Review: World War Z

Zombie films these days are having a hard time trying to find new ways of presenting the un-dead. We have had classics like Shaun Of The Dead, 28 Days Later, Dawn Of The Dead, I Am Legend and many more.

One thing I have found fascinating is that Zombies are either shown as slow-walking and pretty easy to get away or extremely fast and eager to bite anything that moves.

With World War Z, it is the fast moving kind. The biggest positives were definitely the CGI sequences of the swarms of zombies just making sure that everyone is converted. But sadly, we have already seen these in the trailers, so there is nothing new to be amazed at sadly.
The scope of this film is bigger then any other zombie film we've had. The film goes to many places around the world, some expected, some very surprising. I won't say the surprise locations as they are not in the trailer, and therefore you can enjoy the surprise.
The only real star of the show was Brad Pitt, and thankfully he does enough to be liked on screen. It wasn't anything spectacular compared to his other roles, but he plays a good enough hero for you to enjoy.

As for the disappointing parts of the film, one bit that I was saddened to see was the lack of gore. Despite it being given a 15 certificate, there is not a lot of gore to shout about compared to the movies I mentioned earlier in my review. One thing me and few of the other people watching with me had a few laughing moments. I did not expect to, and I reckon you will too when you watch it and I know exactly when you will. You may think, why is laughter a negative in this film. Well, that is because it was unintentional and I don't think that it is what the director wanted from his picture.

Overall, I thought it was OK but far too boring for something with a title world war in it. It brings nothing new to the zombie genre table. I felt that it wasn't sure what type of film it wanted to be. The start is promising and you are now expected to watch an action epic that will never give you a chance to breathe. Then it suddenly slows down and gets a bit boring, and it gets back some momentum going into a tense final third. I was happy with the ending, but I think some people will find it disappointing.

Rating: 6/10

My Top 10: Brad Pitt Films

When I was growing up, the poster boys of the film world were always Tom Cruise, George Clooney or Brad Pitt. But what I never realised, until watching a few of Pitt's films was that he can actually back up his looks with his terrific acting skills. For the past 25 years, he has graced our screens with some absolute blockbusters that have ended up quite high up in a lot of our all-time favorites.

I must give an honorable mention to The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. An underrated film that has a dark portrayal of the famous train robber.

Compared to my previous lists, I haven't managed to see all of Pitt's classics. Out of his 56 feature films, I have seen 36 of them. So thankfully I've seen most of them to make a decent top 10 for you. I will rank all of the films that I have seen, and will give a short review of each of my top 10:

36) Ocean's Twelve
35) The Counsellor
34) Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas
33) World War Z
32) Killing Them Softly
31) Happy Feet Two
30) Ocean's Thirteen
29) Mr. & Mrs. Smith
28) Allied
27) The Tree Of Life
26) Ad Astra
25) Fury
24) Bullet Train

23) Megamind

22) The Big Short

21) Thelma & Louise
20) Legends Of The Fall
19) True Romance
18) Sleepers
17) Seven Years In Tibet
16) A River Runs Through It
15) Burn After Reading
14) Once Upon A Time ... In Hollywood
13) The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
12) Interview With The Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles
11) Ocean's Eleven

10) Troy - Probably one of the last great 'swords and sandals' films. It follows the events of the Greek army's plan to invade Troy, lead by their greatest warrior, Achilles (played by Pitt).

It has a great epic feel to it, has a fantastic ensemble cast, amazing action scenes and has a great nostalgia feel to it.

9) Babel - After the success of 21 Grams, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu comes back with this star studded story of multiple stories involving four families that all manage to interlock during the film.
It is quite something to watch and makes you impressed at how you could create something like this. Pitt plays this husband on holiday in Morocco with his wife (played by Cate Blanchett) who get involved in a horrible incident that plays a vital part in this epic tale.

8) Moneyball - Recently seen this Oscar nominated film where Pitt plays a former owner of a Baseball team and manages to re-design a 100+ year old sport.

It is a portrayal of one of the greatest modern tales in Baseball that even I have witnessed as I am a fan of Baseball.
But what makes it great, is that non-Baseball fans will love it as well as fans of the sport.

7) The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button - Winner of 3 Oscars, this film  managed to be haunting, moving and fascinating to the very end.

Starring as Benjamin Button, this quite literally curious case is performed so well by Pitt. Aided by leading actress Cate Blanchett, their relationship is worth giving up a few hours for to witness. I remember the ending being quite disturbing and very shocking to think of if this was a real situation.

6) Meet Joe Black - Saw this one very recently and took my breathe away, and almost brought a tear to my eye. Pitt exceeds everyone's expectations with his performance as Joe Black. Alongside Anthony Hopkins, their on-screen relationship was absolutely perfect in this moving tale. It has a lot of touching drama, romance and a surprising amount of funny moments. Something for everyone.

