World War Z

World War Z - Dir. Marc Forster (2013)

Sometimes a movie's reputation precedes it. In the case of World War Z, people were ready to rip into it long before its release. The film was plagued with production woes as the studio clashed with the director. The release date was pushed back from December 2012 to June 2013 to allow extensive reshoots after a climactic battle in Moscow was thrown out. It seemed less and less likely that Paramount would receive any substantial profit for their Herculean labors as the budget ballooned to over $200 million. World War Z is hardly dead on arrival, but it won't set the world on fire.

World War Z is loosely based on the best-selling novel by Max Brooks, the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. The original book is one of those works of fiction described by many as unfilmable. World War Z was written as an oral history recounting the global pandemic of the undead and influenced as much by Studs Terkel as George Romero. Told from multiple perspectives, it was steeped in geo-politics and revealed how various governments and cultures dealt with the zombie outbreak. Although J. Michael Straczynski's first draft stayed faithful to the novel, nearly all of the source material was thrown out in favor of building a slam-bang action franchise for Brad Pitt.

Most of the source material is tossed out as Pitt assumes the role of Gerry Lane, a United Nations investigator whose job duties are only vaguely defined. He’s been in war zones before and has happily left that life behind for domesticated bliss with his wife (Mireille Enos) and daughters (Abigail Hargrove & Sterling Jerins). A seemingly normal morning of traffic in downtown Philadelphia erupts in chaos as ravenous hordes of infected people swarm the streets. They quickly bite and infect others as the Lane family barely escapes. They are airlifted to sanctuary aboard a U.S. Naval vessel at sea. In order for his brood to stay, Gerry must venture out into the world with a team of specialists to track down patient zero and find a means to save the hopelessly overwhelmed human race. Gerry’s journey takes him to a military base in South Korea and Jerusalem where the Israelites have built a wall around the city to protect themselves.

World War Z unfolds just like a video game with the protagonist embarking on a series of mini-missions, accomplishing a minor goal, before moving on to the next level. The climax certainly feels as if it were created after a marathon session of Resident Evil. It doesn’t help that we don’t care a lick about the majority of characters. The role of Gerry Lane is essentially a blank slate. Gerry’s desire to reunite with his family is his only perfunctory trait. Brad Pitt is unable to put his own stamp on the character and one could easily envision another Hollywood leading man (Tom Cruise or Will Smith) substituted with little discernible difference. The choppy nature of the story can be blamed on the screenplay being passed through the hands of Matthew Michael Carnahan, Damon Lindelof, and Drew Goddard with uncredited on-set rewrites by Christopher McQuarrie. With plot elements constantly in flux, many supporting players saw their legs cut off in the editing room. Gerry’s wife, Karin, is one of the more glaring examples. Instead of a fiercely determined mother, we get a whimpering woman waiting for her man to return home. Matthew Fox is apparently in the film, but I couldn’t tell you who he played or when he appeared. Great character actors like Mortiz Bleibtreu, Pierfrancesco Favino, and Peter Capaldi (the hot-tempered Malcolm Tucker from In the Loop) show up in the revamped third act, yet are simply credited as Doctors to show you how much thought was put into their parts.

One of the few folks to make an impression is the relatively unknown Daniella Kertesz as a tough Israeli soldier. Another is James Badge Dale, who was exceptionally impressive as a cancer patient in Flight and a menacing henchman in Iron Man 3, as a cocksure Army Ranger.

Director Marc Forster’s resume is buoyed by acclaimed indie flicks such as Monster’s Ball, The Kite Runner, and Finding Neverland. However, he hasn’t displayed an ability to handle big-budget action movies. Critics lambasted his direction on Quantum of Solace and there are moments in World War Z that harkens to that lesser entry in the Bond franchise. A sequence where the Lanes escape up a flight of stairs is incomprehensively constructed in the manner of the opening chase scene from Quantum. The larger scale set pieces come off better as Forster knows well enough to step aside and allow the digital effects teams to do their work. World War Z does get off to a rousing start thanks to the chaos in Philly and a pulse pounding score by Marco Beltrami. The way in which Gerry counts down how long it takes for a victim to become infected is cleverly done. The pace slows a bit until the zombies overrun Jerusalem in a thrilling middle section that is followed by the film’s best scene when a rabid stowaway infects a plane full of passengers.

