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World War Z

EMNofSeattle

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2012
Messages
3,670
Location
S. Kitsap, Washington state
Just when you were starting to think that the Zombie craze was dying off,

World War Z started as a book, in 2006 Max Brooks (son of Mel Brooks) released World War Z set in the present, the book follows the outbreak of a zombie disease in China and a 15 year struggle of human kind to overcome the problem. explored are isolationism, politics, corporate irresponsibility, and the ineffectiveness of militaries who had perfected strategy for the last war they though. The book was well thought out, well researched, and showed excellent mastery of politics and geography.

The Movie does not.

Brad Pitt (already there's a problem) plays Gerry Lane, a former UN interpol agent who has seen some of the worst hot zones in the OCONUS. However by 2013 Lane has simply become an average joe, hanging up the blue helmet for good. or so he thought. Ignoring morning newscasts of unrest and martial law in Asia he decides to take his wife Karen (Merielle Enos, The Killing, Big Love) and the kids to Philadelphia for a fun family date. They get stuck in traffic and tune into the radio, learning a rabies outbreak has spread internationally. ominously people start getting out of the cars and running away while police motorcycles are weaving through the traffic. suddenly out of nowhere the zombies appear, biting and devouring people as they run towards a national guard checkpoint. Lane and his family escape by stealing an RV and hightailing it out of town as the city of brotherly love is overtaken in less time then it take to order a pizza.


Heading south towards newark where the whole city has gone to hell and even the police officers have joined the looting, Lane and his family are saved at the last minute as the Secratary General of the UN orders lane back to service and rescues them from the roof in a black helicopter.

Next Lane is taken across the world in an attempt to lean more about the zombies, starting in South Korea, then Israel, then Wales. with each country practically being a lost cause (actually Israel did pretty good to start with, they just didn't pay any attention to a pile of zombies over taking their wall) Eventually we're left with the silliest of cliffhanger endings that make sure I already don't want to see the sequel.


That's not to say the movie is without its good spots. Lane open carries in New Jersey in violation of the gun control laws, in Korea when Brad Pit is trying to quietly get back to the plane without alerting the walkers, his wife calls him on the cell phone, attracting all the zombies, I think this is actually a hidden message to silence your phone in the theatre. I also love it how they're buying starbucks in the morning and like 5 minutes later the zombies crash the party with the police and national guard having set up road blocks that quick... really? is response time in Philly actually that good?

being zombie lore, firearms feature prominentally. A British doctor kills himself by accident with a glock 19 (despite having been told several times to keep his booger hook off the bang switch) Brad Pitt briefly carries a glock 17. being an action movie, world war Z is subject to the "Remington product placement act" and the Remmy 700 makes one appearance as Brad Pit uses a scoped R700 to kill a looter in a grocery store (who was armed with a pistol) while under fire on his back. (sidenote, even funnier was after the shot a Newark Police Officer appears, and Pitt puts down the rifle and places his hands up, and the officer simply walks right by him and starts filling his pockets with the remaining merchandise) an Israeli soldier dispatches some zombies with her Jericho 9mm, and most of the Israelis are armed with M-4 carbines along with National Guard soldiers in the US. in some scenes some palestinians assisted the Israelis in fighting back zombies, armed with AKMs of course.

All in all 1 star out of 5 for World War Z don't even bother unless you get a movie ticket for free.
 
Last edited:

MAC702

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
6,331
Location
Nevada
Brad Pitt has gotten some terrible roles, but he's also gotten some good ones in which he has been nothing short of brilliant. 12 Monkeys, Inglourious Basterds, and Fight Club were some of his better movies.

Shame to hear about the bad screening of what sounds like it could have been good.

I like books, though, and try to get a hold of this one as I expect it is probably typical of a Tom Clancy novel's fate. Most of the movie adaptations have been horrible, though The Hunt for Red October, the first one to film, was not bad, despite my hatred of Alec Baldwin. Don't even mention The Sum of All Fears. No worse movie adaptation has ever been made in all of history.
 

joanie

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2013
Messages
306
Location
..
I havent seen it yet, I useally wait until it's been around long enough to be on Youtube of buy the DVD cheap.

The Dead Next Door- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ1RjFXoKoo

Return of the living dead parts 1 - 3 was good, kinda got lost on 4 and 5. Others I recomend are "The Dead hate the Living, Zombies Anonyious" American Zombie seems kinda a ripoff of Interview with a vampire, But it has a certain charm. The low budget stuff is often better than the more popular ones.
 

Sorcice

Regular Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2011
Messages
381
Location
Madison, WI
The few parts that erked me:
1) I realize they left it open for a sequel but they never narrowed down what actually caused it.
2) Gerry never picks up any additional weapons after his rifle runs out of ammo until the UN issues him one. Even then he doesn't really make a lot of use of it.
3) the cell phone going off was hilarious but come on, turn the thing on silent.
4) the Dr in whales is a clumsy moron that can't seem to stop making noise.
5) last thing. The Israeli soldier who gets bit should have turned. It takes 12 seconds to turn and she was bit at least 4 seconds before Gerry slices her hand off. I'm calling BS on that one.

/end rant.
 

EMNofSeattle

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2012
Messages
3,670
Location
S. Kitsap, Washington state
The few parts that erked me:
1) I realize they left it open for a sequel but they never narrowed down what actually caused it.
2) Gerry never picks up any additional weapons after his rifle runs out of ammo until the UN issues him one. Even then he doesn't really make a lot of use of it.
3) the cell phone going off was hilarious but come on, turn the thing on silent.
4) the Dr in whales is a clumsy moron that can't seem to stop making noise.
5) last thing. The Israeli soldier who gets bit should have turned. It takes 12 seconds to turn and she was bit at least 4 seconds before Gerry slices her hand off. I'm calling BS on that one.

/end rant.

I think it was terrible because they're capitalizing on the book but it's nothing like the book. in the book the virus builds slowly over a year while the signs to recognize it are in place, but simply ignored by most governments. the zombies don't just "appear" and take over this fast in the book.

also the book dealt with tough moral questions, in the world war Z book in the end the government ends up enacting "the Redeker plan" where they leave the east coast as live bait for the zombies while the US Military gears for total war west of the rockies (the safe zone)

and the zombies were slow and bumbling. I'm just glad I saw this movie at the drive-in theatre so my friends and I could mock it in privacy, it made it more bearable.
 

darkside

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2012
Messages
34
Location
spokane wa
C'mon, its a movie loosely based on the title of a book written by Max Brooks. Thats about where the comparison ends. If you read the book you will wish you were bitten and turned so as to avoid the disapointment that is the movie. If you havent read the book and liked 28 Days Later(the movie) then you just might like this.
Just my humble opinion.:cool:
 

Kopis

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2013
Messages
674
Location
Nashville, TN
after seeing it last night, i can say, i do not like fast moving zombies lol! Movie wrapped up very suddenly and incomplete.
 
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