MY TOP 5 FILMS OF THE SUMMER 2013

The summer movies season is over so it’s time to deliver my top 5 films of the summer.

I watch a lot of films but I don’t see everything and outright ignore certain films (Lone Ranger, Fast & Furious 6). During the summer I don’t watch as many indie films so this list is blockbuster heavy, so without further ado….

#5 - The Conjuring



The Conjuring doesn’t do anything I haven’t seen before but it’s hard to ignore the craftsmanship on display. As a result, what could have been another drive through terribly familiar territory turns into of the most engaging and effective horror films of the year.

#4 - The World’s End



Honestly, I was ready made to love this movie. I’ve loved all of Wright, Pegg and Frost previous works (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) so I’m an easy mark. Still, I was surprised at how much heart and contemplation was on display. In addition to the zany fun and sharp dialogue of course.

#3 - The Great Gatsby



I love Baz Luhrmann as a filmmaker, he’s not for everybody’s taste but he’s given me some of my favorite movie going experiences. Needless to say The Great Gatsby was pretty high on my list of most anticipated film of the summer and he delivered in spades. I was thoroughly engaged with the film from start to film and left impressed with Luhrmann’s restraint in the 2nd half of the film. This was my favorite movie of the summer for a good while.

#2 - This is the End



The cast of This is the End is made up of actors and comedians I love so I was worried it’d never live up. Thankfully it didn’t. I’ve seen the movie twice and each time I laughed so much that I’d felt like I’d just finished up an ab workout.

#1 - Pacific Rim



Guillermo del Toro is one of my favorite and dependable directors. Pacific Rim was right up my ally from the start. This is one of the few films I’ve seen that actually made me feel like a kid again. There were a handful of moments that literally gave me chills. This is a perfect summer film which deserved a much bigger audience.


Biggest Disappointments:

Star Trek Into Darkness

Being a Trekkie, this was the film I was most looking forward to this past summer. Sadly, it left me terribly disappointed. Everything in it was predictable. It wasn’t a huge surprise since so much of it was simply rehashed from previous films. It really seemed like a waste of talent. I really hope the 3rd one, Karl Urban agrees, blazes a new original path. All that being said, I am going to give this another shot on video.

The Hangover 3

I can’t say I had huge expectation for the 3rd film but I’d hoped it deliver some laughs with the non recycled plot. I think I only laughed 2 or 3 times during the whole. Please put a fork in this franchise.


Random surprises:

2 Guns

The trailer was a lot of fun but really didn’t know what to expect with the actual movie. Sure it’s stupid even though it’s overly complicated but its also a lot of fun!

The Purge

The Purge was a lot better than expected especially since I probably would have skipped it if there was something else playing that weekend. Personally I’d love to see sequel to flesh out some of the ideas thrown out.

I think I might have overrated:

Man of Steel

I gave Man of Steel a B- originally but I can’t say I remember much about it outside of a few bits here and there. I’ll give it another watch on video to make sure I liked it as much as I thought I did.

World War Z

Meanwhile, I won’t be watching World War Z again. I did give it a fair shot when I saw it and I think I ended up being too lenient on it. It was decent but fairly generic and forgettable.



That’s it, that’s all of it.

Now on to the Fall movie season!

Cindy Prascik’s Review of World War Z

Dearest Blog, today it was off to the cinema for World War Z.

Folks, the zombie apocalypse is upon us, and it's left to Brad Pitt to turn the tide.

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.

Surprise, dear reader(s), I have actually read the book on which this film is based! The Great Gatsby? No. World War Z? Yes. If anyone's looking for me, I'll be off killing myself for the good of the species.

World War Z is a so-so zombie flick, but a pretty darn good dramatic thriller. Everything is presented in such a grounded way that, had filmmakers elected to use a term other than "zombie," it could have been another Contagion. Tension stays high throughout, and--though I've heard complaints that it's too slow--my attention never strayed. The living dead are appropriately creepy and, as fans will have noted from the trailers, can not only run but climb, a significant change from the usual zombie lore. Sorta made me want to sprint for the car when it was all said and done...just in case!

