World War Z / Rated PG-13 for Zombie’s on the attack. They bite. When you get bitten you join the biter’s. Mean group.

Most Zombie movies are shot on budget’s of about 10 thousand bucks using antiquated filming equipment and when necessary on someone’s iPhone. All you need for a Zombie movie is black and white film or a 64gb iPhone. Special effects consists of old donated clothing and extra’s wearing makeup that make them look dead. They walk around looking for victims with dull dead eyes and not much else to do except kill. Change the word kill to audit and you have a pretty good description of today’s IRS agents.

In World War Z all the above has changed. The actor’s playing Zombie’s have do all of the above except now they snap their teeth and bite. Who do they bite? Anyone who is not like them. Most of the Zombie’s are CG effects. There are a lot of them. With a reputed budget of 200 million dollars that’s at 10 Zombie’s per dollar.

Brad Pitt plays a typical family man and some kind of super scientist. He and his family are out for a drive, get stuck in a big city traffic jam when the Zombie’s launch their attacks. They are supposed to be in Philadelphia but Glasgow Scotland is the Philly stand in. The attack consists of virtual herds of out of control Zombie’s run amok. Lots of explosions ensue although the Zombie’s don’t appear to be blowing anything up themselves as they are too busy biting anybody and everybody in sight. Once bitten the recently chewed on become part of the Zombie herd.

Obviously things get pretty desperate for mankind. Only on a few Islands, boats at sea and one particular country are people somewhat free from Zombie attack. They look and act very worried as their weekend’s are now completely ruined. Lots of big set pieces with large numbers of Zombies are pretty scary to watch as they swarm over anyone and everything that impedes them from biting the unbitten.

Brad Pitt is worried about his family which is now living at sea and probably in more danger than they were on land as the current cruise ship headlines might suggest.

Is there a way to defeat the Zombie’s. Can they be have all their teeth pulled so they would only be able to gum their victim’s doing no harm? It’s up to Brad P. to figure it out and save mankind from being completely Zombieized. What would they do with no one left to bite? Wouldn’t make for much of an ending.

Like all of the low budget “B” Sci Fi films of the 50’s the answer will be found eventually. In those films mankind or a least a small town in the desert was always being terrorized by aliens from space, giant insects, giant people, or zombies. The solution always involved something like playing the sound of zoo monkey’s during feeding time and combining that with people singing Xmas carols while suspended upside down over hot coals and sure enough the menace would drop dead. In the most recent incarnation of this story line Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks (1996) had Martian’s who were impervious to Atomic Bombs and laying waste to humankind defeated simply by playing Slim Whitman music and their little green heads would explode inside their helmets. In WWZ Slim Whitman music is not the answer. It’s more scientific.

WWZ turns out to be a cross between the 50’s Sci Fi films and the recent and the big virus killing all film from 2011 Contagion. When you go take something to chew on.

Rated 2.8 out 4.0 verses of gnaw, gnaw, gnaw your boat gently down the stream.