World War Z (2013) – Review

Review: World War Z is, while predictable, an entertaining thriller with a message of hope. The film is about the chaos humanity faces when the Zombie Apocalypse overruns the Earth. U.N. investigator Gerry Lane is sent on desperate fact-finding mission to locate patient zero. The hope is: if Lane can find where this all began, maybe he can also uncover a cure or way to combat the infection.

Director Marc Forster combines two kinds of films with World War Z. First, the film feels like a horror thriller, as legions of the undead run rampant in the streets (and behind every corner and down every dark ally). While it is not overly scary, Forster does a great job managing suspense. Like most of these kinds of films, the audience more or less already knows what is going to ultimately happen, but suspense is still key in keeping them invested in the drama by maintaining some level of gripping excitement. Here, Forster keeps the thrills coming, while also avoiding the cheapness of impact cuts. He employs a much more effective and classic style of suspense (playing on the fears of the audience – like darkness, isolation, and fear itself).

Second, the film feels like an international spy or adventure drama – like a James Bond or Indiana Jones film – as Lane hops across the globe following his leads. This international flare brings a great scope to what is more of an intimate story. Basically, the narrative follows Lane only (and the drama of him both wanting to find a cure and get back to his family) with all the other characters being people he meets along the way. Most zombie films also revolve around one character or a small group and their attempt at survival. By including an international scope to the narrative, World War Z feels more epic and sets itself apart from those other films as something different (which is nice).

However, the film working both as a thriller and an action adventure film is contingent on the audience caring about the characters – specifically Lane (as really he is the only protagonist). Forster does a great job here too. The first act is almost entirely dedicated to creating character moments for Lane as he protects his family from the onset of the Zombie Apocalypse before being rescued by the U.N. and set forth on his mission to find a cure. This character work early pulls the audience in, giving them a stake both in Lane personally (which is paramount in the film working as something more than spectacle) and in the survival narrative. It also allows Forster to focus on the story for the remainder of the film.

This summer has been filled with massive action films filled with grander action set pieces than audiences have maybe ever seen before – and also more mindless destruction (with many of the films featuring larger portions of cities being destroyed with hundreds of thousands of faceless casualties – and Pacific Rim has not even come out yet). World War Z also has a huge amount of destruction and death (as humanity is practically on the brink of extinction – like any other apocalypse film), but it feels different. The film carries a message of solidarity and hope – something that our world seemingly needs more of, as at times humanity feels overly fragmented and hostile. It is refreshing to see an action film that while filled with big entertaining action approaches it from a grave perspective instead of gleeful joy and disregard for human life.

World War Z has a strong lead character that the audience cares about, compelling action and drama, and an easy to follow narrative, but it has a few issues as well that hold it back from being something great. Chiefly, the third act feels somewhat tacked on. Forster abandons the international dazzle retreating back into the zombie genre troupe of a small group of people isolated, trapped, and needing to come face-to-face with zombies to achieve potential survival. Essentially, the film just becomes like almost every other zombie movie – and thus extremely predictable, which extinguishes some of the great tension that Forster had cultivated throughout most of the narrative. But, by the same token, this is at its core a small, personal story (in terms of it following one protagonist and his journey) masquerading as a grand international adventure thriller, and thus it seems fitting that in the end the narrative would minimize its scope down to a small secluded group – to makes things feel more intimate.

The bigger problem lies in the narrative feeling incomplete, like it is merely the first chapter to something bigger – and yet, there is no indication that there is anymore to this story. The end is the end. The tacked on ending is somewhat abrupt and feels too easy, although this allows Forster to keep the film at a brisk sub-two hour runtime (while many blockbusters are bloated and overindulgent).

All in all, World War Z is one of the better summer movies to be released this year. It grips its viewer from the opening and holds their attention throughout with a strong lead in Lane and big zombie action moments. It just does not aspire to be anything greater than an entertaining zombie thriller (succumbing to genre troupes and clichés in the end – but there is nothing wrong with that).

Technical, aesthetic and acting achievements: Marc Forster has had an up and down career. He has made some good dramas (Finding Neverland and The Kite Runner), a good comedy (Stranger Than Fiction), but his previous thrillers have not worked (though, I would argue that as a direct companion piece to Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace is solid, and probably provided a lot of useful experience going into this film). World War Z is by far his best action thriller, and maybe his best film to date (still, however, he has never been able to make something great despite his noticeable talent).

