WORLD WAR Z REVIEW

United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is topping armies and governments, and threatening to destroy humanity itself.

Starring: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, and Daniella Kertesz

Directed by: Marc Foster

Written by: Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard, and Damon Lindelof

  This is one of those movies that I had a couple of concerns about before seeing. The first one being that there would be too many CGI zombies, and not enough real ones. After all, who could miss the hoards of fake zombies seen in the previews? The good news is that there are some real zombies, and they look pretty good.

  The bad news is that this isn't the typical zombie movie where the audience gets to see a bloody mess as a zombie tears someone apart. The zombies do attack people, but the audience never gets an up close juice picture of the action. I guess audiences will just have to wait for The Walking Dead to return for that (damn PG-13 movies!)

  While lacking some blood, and guts, the action scenes are pretty good. There are a couple of scenes where they are running from zombies of course. What's good about these zombies is that they are fast, and this results in some scenes of utter chaos. One of those scenes takes place on an airplane that quickly gets overtaken by zombies. Being on a plane with fast zombies is definitely not a good situation to be in.

  Besides the chaotic scenes, there are also some intense, and suspenseful scenes. There is one where it’s a pitch-black rainy night, and they have to make it back to the plane. Of course there are zombies out there somewhere. There is also a great scene in a lab full of zombies just waiting for someone to make the wrong move. It kind of reminded me of playing Resident Evil!

  Onto my other concern about the movie, which is Brad Pitt playing the lead character. Honestly, I'm not his biggest fan, but there could have been some worse choices. While I'm still not sure this is the best role for him, he isn't as bad as I thought. Maybe the audience could have gotten a little more variety in his emotions.

  While I’m talking about the casting, I’m a fan of Mireille Enos on “The Killing,” but I just don’t see her married to Brad Pitt (no offense intended). Overall, the acting is pretty good, even as they travel to other countries. Daniella Kertesz, who plays a soldier named Segen, does a good job even though she doesn’t say a whole lot. Again, everything comes back to Brad.

  Going back to the zombies, there is something that is very interesting about them that set them apart from usual zombies. Without giving it away, there is something different about their behavior besides just being fast moving zombies. It’s an interesting theory, and kind of presents a different way of looking at zombies. It also changes the dynamics of who might survive this kind of zombie apocalypse as opposed to who typical survive it. I would love to go in more detail, but it would ruin most of the movie.

  So while I had some concerns going into the movie, I still ended up enjoying it. Yes, it would have been nice to see hoards of real zombies instead of CGI ones. However, real ones probably couldn’t have done some of the things that they did. The few real zombies certainly made up for the fake ones, although it would have been nice to see them chew someone apart. Brad Pitt actually does a descent job, along with the entire cast. The difference in the behavior of these zombies, and the search to figure it out is what really had me hooked. So while not being the typical zombie movie, I still give it 3 pools of blood.

  HorrO

My Thoughts on True Blood Season 6 Episode 2

  So episode 1 really didn't start the season off with a bang. I was hoping episode 2 would get this ball rolling. For a while it didn't look good, and then bang! Something happened that certainly caught my attention. I'll get to that and more in my thoughts on episode 2, "The Sun."

  We have waited and waited, and finally it looks like Warlow is here. We got a quick glimpse of him coming through a portal at the beginning of the episode. Let me ask, does anyone know who the Undertaker is? Yes, I have now reference the WWE in a piece about True Blood. Go figure!

  Ok True Blood, you got me. It's early in the season, and I wasn't prepared. The old man wasn't Warlow the magician. It was Jason's fucking fairy grandfather. I don't know if I'm more stunned he's his grandfather, or that he said "fucking." Such language from fairies!

  It was nice to see that Tara is all right. That was certainly a cool bullet in her. Good to know there is some thought being put into the show at this stage. I was kind of surprised that Pam wanted to give up so easily. She is usually the first to want to just kill everyone. This Eric thing must be really getting to her.

