Keeping The Faith

[MoonSylver]

Hi Everyone. Long time listener, first time caller. I'm one of those people who likes Land more each time he sees it so I thought I would chime. I remember hearing Romero say in a few different interviews that he originally took a lot of inspiration in developing Night of the Living Dead from Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. He liked the idea of an old society dying off as a new one grew and developed. So as they were making Night he thought of it as the first night that this new society emerged. He was going to start with a few people in a small farm house attacked by a few random ghouls and then the final chapter would return to that same farm house where the last normal people on earth were under siege by the now intelligent new society. I remember reading this probably 10 years before Land came out. I sort of thought that had always been his plan. Does anyone else remember reading something like this? If not I'll have to find it and post a link. Welcome aboard Rick. Yep, you pretty much nailed it. That's why I wasn't TOO surprised by the direction Land went in that regard. It's the direction he's been leaning in at least since Dawn. I've heard the original script for "Day" leaned more in that direction as well. (Hmmm...Big Daddy's zombie army...zombie army in original Day script...Plus there was a whole elite vs underprivileged angle IIRC...did we see echoes of the script he carried a torch for for so long? Hmmm...)

[sandrock74]

BUT you will never convince me land is anything above shitty, in my opinion it is one of the worse Z movies around.. i rank it lower than zombie lake, children of the dead or ZFE2, i would happilly sit through a marathon of those movies before i try and sit through land again. Whoa, dude! No freakin' way that ANYTHING is as bad than Children of the Dead! I will definitely call out anyone who tries to say that crapfest is better than anything else! ick

[Mike70]

BUT you will never convince me land is anything above shitty, in my opinion it is one of the worse Z movies around.. i rank it lower than zombie lake, children of the dead or ZFE2, i would happilly sit through a marathon of those movies before i try and sit through land again. andrew, is this hyperbole or a cry for help? come now man, like it or hate it, land is a proper movie with production values, some decent characters and acting in it. it has great special effects and quite a bit of relevant things to say about how the haves manipulate the have-nots into doing the dirty work and taking all the chances while they (the haves) sit on their asses and reap the rewards. the three movies you mentioned, however, are ineptly made pieces of cinematic dogshit that are poorly put together, poorly directed, have atrocious acting and crap special effects. i like land, though it isn't anywhere near being my favorite zombie film nor even close to being one of romero's best. i realize that from day one it has been a lightning rod of contention on the board but to say it is worse than zombie lake or children of the dead just sounds a bit ridiculous. granted movie likes and dislikes are a matter of taste but come on man, this seems to go too far. Hi Everyone. Long time listener, first time caller. I'm one of those people who likes Land more each time he sees it so I thought I would chime. first off - welcome to you. i am in the camp that believes that as time goes by land will be appreciated more. it is a movie that i do find myself liking a bit more every time i watch it. i particularly like what it has to say abbout economic disparity in a society. will it ever achieve the status of dawn or day or night 68? most likely not but i do strongly feel that as time passes it will be a more appreciated film.

[clanglee]

I see a Land Lubber in my midst. . Ummmm. . no man. . no. . (shakes head sadly and walks out of the room)

[Andy]

Whoa, dude! No freakin' way that ANYTHING is as bad than Children of the Dead! I will definitely call out anyone who tries to say that crapfest is better than anything else! ick the three movies you mentioned, however, are ineptly made pieces of cinematic dogshit that are poorly put together, poorly directed, have atrocious acting and crap special effects. i like land, though it isn't anywhere near being my favorite zombie film nor even close to being one of romero's best. i realize that from day one it has been a lightning rod of contention on the board but to say it is worse than zombie lake or children of the dead just sounds a bit ridiculous. granted movie likes and dislikes are a matter of taste but come on man, this seems to go too far. Zombie Lake and children of the living dead are 2 craptactular movies from no hope directors, lets be honest, they were never really expected to fly high where they? can anyone here remember getting excited by the idea of children of the living dead? Land on the other hand, this is GAR.. the man who practically invented the modern zombie sub-genre.. this is the same creative god who gave us night, dawn and day.. this has to be good! then you go see it and.. what? has GAR gone senial or on drugs or something? i mean seriously.. its the disapointment factor that really kills land for me, i was expecting another dawn, i got big daddy come now man, like it or hate it, land is a proper movie with production values, some decent characters and acting in it. it has great special effects and quite a bit of relevant things to say about how the haves manipulate the have-nots into doing the dirty work and taking all the chances while they (the haves) sit on their asses and reap the rewards. Are we talking about the same movie? land is a absolutly atrocious excuse of a movie, i spit at its production values, it has pathetic unbeleivable characters and ive seen better acting at a primary school nativity. The effects arnt bad, probally the only thing about this movie i cant bad mouth if cgi is your thing and it has nothing relevant to say, its a senial old man trying to recapture his former glory and failing spectacularly. Now despite what i just said i wanna make it clear that i still hold respect for GAR, the original dead trilogy are the holy trinity of movies and will never be topped.. which is why i was so mentally scared by land and why i rank it as my personal worse movie ever. diary is a stinker too, its not as bad as land, but its by no means good.. i think GAR is now just showing us with each passing movie that he really needs to retire.

