world war z | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: World War Z

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Darren

World War Z is a lesson in compromise, a Frankenstein’s monster stitched together out of necessity with the lines very clearly showing. It goes this way and then that way, never really sure where it wants to be in the next act, save that it’s a safe bet there might be zombies. World War Z isn’t as bad as it might have been, but the problem is that it feels like it’s trying so hard to find an ending that it never bothers to excel. It’s not that World War Z is bad, it’s a competently made thriller that works as well as it can with a script that spent most of production in triage. The problem is that it’s never bold enough to do anything genuinely exciting.

Pitting our best man against the zombie horde…

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: brad pitt, facebook, film, george romero, history, List of zombie films, Marc Forster, Max Brooks, Motion Picture Association of America film rating system, Movie, non-review review, review, Twentieth Century, United Nations, Wars and Conflicts, World War, World War I, world war z, zombie | 12 Comments »

Non-Review Review: 28 Weeks Later

Posted on October 30, 2010 by Darren

Welcome to the m0vie blog’s zombie week! It’s a week of zombie-related movie discussions and reviews as we come up to Halloween, to celebrate the launch of Frank Darbont’s The Walking Dead on AMC on Halloween night. So be sure to check back all week, as we’ll be running posts on the living dead.

It’s strange. 28 Days Later felt strangely British, with its almost quaint surroundings and “island fortress” mentality. Filmed in High Definition with an intimate approach, the movie felt somehow more tangible and organic than most of these films, managing a genuine emotional impact that it’s easy to lose sight of in these fantastical narratives – its small scale and quirky design (along with hyper saturation) lent the movie a very distinct feel, the sensation that this was a “guerilla” zombie film – shot in the early morning on abandoned streets rather than closing off sections of town. In contrast, 28 Weeks Later feels a much more managed affair, and a much more conventional one. It’s shot like any other zombie movie, and clearly intended to reach an even wider audience than the original cult hit. It’s a great movie, but one can’t help but get the sensation that the fine polish applied to it undercuts some of the impact.

The army had to find something to keep themselves occupied...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: 28 days later, 28 weeks later, Christopher Nolan, film, Harold Perrineau, Imogen Poots, iraq, jeremy renner, Living Dead, Mary McCormack, metaphor, Movie, non-review review, occupation, review, world war z, zombie, zombie week!, zombies | Leave a comment »

The Zombie Revolution Will Not be Televised…

Posted on June 27, 2009 by Darren

I watched Quarantine with my aunt, uncle and brother last night. It was fairly okay – it did pretty much exactly what it promised on the tin, nothing more nothing less – but it was undermined by a fine third that revealed to us (and the characters) the reason for said outbreak. The reason wasn’t particularly smart or original – it was really exactly what you’d expect, which isn’t what you’re looking for in the final twenty minutes of a horror film. It got me thinking, are these horror films scarier the less we know about the beasts lurking in the darkness?