Community Corner

MOVIE REVIEWS: Is 'World War Z' a Winner?

Check online reviews, and show times at theaters in the Buford area.

The premise, courtesy of the film's official website:

The story revolves around United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop a pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself. 

Here's what critics are saying:

Directed without flair by the middling Marc Forster ('Quatum of Solace'), 'World War Z' consists mostly of chomping zombie near-misses as Brad Pitt, playing the world’s first useful UN worker, flies around the globe dispatching the undead, unraveling their mysteries and working out a long-term plan against the 'Zekes,' as the Navy SEALs jocularly call them. — Kyle Smith, New York Post 

What "World War Z" has going for it — besides the lazy, brunch-in-pajamas charm of Pitt — is an enormous budget, which lets it tell a truly global story, and an unusual storytelling approach, which separates the film into four distinct acts. — Stephen Whitty, The Star-Ledger

World War Z lifts some of its vérité-apocalypse mood, as well as the terrifying speed with which the zombies move, from Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (2003). Yet this is a much more varied and surprising movie, built around a soberly commanding performance by Pitt as the family man who must leave his wife and daughters on a U.N. command ship as he hops from one trouble spot to the next. — Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

... it's pretty much what you'd want in a summer blockbuster: scary but not-too-gross zombies, a fast-paced journey to exotic locales, a few quite thrilling action scenes, and did we mention Brad Pitt? — Jocelyn Noveck, The Huffington Post

'World War Z' is an intense film, and the intensity has two flavors: The movie feels relentless because it's structured as a series of huge action setpieces in which Pitt tries to get to the bottom of things while fending off zombies in Jerusalem or Wales or North Korea. While those scenes are going big, director Marc Forster often goes small, taking us inside Gerry's brain as he looks around and tries to determine which of the awful options available to him might help him survive long enough to keep fighting. — Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press

"World War Z" is rated PG-13 for intense frightening zombie sequences, violence and disturbing images. The movie runs 1 hour and 55 minutes. 


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