[ItsJustaScratch]

[QUOTE=Andy;173991] and it has nothing relevant to . QUOTE] Now that I definately dispute... It has everything to do with modern times. Fireworks - Shock & awe tactics. The rockets from Dead reckoning - collateral damage & friendly fire. Crossing the river - immigration. The Zombies in the cage - The increasing vulgarity of modern entertainment to get ratings up. As for the cheesy acting/style, thats the look and always has been. That's the first thing I appreciated about it. Look at Left 4 Dead, the characters style is straight out of GAR's closet, because they know it's the correct attire and overall look for the genre. It's what we've come to expect.

[MinionZombie]

But you just presented an argument AGAINST the "evolution" of zombies. Make up yer mind!! Actually I didn't - make up your mind. I was talking about the reality of making these movies, and then spoke about the natural evolution. Learn to read, yeah? j/k

[ItsJustaScratch]

Quote: Originally Posted by clanglee But you just presented an argument AGAINST the "evolution" of zombies. Make up yer mind!! Actually I didn't - make up your mind. We're starting to edge extremely close to paradox territory here. Hi Everyone. Long time listener, first time caller. I'm one of those people who likes Land more each time he sees it so I thought I would chime. I remember hearing Romero say in a few different interviews that he originally took a lot of inspiration in developing Night of the Living Dead from Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. He liked the idea of an old society dying off as a new one grew and developed. So as they were making Night he thought of it as the first night that this new society emerged. He was going to start with a few people in a small farm house attacked by a few random ghouls and then the final chapter would return to that same farm house where the last normal people on earth were under siege by the now intelligent new society. I remember reading this probably 10 years before Land came out. I sort of thought that had always been his plan. Does anyone else remember reading something like this? If not I'll have to find it and post a link. Rick, from one 'freshy' to another, welcome and thanks for the informative read. After watching the teaser, i've kind of been wondering whether GAR's going to lay off the evolution, and expand on the introspective route; humanity taking a serious look at itself, and starting again, starting a new society as if the industrial revolution never happened. After all, whats the safest haven you can think of. Looking back at Dawn, the obvious message at the end was we can't just be content with all things materialistic. In the end the group left what they had thought would be the perfect place for protection and sustainability, but realised that they needed was human interaction, exploration, change; everything that the outside world could potentially offer - kind of along the same lines as Fight Clubs "Dont buy shit you don't need". So is GAR taking us to the next step with Island/... and showing us what the complete opposite of Dawn is. A small society that offers little in the way of consumerable items, but instead builds on the fundamental basics of what we need - relationships, food, water, work and trade....Basically Walnut Grove with a bit of wild west thrown in?...and erm zombies. Andy - Feel for you bro, sounds like you've got a bad case of the Ridley Scott's. Ummmm. . no man. . no. . (shakes head sadly and walks out of the room) Through a 2-way door I think..

[bassman]

Sounds like Andy's got a case of the "I want the same film over again" disease. And I notice you mentioned several time that it's Romero's. "The God" as you called him. Act as if he didn't direct Land and then tell us it's as bad as Children, etc. No way.... Making the film in your mind for 20 or so years and having incredibly high expectations is pretty much setting yourself up for the big let down. I still say that Land is like the new Day. In following years it will gain more and more of a following. It was mainly disliked at the beginning because everyone wanted something that's just like Night, Dawn, or Day. Which is crazy considering all of the original films are very different from one another...

[ItsJustaScratch]

Sounds like Andy's got a case of the "I want the same film over again" disease. And I notice you mentioned several time that it's Romero's. "The God" as you called him. Act as if he didn't direct Land and then tell us it's as bad as Children, etc. No way.... Making the film in your mind for 20 or so years and having incredibly high expectations is pretty much setting yourself up for the big let down. I still say that Land is like the new Day. In following years it will gain more and more of a following. It was mainly disliked at the beginning because everyone wanted something that's just like Night, Dawn, or Day. Which is crazy considering all of the original films are very different from one another... Absolutely, Also imagine he'd made the films the other way round, like Lucas - talk about going back to basics...time to >>>move on...preferably with much less emphasis on evolution. I can go along with it thus far, but we don't want to end up with smokers, boomers and the sodding T-Virus. Island/... Looks as if we can have the best of both world's in terms of environments - expansive landscape's with small, claustiphobic western style building's and households. I'm that desparate for this film to come out, that my hand actually wavered over Resident Evil Extinction, but luckily I caught a glimpse of my own reflection doing so.

