I’ve always eschewed zombie films.
The notion of humans turning into feral beasts and attacking other humans has been anathema to my Indian sensibilities.
Until recently, zombies were not even part of the Indian movie lexicon.
But Brad Pitt admirer that I am, shedding all my zombie reservations, yours truly hotfooted over to the theater to watch World War Z (Brad Pitt is also co-producer).
Made by those with fat wallets (film’s cost is rumored to be $200 million), World War Z is an extremely fast-paced, well-made thriller that hops from Philadelphia to an aircraft carrier 200-miles east of New York City to South Korea to Jerusalem to Cardiff (Wales) before finally ending in calm Nova Scotia (Canada), all in a span of 1-hour 50-minutes.
Delicious Bedlam
World War Z begins on a warm, fuzzy note in the City of Brotherly Love a.k.a. Philadelphia.
A normal day. Commuters heading for work. Former U.N. Investigator Gerry Lane, wife and daughters have pancakes for breakfast.
But listen carefully.
There’s background talk on TV of a virus attack in some parts of the world and martial law being declared.
Moments later, traffic has come to a standstill in Center City, Philadelphia. Just a minute or two later, the zombie invasion is in full swing with the ‘undead’ leaping on windshields with scary thuds.
People run helter-skelter.
Gerry and family are evacuated to an aircraft carrier off NYC, but not before a violent fight with zombies in Newark (NJ).
Philly, Newark, Washington DC…whole nation is under attack.
The President dead, VP missing, DC in meltdown.
Beautiful, smooth build-up to the panic.
Soon a reluctant Gerry is forcibly dispatched on a mission to protect a virologist trying to find the source and cure to the problem.
Adrenaline Rush
Director Marc Forster maintains the adrenaline rush through a taut narrative.
Chaos and panic (particularly in walled Jerusalem) are impressive CGI feats as is the overall photography.
What about acting?
Are you crazy? Who gives a damn about acting in action-thrillers of this genre.
Just sit back and enjoy the killer thriller, will ya.
Director Forster throws in a clue to controlling the zombie attack in the middle of the movie itself but you have to be smart to get it. 😉
Some critics who’ve read Max Brooks’ eponymous novel on which the film is based are hopping mad that the movie diverges so much from the book as to make it unrecognizable.
But I suspect less than 10% of moviegoers will have read the book.
The movie’s ending is a bit abrupt though.
After the nail-biting moments at the WHO vaccine facility in Cardiff, one would have expected a smoother ending.
If World War Z does not turn out to be this summer’s biggest blockbuster, I’d be extremely surprised.
By the way, watch out for the sequel.
World War Z Review – Killer Thriller added by SearchIndia.com on
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Zombies are too Cute to kill.. Wowiee..
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Not in this movie.
They’re shot, stabbed, thrown grenades at etc.
From the trailer, it looks like – they deal with zombies of ultra large scale in number! :-O
Booked for the show tomorrow!
Hey, nice one and it was worth watching.
People were glued to the screen.
And I became a zombie myself.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
It should do well here at the box office.
BTW, did they have a Tamil dubbed version or was it in English.
I hear, these days Hollywood movies are dubbed in local languages in India to get a wider audience.
Yes, mostly. All the bond movies, jackie chan movies, alien movies, godzillas & dinosaurs movies, superhero movies (mostly action genre, you see) did get dubbed. I remember I watched titanic in Tamil way back while in school.
Dubbing is generally restricted to the ‘kind’ of movies that will possibly attract the local crowd to theatres. The other good movies are usually not. (Life of Pi was an exception, since it has an Indian connection). Apart from these, local television channels (Sun / Vijay / Kalaignar / Makkal / etc) undertake dubbing of some of the movies – such as Shawshank Redemption (Kalaignar) and North by Northwest (Makkal, surprising, eh?). But less in number.
This movie and the Man of Steel did not have their Tamil versions. May be, just not yet. But I prefer to watch it in English. Tamil versions are usually a joke.
I hope this is in Tamil. Dint listen though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMl-t7O-bQE
SearchIndia.com Responds:
I wonder if Indian movies can withstand the challenge from Hollywood as the English speaking population expands.
Time will tell.
I remember watching a Bond movie dubbed in Tamil. It was too bad and funny at the same time.
They did a decent job for “Shanghai Noon”.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
One of these days, I plan to watch Terminator in Tamil! 😉
Naan thirimbi varuven (I’ll be back).
I vividly remember this word of caution thrown to Pierce Brosnan in a macho man tone “Neenga 200km vaegathula keezhla vizhlunthukittu irrupeenga … neenga sariyana naeruthala parachutae virikillaena unga thala pooshinikkavaattam udanju poyirum” (You’d be plummeting down @200miles/hr. If you fail to release your parachute your head will explode like a pumpkin). I think “Tomorrow Never Dies”. The whole theater laughed for that scene. 😀
Unfortunately I didn’t see English version at that time so I am not sure what the exact English lines were.
By the way I strongly recommend “28 Days Later”. I rented it a month ago for a third time and reluctant to mail it off. I am thinking about buying it. It has a tremendous amount of emotional impact.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Will watch 28 Days Later next week.
I recommended “28 Days Later” (2002) for few reasons.
1. You’ll notice some interesting things with regards to “I am Legend” (2007) .
2. Even that frame above in WWZ (not the whole) got it’s seed from “28 Days Later”. It’s very subtle.
3. I personally think Danny Boyle should’ve got an Oscar for best directing for “28 Days Later” and not “Slumdog Millionaire”. He was not even nominated for an Oscar for the former. The latter got lucky coz there weren’t too many movies during that particular time due to the Writer’s Guild strike.
Me not saying Danny Boyle did a bad job in Slumdog Millionaire but his work in “28 Days Later” was far more superior.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Will watch 28 Days & review it by Mon/Tue.
I am planning on watching it this evening.
Have you seen “28 days later”?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
No, sweetie!
BTW, it was a full house last night.