While most zombie movies deal with a small group of survivors, World War Z is all about how the entire world handles a zombie outbreak. And that’s where it shines. It’s just a shame the film doesn’t have a tight grip on capturing smaller, intimate moments. The best zombie movies have always been allegorical in nature. George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was a metaphor for rampant consumerism. Don’t expect any pointed jabs about modern culture with World War Z; it’s only concerned with being a slam-bang summer blockbuster.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

Alex Cross

Alex Cross - Dir. Rob Cohen (2012)

Is the world truly prepared for Tyler Perry: Action Hero?

Perry has carved his own little niche in the film industry by writing, directing, producing, and starring in a string of comedies and dramas. Each picture has found box office success, despite frequent critical derision. His casting as James Patterson's famed character seems little more than a calculated marketing decision. Perry has yet to distinguish himself on a project not his own, outside of a brief cameo in Star Trek.

The character of Alex Cross is a detective and psychologist, who first appeared in Along Came a Spider, published in 1993. Morgan Freeman previously played Cross in an adaptation of that novel and the sequel Kiss the Girls. Development began in 2010 to reboot the franchise with Idris Elba originally attached as the lead.

Here, Cross (Perry) is a lieutenant in the Detroit police department and the father of two kids. Cross is mulling over a transfer to the FBI in D.C. for a profiling gig when his wife, Maria (Carmen Ejogo), elatedly announces a third child is on the way. A cushy desk job and a quiet domesticated life aren't in the cards with the arrival of a twisted serial killer calling himself the Butcher of Sligo (Matthew Fox). The Butcher has also earned the nickname of Picasso for the surreal charcoal drawings he leaves at the scene of his crimes.

While Perry will bring in many of his loyal fans, he won't win any awards for his wooden performance. He delivers the same flat line readings whether he's cracking wise with his partner and childhood friend Tommy Kane (Edward Burns once again cast as an Irish cop) or ominously throwing psychobabble terms to describe the villain ("He's a narcissistic sociopath…"). He's even less convincing as a gun-toting badass and Rob Cohen's choppy direction doesn't help. Cohen may have kicked off the Fast and Furious franchise, but his initial installment was the cheapest looking and least thrilling of the series, which got slicker and more exciting in the hands of Justin Lin. The climactic fight scene between Perry and Fox is nothing more than a series of brief and abstract close-ups.

The supporting cast with actors such as Rachel Nichols, Jean Reno, and John C. McGinley as the clichéd police captain is largely wasted. At least, Matthew Fox gets the opportunity to chew some massive scenery as a lean, mean torture machine. In spite of sharing his scenes with Perry, Giancarlo Esposito gives a good performance as a local crime lord. There's also Cicely Tyson as Cross's "Nana Mama," a role that might have been more interesting had Perry pulled double duty as Nana Mama Madea.

Alex Cross is supposed to be the start of a fresh, new franchise, yet it comes off as a stale pilot for any of run-of-the-mill police procedural clogging up network TV. There are more thrills and chills to be found in your average episode of Criminal Minds.

Rating: * (*****)

Smokin' Aces

Smokin' Aces - Dir. Joe Carnahan (2007)


Is it possible for a movie to have a ton of stuff happening, but have nothing happen at all? Sure, that movie is called Smokin’ Aces, a tangled web of uninteresting plotlines and anarchic filmmaking. The film is like It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World filtered through the eyes of Quentin Tarantino, then filtered again through the lens of Guy Ritchie. Not surprisingly, Joe Carnahan first emerged among the pack of indie filmmakers of the post-Tarantino era. His debut film Blood, Guts, Bullets, and Octane followed in the footsteps of Ritchie’s action/comedy Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Carnahan gained some instant credibility with the gritty crime drama, Narc, which won over Tom Cruise as a fan. Cruise would help Narc gain a wider release and hired Carnahan to direct Mission: Impossible III. The two had creative differences and Carnahan was later replaced by J.J. Abrams. Looking at Smokin’ Aces, it’s easy to see why Ethan Hunt gave Carnahan the boot.