5) Twelve Monkeys - Only recently seen this and was completely sucked into the crazy vision of director Terry Gilliam's world of time-travel.
With Bruce Willis leading the way, it is Pitt's craziness that manages to get him an Oscar nomination.

Pitt definitely steals the show in this absorbing sci-fi psychological thriller that really makes you think.

4) Snatch - Guy Ritchie's second gangster epic and fan-boy Pitt was desperate to be involved in his next venture and was given the role of Mickey, a fast-talking Gypsy with one heck of a punch. It is quite a performance which shows what he is capable of doing on screen.

The whole movie is very enjoyable to watch and it shows how healthy British cinema is.

3) Inglourious Basterds - His first and so far only appearance in a Tarantino film and made quite a presence in this blood-bath loose portrayal of WWII in Nazi-occupied France.

Pitt plays Lieutenant Aldo Raine, leader of 'The Basterds' and his performances will make you tense, laugh and be in amazement. It's vintage Tarantino throughout.

2) Fight Club - Probably his most well known role. After the success of Se7en, director David Fincher teams up with Pitt once again.

This time as soap maker named Tyler Durden who forms an underground fight club with an office worker played by Edward Norton trying to find meaning to his existence.

1) Se7en - His first blockbuster and in a lot of people's all-time top 10 lists. This dark and disturbing thriller has Pitt playing a young detective being transferred and being aided by another detective played by Morgan Freeman who is on the brink of retirement.

The whole mood of this film was very chilling and Pitt's character's first case ends up changing his whole life.

Review: Man Of Steel

The film I have been most excited to see in 2013, and I can see this ending up leading the summer box-office by the time September arrives.

These days, superhero movies try to present them in a serious way rather than the pantomime we used to see in the past. Both styles are enjoyable in their own way. But I think that after The Dark Knight trilogy, realism in the superhero genre seems to be workable nowadays.

With Man Of Steel, I was hoping there would be a lot of info that would be well explained and flow well into the next scene, rather than putting something in that made no sense whatsoever. One great example of that was Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, which is one of the worst films I have ever seen.

To the movie, and I was satisfied with it. The good stuff is Hans Zimmer's score, the visual effects, and most of the performances.
Henry Cavill did gives us a very different look to Kal-El and Clark Kent compared to the late great Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh in Superman Returns, which I personally think is a lot better then people say. I think Cavill's performance was fine. But when you break it out, I felt that Cavill didn't actually do much. It was a CGI heavy performance. He rarely has moments of dialogue and in the end lacked depth.
However, I don't think that was his fault. I don't he and many others characters were not given the right material to make this as good as it should have been.

Michael Shannon as General Zod was pretty good and very believable. But I still feel Terence Stamp's portrayal of Zod is still the best, despite Shannon putting on a show for us to enjoy. Amy Adams as Lois Lane, I thought was mixed. She did show us that demanding reporter side of her, but didn't show the charm as Margot Kidder did with Reeve.
The performances I felt were the best, were Rusell Crowe as Jor-El and Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Jonathan and Martha Kent. They played great parents and were brilliant at showing us their protective side towards Clark. Crowe was good as Jor-El. It was obvious that trying to better Marlon Brando's portrayal was going to be a tough act to follow, but I think he gave it a good go and that passionate father side came out really well.
We did not see enough of Laurence Fishburne in my opinion as Perry White, so I'm not sure how to comment his performance. One final mention must go to Antje Traue who was a bad-ass as Zod's right-hand person.

I felt the best and most intriguing scenes were the ones with both sets of parents interacting with Kal-El/Clark, and a lot of the travelling scenes when he is trying to find out who he is. There is a beautiful bit between Costner and Cavill that did make me slightly gasp, and I thought that whole bit was played with a lot of heart.

The score by Hans Zimmer is great. It is what you expect with Zimmer and I will definitely be listening to it long after seeing this. The Kyrpton segment I really liked. That set-up the lovely really well. There is also some promising segments, but I felt the 1970 version did it so much better.

As much as I enjoyed it as was never bored. There are problems with it. The structure of the film seemed inconsistent. The flow seemed all over the place. The tone is quite depressing when you think about it.
One thing that I was really surprised was the writing. With David S. Goyer leading the screenplay who has been part of a lot of Christopher Nolan's films managed to not give that much development. It was more about action rather than giving us an interesting story. One big problem relating to the writing was the lack of a believable romance between Superman and Lois. It did not feel believable, it felt forced and the development was pretty much non-existent.
The action scenes are impressive as you would expect. But a lot of it, especially towards the scene seemed a bit over-the-top and looked too digital. They do make the most of everyone's abilities and crank it up a few notches. But sometimes, less is more.
The cinematography could have been smoother. But as Amir Mokri was the cinematographer, I was not surprised to be problematic with it as he has done the Transformers films and that camerawork was hard to make sense what was going on screen. Also, the editing felt jumpy as if I was missing some scenes.

