Land of the Dead (**1/2)

Director George Romero returns to the genre he practically invented and defined, and the results are mixed. I enjoyed the first half of the film. Much time is spent showing the effect the Zombies have had on our society. It's interesting to see the humans split into different factions: those with money and those without. For many of them, Zombies have become a way of life. They learn to cope with that fact and take advantage of it. For the Zombies, they're growing smarter. They learn. Heck, one of them, affectionately called "Big Daddy," even wields a machine gun and acts as a leader calling on the others to unite. So far, so good. But then, the movie starts to drag. There's action in it, but it's not very exciting. There aren't a lot of scares, so it's not that scary either. In short, the second half of the film just kind of lumbers along like the Zombies themselves. It's all rather predictable and echoes a lot of what we saw in Day of the Dead, only with fewer guts and gore as it appears that Romero was contracted to deliver an R-rating. If you're a fan of these type of movies, you may dig it. All others should avoid.