[Thorn]

Whoa, dude! No freakin' way that ANYTHING is as bad than Children of the Dead! I will definitely call out anyone who tries to say that crapfest is better than anything else! ick Children shouldn't play with dead things. While I like it, it is HORRIBLY. Bad make up, bad acting (and I mean HORRIBLE) the gay mystic guy makes me physically sick and giggly at the same time. Costumes? PLEASE! Forced and contrived settings? Impossible plot points coming to fruition? Zombie rights of resurrection?Yeah... Other than the sound work on this film... no no that was really REALLY bad too. All it did offer was people holed up in a house being attacked by zombies. (which is why I own a copy...)

[MoonSylver]

Whoa, dude! No freakin' way that ANYTHING is as bad than Children of the Dead! I will definitely call out anyone who tries to say that crapfest is better than anything else! ick Word. andrew, is this hyperbole or a cry for help? The former. With some histrionics thrown in for good measure. Making the film in your mind for 20 or so years and having incredibly high expectations is pretty much setting yourself up for the big let down. Bingo. I went into Land w/ zero expectations, & I SURE didn't go into it expecting GAR's "ZOMBIE MAGNUM OPUS". I knew it was going to be "just another GAR dead flick" (& I mean that in a GOOD way), but not "THE" GAR dead flick. Just because it had been 20 years in between did not mean there was going to be some grand finale or something. Just another chapter. Children shouldn't play with dead things. While I like it, it is HORRIBLY. Bad make up, bad acting (and I mean HORRIBLE) the gay mystic guy makes me physically sick and giggly at the same time. Costumes? PLEASE! Forced and contrived settings? Impossible plot points coming to fruition? Zombie rights of resurrection?Yeah... Other than the sound work on this film... no no that was really REALLY bad too. All it did offer was people holed up in a house being attacked by zombies. (which is why I own a copy...) Not even close to the worst. It's low budget & all sure, but there are LOTS worse than CSPWDT. COTLD for sure. Zombie Lake. Garden of the Dead. Zombiez. I could go on & on. Plus I can forgive a bit because it was basically a first time, independent, neo-amateur effort AND because it holds a special place in zombie movie-dom. It's one of only a couple of zombie movies (along w/ the excellent "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" that were made POST Night but PRE Dawn, which is when the zombie movie craze REALLY kicked off, so I think that makes it fairly significant as well. Much love for CSPWDT.

[DubiousComforts]

Children shouldn't play with dead things. While I like it, it is HORRIBLY. Bad make up, bad acting (and I mean HORRIBLE) the gay mystic guy makes me physically sick and giggly at the same time. Costumes? PLEASE! You're full of it. This make-up was downright spectacular for the mid-70s: In fact, that guy's nasty mug in the last photo is the reason that I first watched NOLD to begin with (a photo from CSPWDT in Famous Monsters had been miscaptioned as being from NOLD). There is nothing wrong with Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things other than a very poor, "humorous" advertising campaign and the obvious attempt to cash-in on NOLD. In fact, Sam Raimi obviously combined CSPWDT with the earlier Equinox and came up with Evil Dead.

[Andy]

Sounds like Andy's got a case of the "I want the same film over again" disease. Andy - Feel for you bro, sounds like you've got a bad case of the Ridley Scott's. I Aint got a case of anything, read this and pay attention. I HATE LAND. IN MY OPINION IT IS THE WORSE MOVIE EVER HAS NO REDEEMING FEATURES AT ALL. i aint trying to change anyone elses opinion, so stop trying to change mine or tryin to say im missing something or have some kind of disease becuase i hate this film and just accept it.

[ItsJustaScratch]

I Aint got a case of anything, read this and pay attention. I HATE LAND. IN MY OPINION IT IS THE WORSE MOVIE EVER HAS NO REDEEMING FEATURES AT ALL. i aint trying to change anyone elses opinion, so stop trying to change mine or tryin to say im missing something or have some kind of disease becuase i hate this film and just accept it. No offense intended Andy -What I mean't was that from your perspective you don't like to see your franchise snowball like Aliens did (doing a Ridley Scott). I respect your opinion and opposite point of view; also learn't some new swear words in the process. Maybe we should just keep (Movie/Forum Member) bashing to a minimum. otherwise it just becomes youtube We're all entitled to our own after all.