Heroes of the Zeroes: George A. Romero's Land of the Dead

Heroes of the Zeroes is a daily, alphabetical look back at the 365 best films of 2000-2009.

"George A. Romero's Land of the Dead" Rated R 2005

Exposing the day’s ills always has been George A. Romero’s motivation for each of his zombie movies — racial prejudice, empty-head mall culture, Cold War paranoia.

In his 2005 installment — which earned its place alongside “Night of the Living Dead” and “Dawn of the Dead” — he displayed residual 1980s anger (note the target practice on a very Ronald Reagan-esque balloon) and set his sights both on corporate America and the George W. Bush administration.

Any movie with Dennis Hopper as a maniacal stand-in for the President of the United States has the right amount of mad-genius energy. He’s Kaufman, a businessman who’s walled off himself and his fat-cat friends in Fiddler’s Grove, an enclave shutting out a world overrun by the risen undead.

Money alone won’t get you into the Grove, as payday-saving supply runner Cholo (John Leguizamo) learns when Kaufman shuts him out. In retaliation, he steals a mobile-command unit that could demolish Fiddler’s Grove. Kaufman enlists the unit’s designer (Simon Baker) to track it, while a zombie army attempts tumbling the wall.

Romero’s script crackles with lean Western-style quips and his direction balances slick action with copious wince-worthy gore. (Prepare for flashbacks now anytime you see a bellybutton ring.)

A sunshiny ending seemed odd for Romero but didn’t soften his satirical blow. Cockroaches won’t be an apocalypse’s only survivors; count on the surviving haves fashioning a sector of have-nots to exploit. In both respects, there were brains all over the place in this fine example of hard-R genre fun.