  It was great watching pose as a reporter. He was the total opposite of his personality. I knew that wasn't going work on the Governor. I did think Eric was going to be locked away. Those guards sure gave him his space. Funny how the Governor thought they knew everything about vamps, but they didn’t know he could fly. Sucks cause now the Governor won’t let that happen again. And Eric pulling the smooth vampire trick to float outside the pretty girl’s window. Too bad she doesn’t have her contacts on.

 Arlene was so close to winning for my favorite line of the night when she called Sookie "Missy Hangover." Got to love the comic relief she gives. I hope Patrick's wife just leaves, and there is no revisiting of what happened with the smoke monster. It's over, and lets move forward. On the other hand, I'm not sure what Arlene and Terry provide besides comic relief.

  And speaking of comic relief, here is the winner if this weeks favorite line of the week, Andy. You knew it wouldn't take long for him to win. In his short scene he said, "Hey fairies, I don't know shit about baby fairies!" You know what Andy, I don't either!

  I knew when that group of young people came in the bar that they were up to something. Not just the typical tourist. Is that woman crazy? She wants Sam to tell the world what he is. Totally not a good idea. Civil rights were one thing. Showing humans there are more creatures that they can't explain roaming the streets is another thing. Although if there are vamps, why wouldn't people expect there to be other things out there?

  And Mr. One Scene continues his title run. Alcide and Martha taking Emma from Sam just wasn't right. And attacking Lafayette, totally uncalled for. Hopefully he puts a curse on them or something. I'm definitely going anti-wolf now!

  Love interest alert! Love interest alert! Wow, just last week I was saying how Sookie might not have a love interest for a while. I can’t believe we are going to go down this road again. And now with a fairy! This won’t be exciting. What will be exciting is when Sookie gets to blast Warlow with that ball of light. I’m guessing she ends up using it on Bill instead. That would be more interesting. Let grandpa take care of Warlow.

  And now to the moment I mentioned at the beginning. Lifeless Bill, just sitting there dreaming away. Who knew he could be so much fun while doing absolutely nothing? That was a total shock, surprise, freaking unexpected, and whatever else words you can come up with moment. That woman just walking backwards exorcist style was so awesome! And then the blood just flying from her to Bill was so nice! Oh, and ugh fake, but still nice! I think that quickly ranks high on the top weird things that have happened on True Blood.

  So Bill can see the future now! His powers are growing. I look forward to seeing what he can do next week. As I figured, it looks like it might be up to him to save the vamps, and not Eric. Good luck with that! I will wrap this up by saying this certainly was better than episode 1. However, they still have some work to do to get back to True Blood standards. Until next week! Now to check out www.babyvamp-jessica.com.

  HorrO

My Thoughts on True Blood Season 6 Episode 1

  Waiting no longer sucks unless you are still waiting for Dexter (yup still sucks). We are finally back to the land where naked evil Superman flies around, and Mary Poppins and her brother have to come up with a way to stop him. Sounds like a bad comic, but it’s not. It’s just True Blood being True Blood, and it’s good to have the funny character descriptions back. So lets take a look at episode 1, “Who Are You, Really?”

  First, I’m glad they started where they left off, which was expected. I hate when they fast-forward months ahead (cough Falling Skies cough). However, the group’s escape really wasn’t as dramatic as I wanted. It was almost too easy. I guess we got all the death, and craziness in the season finale. It was cool seeing Billith take off like Superman (thanks Jason).

  Then the group started not being a group, and we got to see where the characters are going to start off the season. As mentioned, Eric and Nora look like they are going to be the ones tasked with stopping Billith, which looks to be harder than they original thought. I’m not sure what Eric can do, but maybe Nora can figure something out. That is if she gets her mind off Sookie.