Brad Pitt is effective in the lead, though the role is hardly taxing. Fans of The Killing will note that Mirielle Enos smiles more in a film about the end of the friggin' world than she does in her weekly TV series...what?? The remaining cast is serviceable, if not remarkable, with the closest thing to a standout being Daniella Kertesz. The kids are a little annoying, but aren't on screen enough that it much matters. Personally, I was delighted to see David Morse and The Hour's Peter Capaldi in small roles.

The strangest thing about World War Z is what it's missing: blood and guts. We've become accustomed to The Walking Dead and its tendency to get up close and personal with zombies gnawing on human flesh, or Daryl Dixon putting an arrow through a walker's eye and splattering brains out the back of its head. You'll find virtually none of that in WWZ, which elects to keep the camera on the person wielding the gun/sword/axe/baseball bat/whatever, as opposed to actually showing a zombie's head getting smashed into a billion pieces. While I'm not saying making the film a gratuitous splatter-fest would have been the better artistic choice, I will say the extremely tame language and lack of any significant gore does leave the movie lacking an edge it probably could have used.

Regular reader(s) will know that vampires are my "thing," not zombies; in fact, if not for the presence of Mr. Pitt, I'd probably have paired my weekly Star Trek screening with Monsters University rather than with World War Z. I also found the book painfully dull, so, while I figured the movie had to be at least somewhat better, my expectations were moderate at best. I'm happy to report I was pleasantly surprised and liked the film much better than I anticipated.

World War Z runs a steadily-paced 116 minutes and is rated PG13 for "intense, frightening zombie sequences, violence, and disturbing images." It bears little resemblance to the book on which it's based, but that's not necessarily a bad thing! Of a possible nine Weasleys, World War Z gets six and a half.

Until next time...




OHMYGOSH, IT'S THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!!

MOVIE REVIEW: WORLD WAR Z

Brad Pitt stars as an ex-United Nations employee racing around the globe in a bid to halt a worldwide zombie pandemic in Marc Forster's sprawling adaptation of Max Brooks' bestselling novel of the same name. James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox, and David Morse co-star in this Paramount Films production. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: Marc Forster

Cast: Brad Pitt, James Badge Dale, Ludi Boeken, Matthew Fox, David Morse

Release Date: Jun 21, 2013

Rated PG-13 for intense frightening zombie sequences, violence and disturbing images.

Runtime: 1 hr. 55 min.

Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Horror

Review:

World War Z, the book, is one of the smartest slants on zombies I’ve ever read. The amount of research that Max Brook put into his heady novella is extensive and well thought out. I personally think the best way to adapt the book faithfully is via a mini series. Of course that won’t happen. The film version bares little resemblance to the book and if book readers can detach themselves from that fact they might be able to enjoy it. It’s a generic but occasionally thrilling blockbuster. Brad Pitt is pretty much the only character that matters throughout. There are other ancillary characters but honestly they don’t matter outside of window dressing. Pitt is tasked with saving the world because he works for the UN doing, um, well something. Either way its Pitt’s show and thankfully he’s one of the few actors strong enough to carry a film like this. The plot littered is logical holes but thanks to his commanding, paternal presence you can overlook them, for the most part. Marc Forster does a solid job in the director’s chair. He crafts some impressively tense sequences throughout. This film is a relentless yet sterile PG-13 funhouse ride filled with big action set pieces. Even the airplane sequence, which I still found rather silly, works. It also confirmed my longstanding theory that Brad Pitt could survive an airplane crash solely based on good looks and charm. Unfortunately, like some rides, its ends abruptly with very little pomp and circumstance almost like it was out of breath and motivation. It’s all easily digestible and forgettable.

B-

[Trailer 2] World War Z

I keep trying to convince myself that this movie won’t be a bloody disaster but the trailers keep telling me otherwise. First trailer ended with the superfast anthill zombie gang and this one ends with zombies on a plane……

[Trailer] World War Z

As the poster tells you this is the cinematic version World War Z starring Brad Pitt. First off, this would have been better off have been named something else since the novel it’s borrowing its name from is a collections of individual accounts about the cataclysmic event.

This, along with some shoddy looking CGI, looks like a run of the mill Hollywood production with Pitt out to save the world against super fast extra climby zombie ant people.