Pitt "Acting" On Very Bad Advice

Rating: 1/10 (8 July 2013)

Looking at World War Z (which ultimately this review will urge you NOT to do) you have to wonder if Brad Pitt was the recipient of a lot of really bad advice? First, and perhaps most astonishing, this is his baby. He is listed as producer. Maybe the advice went something like, "Brad sweetie, Do what Tom Cruise did. DonÕt wait til Hollywood remembers you and sends you a good script. Get your own script and run the production yourself. Like Tom did with "Jack Reacher." Good advice on the surface, until you realize that Cruise not only purchased the rights to the Reacher series ("the" top selling action fiction today) but decided to cast himself in the lead -- even though the physical dimensions of Reacher, as written by the series' author, Lee Child, compared to Cruise himself, bring to mind the finale in JACK THE GIANT SLAYER.
The advice-giver also forgot to mention to Brad that JACK REACHER was a box office flop. Oops.
We can also imagine that the very same advice-giver might have mentioned that, late in his career, Paul Newman used to play against type ("his" type, defined in dozens of films) and did so successfully. Here in World War Z Pitt also plays against type, and does so to a fault -- many critics have lamented that, if you didn't see the Pitt name on the credits, you would have no idea you were watching a mega-star.
Oops again.
One good thing about film (aside from the fact that watching it is fully optional, no one is going to FORCE you to see it) is that the first 20 minutes probably set a record for non-stop action. Not sure this is a good thing? Several times I actually WANTED THE ACTION TO STOP so I could figure out what I was seeing, but that clearly was not the intention of the director.
The ending is odd, and discussed elsewhere. Google it.
All in all, the perfect film to see if the day ever comes when zombies are actually taking over the world, the gas stations are out, the ATMS are broken, and you only have 2 hours left to live anyway.