  Oh Sookie, you got your house back, and are going to try this “I’m going stay away from vampires” thing again. Not going to happen. She doesn’t seem to get it. It’s obviously early, but could we see her without a love interest again. No Bill, no Eric, and no Pack Master, who looks to be doing all right for himself. That’s fine with me, as I’m exhausted with her love triangle. If she really is going to make the effort to stay away from vampires then maybe she should focus on helping Jason.

  Jason certainly needs all the help he can get. So much anger in that boy. And he wonders why his parents are so racist. Trouble just seems to keep finding him. Maybe he should try not walking in the woods, or on the side of the road at night. He runs into things like werepanthers, and now Warlow. I know you are slow Jason, but you have to have learned by now it’s not a good idea to get in a stranger’s cars. Speaking of Warlow, is he a vampire magician?

   And onto another character who isn’t a stranger to trouble, Jessica. Yea lets go back to Bill, who just went from Bill to a pool of blood and back to Bill. Good idea right? I guess the power of your maker is just that strong. If this was anyone else but her (and Jason) I would think she can’t possibly buy this sweet Bill act. Then again, why not be by the side of the most powerful vampire.

  Now to the person I felt most sorry for in this episode, Pam. Eric really let her have it. He was a complete asshole to her. I know it’s hard, but she really needs to let him go. She really hasn’t had him since Sookie came into the picture. Now that Eric has bigger vampires to fry she needs move on. Move on to Tara? Tara seems to hope so. I think it will be fun seeing more of them together, as they both always speak their minds. However, they are too similar to last.

  I did feel a little sorry for Sam, but I really couldn’t care less about Luna dying. I may have been a little sad for her daughter too, but that storyline just wasn’t cutting it for me. It’s cool seeing them change into different animals, but that’s it. So now Sam gets to play daddy? Hopefully they can come up with something better for him to do than that.

  I guess they knew the show was airing on Father’s Day because Sam wasn’t the only new father in town. Enter the comic relief… Andy and his litter of baby fairies. For a second it looked like it was going is so much fun watching Andy handling all those babies. Then to no surprise they were several years older. I so saw that coming. Those kids might be leaving the house in a couple of weeks. See Andy, fatherhood isn’t that hard after all.

  So let me get this straight. The Walking Dead has an evil Governor, and now True Blood does too! Hmm, I don’t know about that. I guess True Blood always seems to keep some kind of politician involved in their storylines. Well, if True Blood’s Governor is going to match The Walking Dead’s Governor, he better be supremely evil. It looks like he has a plan for the vampires. Lets see what kind of damage he can cause.

  Or will Billith cause the real damage? A blood soaked Billith looked like he was ready to destroy the world for a second, but then it was back to just plain Bill. Bill with maybe a new power or two, and the ability to not die by being staked. So what did you think of that ending with Lilith apparently not being completely in Bill, and then returning to him? What the hell is going on? I mean, is she in him or not? I wonder what Lilith’s end game is, especially now that vampires are going to be hunted down by humans like never before.

  A couple of more things, and then I will wrap this up. As always, I have to include my favorite line of the night. It has been a long time so I’m out of practice. I really didn’t pick up on anything that special so I will start small. I was amused when Sookie and Eric were in the elevator, and the lights went out. Sookie’s hand turned on, and Eric said, “handy!” I know, what a weak beginning to my favorite line of the night, but it’s just episode 1. Hopefully they will have something better next week.

  I also have to mention that little poll they had going in the pre-show about the baddest character on the show. I’m so glad that wasn’t even a close one. Of course the King was the baddest character they’ve had. The King rules even in death. Man do I miss him!

  So this wasn’t the most amazing season opener ever. It seemed more like an episode to set things up. I don’t know what you are expecting from this season, but I’m expecting some good battles between humans and vampires. I know that will please the crowd that is tired of seeing the focus of the seasons being on all these new creatures. Lets just get down to some dirty and bloody human and vampire killing. Now back to waiting for episode 2, and Dexter!

  HorrO