Overall, I did enjoy it a lot, but I knew it did not deliver to want I and many others wanted it to be. I know a lot of people are sort of expecting a Dark Knight feel to it, due to the appearance of Christopher Nolan as producer. But sadly, there is not enough Nolan magic to make it great rather than good. There is a solid mix of Nolan and Snyder's styles that will please everyone. The critics seem to have wanting another Dark Knight and therefore giving it a lot of negative comments.
I don't think it's bad as they say it is. I did enjoy it a lot, and I will want to own a copy of this. But I know it could and should have been better. I was happy to see the technology involved and the explaining the reasoning of certain incidents well to make them believable. It is a solid summer blockbuster and one of the better I've seen this year so far. Just a shame it did not have bit extra to make it great.

Rating: 7/10

Profile: Hans Zimmer

With Man Of Steel coming out on Friday, I thought I would concentrate on the composer for the music of Zack Snyder's latest blockbuster.
Film music is always something I look out for. Over the years, we have heard so many memorable soundtracks that they will never leave us. From other terrific composers such as John Williams, mainly known for his scores for Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' films and Howard Shore, most associated with James Cameron's work and Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

These days, Hans Zimmer seems to be the top dog in the film soundtrack world. His big break was composing the 1989 Oscar-award winning Driving Miss Daisy. Since then, he has gone from strength to strength by composing some absolute classics such as:

Days Of Thunder
Thelma & Louise
Rain Man
A League Of Their Own
Toys
Cool Runnings
The Lion King
Crimson Tide
Broken Arrow
Muppet Treasure Island
The Rock
The Prince Of Egypt
The Thin Red Line
The Road To El Dorado
Gladiator
Mission: Impossible II
Hannibal
Pearl Harbor
Black Hawk Down
Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron
The Ring
Tears Of The Sun
The Last Samurai
King Arthur
Thunderbirds
Shark Tale
Madagascar 1&2
The Dark Knight Trilogy
The Da Vinci Code/Angels & Demons
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest/At World's End and On Stranger Tides
Kung Fu Panda 1&2
Frost/Nixon
Inception

Amazingly, Zimmer has only ever won one Oscar, for his soundtrack of The Lion King. He has also had 7 other Oscar nominations, won 2 Golden Globes for The Lion King and Gladiator and received 4 BAFTA nominations. But I am sure that despite his lack of major success, he has to be one of the most well known composers of our generation.

Here are three clips of what I think is some of his best work. It always makes me happy and has got me through a lot of tough days. I hope he does the same for you:

Review: After Earth

Quite frankly, there is no point warning you for spoilers, because you probably won't see it.
Let's begin with the director, M. Night Shyamalan. He began with successful hits such as The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs. Then he decided to go a bit over-the-top with his odd vision on various topics with The Village, The Happening and the dreadful Lady In The Water. Then his most recent addition was the apparent ultimate stinker, The Last Airbender, which I thankfully have not seen yet and probably never will.

After Earth keeps the trend of Shyamalan's recent works, it's odd, you can see what he is trying to do, but a lot of it just does not work. When I picked this film, it was mainly because of Will Smith, because he is a regularly solid actor who comes with an enjoyable film that gets big box-office figures. Even with his annoying son Jaden co-starring, I was confident the Fresh Prince would save the day. Sadly, Shyamalan casted him to be a boring fearless general. In only a couple of scenes, you could see Will was trying to give his usual element of comedy, but it was not enough to redeem himself. To be fair, he did what he was supposed to do, be fearless and look bored. But it is not going to give him a good image and this is not going to suck you in and you feel the emotions within the film. Despite this being a Will Smith film, you don't see a lot of him. It's all about Jaden. God help us all.
Thankfully, Jaden was not as annoying as he has been. But he still can't act. You can tell he was trying his utmost, but I'm sorry, it's time to go your own way and not tag along with your much cooler Dad.

Amazingly, that's not the worst bit of the film. The story was very predictable and a lot of the build-up was just so pointless. I think Shyamalan just had a small idea and struggled to expand on it. The dialogue is George Lucas quality, and just in case you don't know, that's a very bad thing. Pacing was slow and a lot of scenes are quite boring. Like I said, there is a lot of promise in this story. I was urging Shyamalan to make the most of the plot, but he decided to slowly drag it through the very thick mud.

Thankfully, there are some plus points. Shyamalan usually comes out with a good soundtrack, and delivers another cracker. The visual effects were solid, but it was odd seeing a heavy amount of CGI in a Shyamalan film. Some of the gadgets he had were interesting, but not ground-breaking as you have seen them in previous Sci-Fi's.

Overall, it is nothing new for the Sci-Fi genre. After a promising beginning to his career, M. Night Shayamalan is going down at an agonizingly slow pace. Either make another cult classic, or leave the film business. He's done too many films that are so close to being good, but he continues to come up short or just ruin it completely.

Rating: 6/10