something to behold. There's mystery to the Tripod ships that emerge, there's some great sound that kind of bumps you out of your seat, and most importantly, there's a real, urgent sense of outright panic. People are rushing through the streets and you're right there with them. There's a riot scene where you pretty much understand why people are doing this dangerous and more or less insane stuff to steal a van. It's amazing.
And then...well, then it's somewhat obvious that nobody knew where to take it. The scenes with Tim Robbins, where everyone is holed up in a basement kind of slow the pace to a crawl. There are some beautifully shot bits near the end that lapse into the realm of just a little too convenient to believe. And then there's an ending that basicaly just doesn't fit in with anything else, really.
The closing narration, sort of an epilogue, comes right out of the H.G. Wells book, so that part of the ending is relatively similar, but Spielberg just went the extra mile with the sappiness. That said, the ending doesn't ruin the rest of the film, and it's actually pretty watchable, even if it's kinda hard to know why it's there. I imagine a group of studio executives just sitting around and saying, "So, how do we end this movie in which lots and lots of people are killed and it seems pretty well hopeless through the whole thing?" And because no one could come up with anything, this is what we got.
Tom Cruise is actually a somewhat believable loser dad, and his kids, played by Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin, are very well-acted up until both characters apparently lose all sense of reason near the end. Tim Robbins is crazy as balls, though I'm sure that's not too surprising.
Is there some way we can get someone else to direct Spielberg's endings? 'Cause if we did, I wouldn't have to give this one an A-.
Probably the biggest disappointment that came from this movie is its title. Not so much in that George Romero's name is in it -- I mean, after more or less inventing the zombie genre, I think the guy's earned it -- but rather in the fact that the thing that's "of the Dead" is some geographical region, not a time frame. I mean, come on, couldn't we have had "Noon of the Dead" or "Dusk of the Dead?" "Week of the Dead" even? "Vernal Equinox of the Dead?" "Three-Day Weekend of the Dead?" There were a lot of viable choices here.
Anyway, here's a quick rundown of the plot: Dennis Hopper and some richies live up in a big tower, everybody else has to make their way through life down on the streets, poor, but protected from zombies by electrified fences. The richies have given them bread-and-circus-style activities to keep them occupied. A member of a group of semi-mercenaries that gets supplies from the outside for the richies decides to rebel, steals a huge tank-style thing, and threatens to blow up richie tower. Meanwhile, a group of zombies led by the coolest character in the movie, Awesome Black Zombie Gas Station Attendant, heads for the city and revenge for their re-killed bretheren, apparently.
All in all, the movie was extremely pretty okay. Nothing to write home about, but reasonably entertaining, with some good gore moments. Romero doesn't even bother with subtlety with his anti-aristocratic social commentary (the most subtle moment comes when we see that fireworks, presumably a symbol of blind patriotism, distracts the zombies from their goal), and there are some awful line deliveries of equally bad lines (mostly from Hopper).
The main character, played by Simon Baker, is affably forgettable. Not bad by any means, but not even in the league of someone like Ben from "Night of the Living Dead." Leguizamo manages to be reasonably un-annoying in his part as the rebellious supply-gatherer. Asia Argento does a pretty good job of being tough and hot at the same time, which is kind of her thing.
Not a bad use of an hour and a half. Not terribly memorable either. This one's outshined by Romero's previous zombie efforts (except "Day") and "28 Days Later," which remains a modern zombie masterpiece, but it's still better than that terrible "Dawn of the Dead" remake and most of the other schlocky horror stuff out there. C
War of the Worlds
Before I get into this review, I just want to say that I don't get why aliens in alien invasion movies always, and I mean always are these unstoppable creatures that only have one weakness. It's like every one of them is Superman, only insectoid and evil. I mean, come on, do you think any species smart enough to build interstellar ships would be that tough? Seriously, they'd be nerds. All you'd have to do is send out a couple of football players after them and they'd run home.
All I'm saying is, I'm gonna write a script for an alien invasion movie someday, and in it, the aliens' one weakness will be shotgun blasts.
Ah, Spielberg. It's hard to tell if you've just been phoning it in these past couple of years or really trying to push the boundaries of what you're known for. At the very least I can tell you really tried on this one. And for the first hour, maybe even the first hour-and-a-half, it shows.
That part of "War of the Worlds" is a great movie. An outstanding movie. There's humor, there's some real family tension, there's a real convincing feeling that this guy, Ray Ferrier, just has no idea what to do with his kids. But far beyond that, once the action starts, it's really something to behold. There's mystery to the Tripod ships that emerge, there's some great sound that kind of bumps you out of your seat, and most importantly, there's a real, urgent sense of outright panic. People are rushing through the streets and you're right there with them. There's a riot scene where you pretty much understand why people are doing this dangerous and more or less insane stuff to steal a van. It's amazing.
And then...well, then it's somewhat obvious that nobody knew where to take it. The scenes with Tim Robbins, where everyone is holed up in a basement kind of slow the pace to a crawl. There are some beautifully shot bits near the end that lapse into the realm of just a little too convenient to believe. And then there's an ending that basicaly just doesn't fit in with anything else, really.
The closing narration, sort of an epilogue, comes right out of the H.G. Wells book, so that part of the ending is relatively similar, but Spielberg just went the extra mile with the sappiness. That said, the ending doesn't ruin the rest of the film, and it's actually pretty watchable, even if it's kinda hard to know why it's there. I imagine a group of studio executives just sitting around and saying, "So, how do we end this movie in which lots and lots of people are killed and it seems pretty well hopeless through the whole thing?" And because no one could come up with anything, this is what we got.
Tom Cruise is actually a somewhat believable loser dad, and his kids, played by Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin, are very well-acted up until both characters apparently lose all sense of reason near the end. Tim Robbins is crazy as balls, though I'm sure that's not too surprising.
Is there some way we can get someone else to direct Spielberg's endings? 'Cause if we did, I wouldn't have to give this one an A-.
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