World War bore...

Rating: 2/10 (19 September 2013)

One part 28 DAYS LATER and one part DAWN OF THE DEAD II (which is one part RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD), WORLD WAR Z, with its fleet-footed, teeth-gnashing zombies, may be the final chapter in the seemingly never-ending cycle of zombie films set in motion by George Romero and Company so very long ago. Where to go from here? What's left to say that hasn't already been said a thousand times before? (MUTANTS was a nice variation on a theme, but even there we were watching what was essentially "just another zombie movie." And THE WALKING DEAD, sporadic at best, has milked the concept dry in every way possible.) WORLD WAR Z has its moments, but many of them seem to be unintentionally memorable; such as when the people in First Class aboard a plane are set upon by the folks flying coach- the one percent quite literally being ripped apart and eaten by the 99%; or when the Israelis try to throw up a wailing wall to keep out the infidels, only to find that they've managed to wall themselves IN; or the one true moment of fright in the entire film, when a dying man's eyes, which have rolled back in his head, suddenly drop down again (a direct steal from RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD)... While zombies still have plenty of potential to scare the s### out of us, movies like WORLD WAR Z (and even THE WALKING DEAD, in which characters dispatch zombies without so much as breaking stride, using a seemingly endless flow of ammunition) cheapen the whole experience (ironic, considering the budgets).