Universal was smart to release this film in time for the Fourth of July. There are plenty of classic American icons to cheer over: motorcycles sporting the US flag, lots of fireworks, citizens freely bearing arms, and best of all, the gratuitous splattering of zombie brains. Maybe the holiday festivities will distract movie-goers from the fact that the latest edition of Romero’s Living Dead franchise isn’t very inventive or scary. There are some impressive casting choices – Dennis Hopper as a power-hungry real estate magnate, John Leguizamo as his scheming lackey, Asia Argento as a street-smart girl with a gun – but they are all wasted on characters as clichéd as they sound. You’ll know exactly who gets killed and when as soon as they’re introduced. Ironically, only Eugene Clark as the murderous zombie ringleader transcends his shuffling role and makes us care about him. Taking a cue from the Planet of the Apes series, when things get stale, change sides. We’re meant to root for the disenfranchised undead this time, and it’s easy with humans this generic and dumb. Hadn’t these people read The Masque of the Red Death before locking themselves inside their “safe” high-rise paradise? Other recent zombie films are superior…28 Days Later, the Dawn of the Dead remake, and even the satirical Shaun of the Dead delivered real horror by pushing the formula in new directions. Land of the Dead falls short because while the walking corpses may have evolved, the story hasn’t.

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