Land Of The Dead – Unrated Director’s Cut:
HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format
Picture:
B/C+ Sound: B Extras: B- Film: B-
It looked
like George Romero’s Land Of The Dead
(2005) was a film that would break even thanks to its uncut DVD version and
foreign markets. Well, not only did it
do well enough to make up for its erroneous R-rated U.S. theatrical cut’s poor
performance, but it has done better than expected in the longer term to the
point that it looks like Romero will get to do a fifth installment.
My
feelings have not changed about the film since I last viewed it and looking it
at it a year later makes al the missed opportunities more obvious. The only ironically amusing part is that the
near-future city modeled on Pittsburgh where all the downtown buildings are
living quarters except for their first floors being businesses is exactly the
type of revitalization the city is giving itself. Prices for the new condos are high and even
causing a rush to buy.
The link
to my original review can be found at:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2965/Land+Of+The+Dead+-+Unrated+Director's+Cut
With that
said, Universal has now decided to make the film one of its early HD-DVD titles
and released it as one of their Combo format version with HD-DVD on one side
and regular DVD on the other. The HD-DVD
version with its 1080p digital High Definition image is just that much better
than the previous DVD versions and certainly better than this new DVD
side. The used of digital and
cost-cutting obvious sets and other tricks are more obvious, but this looks
more like the 35mm film than the previous versions and is the preferred way to
see it despite its flaws.
The anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 x 1 image on the DVD side is awful, washed out and looks like a
degraded second generation mess versus the regular DVD on its own. This now is the successor to Rumor Has It… as the worst DVD side of
one of these discs to date.
The sound
is another matter. The DTS on the DVD
side is as strong as ever, but oddly, is not included on the HD-DVD, which only
features Dolby Digital Plus. I was
reminded that the so-called Plus format was the same exact regular pumped-up
Dolby Digital on the brief D-VHS format and the DTS simply has some qualities
this higher Dolby mix does not have.
Fans who might have wanted Dolby TrueHD should know that the mix was
never that sonically sound, so the DTS here is as good as it will probably get.
The
extras are the same as the previous DVD and now the pressure will be on to see
the previous Romero zombie films in HD.
For the record, Anchor Bay did the original Romero Dawn Of The Dead and Day Of
The Dead in HD transfers for their DiviMax regular DVD versions, while I
have lost count of the bad transfers for the original Night Of The Dead, so who knows when that will surface in HD. Universal has the Dawn Of The Dead remake to issue in HD-DVD and a Day Of The Dead remake is in
production.
Even with
some issues, this will be a sought after HD-DVD and Universal knew that, which
is why we are getting it ahead of so many other films in their catalog. Now, for that next zombie film.
- Nicholas Sheffo