The focal point of the story (such as it is) is a Vegas magician named Buddy “Aces” Israel (Jeremy Piven). Israel’s shows garner a strong following with the local mobsters and pretty soon he’s playing cops and robbers with the big boys. Things don’t work out and Israel is arrested, but promptly skips bail to hide out in a penthouse in Lake Tahoe. Seeing him as a liability, mob boss Primo Sparazza puts a million dollar bounty on the head of Israel. Soon, contract killers and assassins come out of the woodwork to take on the job. Accepting the job are Georgia Sykes (R&B singer Alicia Keys) and her lover Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson), master of disguise Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan), the sadistic Pasqual Acosta (Nestor Carbonell), and the psychotic Tremor Brothers, Darwin (Chris Pine, the new Capt. Kirk), Jeeves (Kevin Durand), and Lester (Maury Sterling).

The FBI wants to get their hands on Israel, seeing him as a star witness to topple organized crime. Deputy Director Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia) puts agents Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) and his mentor Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta) on the case. Not to be counted out are a trio of bail bondsmen Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck), Pete Deeks (Peter Berg), and Hollis Elmore (Martin Henderson) who also want to capture Israel. There are still a few other characters that I left out, but I can barely remember half of them. Thank goodness for my old friend Wikipedia.

The first half hour of the film is practically dedicated to exposition. We are methodically introduced to each character and whatever history they have. None of this backstory is particularly interesting or, at least, isn’t told to us in any sort of interesting way. We’re told the Tremor Brothers are neo-Nazi rednecks, but nothing they do or say is any indication that they are neo-Nazis or rednecks. They just dress oddly and carry around big guns and chainsaws. Carnahan seems to be tossing a bunch of goofy caricatures onto the screen to cover up his lack of writing skills. There’s a wacky kid with ADD who practices martial arts and speaks in gangster slang that shows up, if for no other reason than he’s a wacky kid with ADD who practices martial arts and speaks in gangster slang. The same goes for another scene where Bateman’s character wears women’s underwear. I don’t know who he’s supposed to be or what he’s adding to the story, but he’s wearing a bra and panties, so Ha ha ha.

Muddying up the proceedings even further is a subplot involving the cold case murder of an undercover FBI agent. First, the heavy-handed resolution of this B-story can be seen coming from a mile away. Secondly, it feels like something from a different film. In all honesty, I might have enjoyed the film if Carnahan went straight for the jugular and made this an orgy of carnage, bullets, and bloodshed. I could have been happy to check my brain at the door for a battle royal between hitmen and scumbags. Instead, we get this pseudo-FBI thriller/mystery element thrown in to add even more exposition than needed.

I’m shocked that such a hackneyed script was able to acquire such an amazing cast including an unrecognizable Matthew Fox. I’m even more taken aback that Carnahan does absolutely nothing interesting with any of them. Having far too many characters leaves little room for the them to breathe and develop. Not that Carnahan is very interested in that sort of thing, prefering anarchic mayhem and bad jokes.

I’m a big fan of Piven and not just as Ari Gold. I always thought he stood out in the supporting roles he’s played in films like Grosse Pointe Blank and Old School. As Buddy Israel, Piven isn’t so much a humorous character as a man who degenerates both physically and emotionally. However, I couldn’t help but think he could have done more. Reynolds who can display a great, cheeky humor doesn’t get the chance to do any of that here. Andy Garcia is another of fantastic actor wasted in a nothing part as he just sleepwalks through his role. About the one who’s a little more interesting, as an actor and character, is the debuting Alicia Keys as hitwoman Georgia Sykes. She and Tarija Henson add a tough feminine touch to the otherwise testosterone heavy production. It’s too bad they didn’t get meatier scenes. It also doesn’t hurt that Keys looks great in fishnet stockings and thigh-high leather boots.

Smokin’ Aces is about a decade too late to join up with the other Reservoir Dogs, Lock, Stock knockoffs. The film isn’t nearly as hip and cool as it makes out to be.

Rating: * 1/2

Vantage Point

Vantage Point - Dir. Pete Travis (2008)

Rashomon if it had been remade by a Michael Bay knockoff (McG, Simon West, I'm looking at you).

Cliched, derivative script full of stock characters tricked out by a gimmicky premise to fool you into believing you were watching something substantial.

Speed Racer

Speed Racer - Dirs. The Wachowski Brothers (2008)

A cinematic sugar rush that's more eye sore than eye candy.

Like playing Mario Kart after snorting a line of pixie sticks and mainlining Jolt Cola.