LAND OF THE DEAD dvd (1 Viewer)

[Vincent_P]

A friend who works in LA sent me a hard-copy of the early July draft, Justin. The only "public" draft I know of is the late-August one that leaked on-line.

Vincent

 

[GuruAskew]

I wonder which LA-based friend you speak of, Vincent. On a completely different subject, are you involved in the "Mallrats X" DVD?

 

[Vincent_P]

Heh heh, it's not the friend you're thinking of, Bill. The friend who sent me the LAND script is currently just a lowly office assistant out there, but a good guy who I expect great things of nontheless.

And no, I have not had any involvement in the MALLRATS X disc, although if they use the supplements from the original disc, then yes, I guess in a round-about way I do, since I co-produced the original MALLRATS special edition even though I have no credit on it.

Vincent

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

I read a couple of early (2001-2002) drafts of the script -- no, I don't have any copies -- and there was a lot more about Fiddler's Green. One subplot had Riley having an affair with Kaufman's daughter and another -- that I really liked -- had an old woman who'd died in a luxury flat of old age who turned and killed her entire family, threatening the security of an entire floor of the building. Riley and Cholo were already there and impressed into zombie-killing duty.

This was back before it was languishing at Fox Searchlight and when there was talk that Anchor Bay (!) was going to bankroll it.

I would have liked to seen more about Fiddler's Green-- how it was less of a country-club environment like the movie depicts and more like a cage for people who know they can never again go outside.

 

[Kevin M]

Uh...I know I don't have to say this but you do realise, John, that I was only joking about preferring the remake of Dawn to the original.....because I don't. Just wanted to make that clear.

 

[Christopher*KH]

I agree that "Land" was rushed. The charactor development wasn't as defined as the previous 3 films.

I think that in "Day" there was alot of overacting but still "plenty" of charactor development. You kind of connect with some of the feelings the charactors are going through.

Without doubt "Dawn" has some great charactor development just in the first ten mionutes of the movie with the S.W.A.T. raid. You care about these people.

"Night" was extremely good, with the brother/sister interchange in the beginning of the film was right on the money.

But in "Land" I didn't empathize or sympathize with any of the charactors like in the 3 previous films. I think that is one of the biggest problems with films today, too much SFX and not enough charactor development.

I love films that take along time to get to some action as long as it draws you in with the charactor development. Recent films like "Batman Begins" is such an example.

But this is my worthless opinion

Take Care

 

[Kevin M]

Oddly enough the person I connected with the most was the person I was supposed to hate the most, Capt. Rhodes. He was a psychotic jerk but frankly most of his arguments were pretty fair. Deranged...but fair.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I agree, Kevin, Rhodes may have been, shall we say, a little high strung , but he had his feet planted firmly on the ground IMO for the most part.

I mean here Sara was trying to find out why it was happening, Frankenstein was trying to train them to jump through hoops, and Rhodes was just like WTF!? Just shoot the son's o' bitches! He simply saw things as they were, and if you consider the amount of stress he was under, not to mention the absurdity of his assignment, I understand where at least some of his anger came from.

I also liked John, the jamaican flyboy, he didn't believe any of that stuff they were doing either which is why he refused to help out. Also, I don't think anyone overacted, almost all of the performances were very appropriate, with the exception of Rickles, I hated that little twerp, although he did go out laughing, I respect that.

Even Steel seemed to have a level head on his shoulders, and a good sense of duty, like when he shot that one guy who got his throat ripped out so he wouldn't become a zombie.

But Joe Pilato, well, if the MTV movie awards were on the air at that time, he would have gotten best villian for sure, the man was just an epic, thundering asshole! But I liked him.

"Choke on em!!!" Final words have never been more meaningful than that.

 

[Christopher*KH]

According to "The Bits"

Now I will get the D.C. version but why not have a widescreen theatrical version as well, what if the D.C. doesn't meet expectations [haha] still should have it though. IMwO

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

What the hell!?

No sale of either one for me!

 

[TravisR]

I bet the only reason that they are releasing the theatrical cut at all is for Wal Mart and I'd imagine that they order full frame heavier than widescreen copies. Universal probably just figures anyone who wants the movie wants the uncut version.

I'd probably never buy the theatrical cut but I can understand why people would want it for 'historical' reasons

If it makes anyone feel better, it seems safe to assume that the uncut version is Romero's true cut of the movie.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

If it's not in it's OAR, it cannot be called the theatrical cut.

If the studio doesn't release both in their proper OAR, than I am not buying either one.

 

[Michael Elliott]

John, the disc from Japan will feature the theatrical cut widescreen if you want it.

 

[GuruAskew]

If Universal knew anything about the fanbase they'd know that we want the option to buy multiple cuts. Look at Anchor Bay's Ultimate Edition of "Dawn". Universal gave the option to watch both versions of "American Wedding" and now "Mallrats X" and "The Blues Brothers" are gonna have multiple cuts, so it'll be a shame if the theatrical "Land" isn't included.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Michael,
thank's for the suggestion, but there's no way i'm doing that.

By bending over backwards and getting a dvd from another region and then having to buy a multi-region player to play it, that is saying to Universal "Yeah, that's right, Universal, i'm your man-bitch, you can screw me how ever you want and it's fine with me."

I shouldn't need to do that, it's up to THEM to release it right in my region. We need to stop going out of our way to fix the problems given to us by studios and start letting them know that they need to get things right themselves.

That's just one man's opinion of course.

 

[Vincent_P]

But did Anchor Bay include the heavily cut, R-rated version of DAWN OF THE DEAD that was briefly released theatrically as a double-bill with CREEPSHOW in 1983? No, they did not.

Oh well, I guess we have to boycott the Anchor Bay "Ultimate Edition" of DAWN OF THE DEAD now, too (as per John Williamson's comment that he refuses to buy any version of LAND because the compromised theatrical cut is full-frame), since they didn't release EVERY "official" relase version of DAWN OF THE DEAD! HOW DARE THEY CHEAT THE FANS THIS WAY!!!

Vincent

 

[Jesse Blough]

Boycotting both releases because the R-rated version is pan and scan only? I dunno... Just buy the director's cut. Romero probably doesn't even like the R rated cut so he probably doesn't care that it's only available in pan and scan.

I personally hope enough people buy the director's cut so that Universal gives the go-ahead for Romero to make another one.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Jesse,
here's my reasoning for boycotting both, by not giving the proper OAR treatment to the theatrical cut, the one that many horror fans will want because it was the one they saw in theaters first, show's a tremendous lack of respect for both the film and it's fan's, to which I am one of.

So, until they do the theatrical cut right, they get no money at all from me.

 

[Vincent_P]

So if you happened to see say HIGH TENSION during it's U.S. theatrical release for the first time- edited for an R-rating and with half of the film dubbed into English from the original French to boot- you would then boycott the uncut, French-language/English-subtitled release if the cut and dubbed U.S. theatrical version was full-frame only on DVD?

Vincent

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Alright, let me put it this way, i'm just plain pissed off at Universal about this and don't want to spend my money on them right now.

I won't but this in any cut until they get the theatrical one right, it's not up to anybody here to try to figure out why, that's just how I feel about it.

Just one man's personal position on the matter.