Marco Beltrami’s score does a fine job reinforcing the horror/thriller aspects of the tone while giving the action sequences an extra oomph. Ben Seresin’s cinematography is very good as well. Forster’s camera is often frantic matching the disarray that would come from zombies suddenly consuming the Earth’s populace. The look of the film is very desolate with mostly dimly lit interiors. Nigel Phelps’s production design also gives this feeling. Many of the scenes take place in claustrophobic confined spaces. However, despite the supernatural aspect of the narrative (i.e. the zombies), Phelps’s design along with the documentary-feeling camera grounds the film in reality, which helps amplify the suspense and tension.

World War Z does not really offer much to it cast as all the characters appear in small bit roles, save for Lane and two other characters. Plus, the film is much more plot driven than character driven. In these small roles Peter Capaldi, David Morse, and James Badge Dale (especially) are good. Daniella Kertesz is strong as an Israel soldier who accompanies Lane on his mission (it could serve as a mini-breakthrough for her). Mireille Enos is also very good in support as Lane’s wife. She gives a lot of weight to the early character moments. Brad Pitt (as usual) is great as Lane. He is believable in the role and brings a great emotional resonance to the character (the audience really gets behind and cares about him), which enables everything to play bigger.

Summary & score: For a summer film, World War Z is very good. For a zombie film, it is also very good, but not among the genre’s elite. 7/10

Pain & Gain (2013) – Review

Review: Pain & Gain is entertaining, yes, but also stylistically vulgar. The film is about Daniel Lugo, a personal trainer and amateur body builder, who aspires for more out of life, but instead of working hard he decides to kidnap one of his wealthy clients and force him to give up everything he owns. To do this, Lugo enlists two of his bodybuilder friends Adrian Doorbal and Paul Doyle.

In its best moments Pain & Gain is very entertaining and very funny, playing off the sheer hilarity of the ridiculousness of this true story and the odd characters in it. But that said, the film is not nearly as entertaining or funny as director Michael Bay seems to think it is, which leaves it over-long and ultimately a little tiresome.

Its main problem comes from Bay’s pacing and the story’s narrative structure. The first act shows Lugo in his depressed, poverty stricken natural state, which sets the table for why he would even aspire to such a crime in the first place. Bay also extensively uses voiceover narration to divulge background and character drama in an attempt to flesh out his characters to a greater extent than what the visuals offer, and it works well enough. Bay tries to infuse the voiceover narration with comedy as well. The second act features Lugo and company carrying out the crime and living off their spoils. And the third act is their downfall – so, in many ways this is structured a bit like a gangster film. The skeleton of the narrative structure works well and features an involving story, but Bay seems to think his material is brilliantly funny (and in moments, thanks to the fun performances, it is) so he tries to pack in as many comedic beats as he can, somewhat overloading scenes, resulting in the whole ridiculous tone becoming tired during the latter half of the second act.

Suddenly, without the comedy playing quite as well, the film starts to feel slow – because the narrative is not structured as a comedy, but rather as a character based crime drama. Yet, Bay wants the film to play as a comedy – specifically he wants the characters to be complete idiots who do things so that the audience can laugh at them. But, when the joke is not funny anymore where does that leave the narrative? Bay does a great job with making everything funny and entertaining in the beginning, but once the characters are set up and the narrative is in motion Bay’s pacing just does not work anymore because the storytelling is not efficient enough. Again, this is really a comedy, but it is structured and stylized as a crime drama and this disconnect hurts the film in the second half.

Stylistically, Pain & Gain sort of both embraces and denounces excess in American culture. It is odd because Bay seems to want the audience to relate to his characters and even feel sympathetic towards them, and he succeeds. The audience wants Lugo and company to get away with their crimes and likes them, which is ludicrous because the characters are completely unlikable.  Yet Bay completely sets them up to looks like total buffoons constantly, which undermines any connection that the viewer might have formed with the characters. Lugo is the epitome of someone who wants everything handed to them solely because they deserve it. He idolizes characters from gangster films who take what they want (never learning the lesson that they all lose in the end). He wants all the excesses that he sees around him – which are a lot as the film takes place in Miami – but does not want to earn anything; he just wants to have it now and to do that he must take it from someone who already has it.

The narrative suggests that being caught up in this sort of excess striving lifestyle does not work in the long run (like gangster films, Lugo burns brightly but for a moment and pays a big price for it). Yet, somewhat contradictory, Bay’s aesthetic style for the film is nothing but excess, almost to a vulgar level. It seems to celebrate and revel in the world of fast cars, hot women with big boobs, drugs, strip clubs, big houses on the water (even the retired police detective lives right on the water), and so on. It is as if Bay is championing Lugo and his aspirations, while also condemning him (but only because of his stupidity in the manner by which he carried out his crime). All these contradictions work against the film and the viewer’s enjoyment of it.

However, despite the issues with the film, Pain & Gain is at times very funny and quite enthralling. It just asks that the viewer leave behind their own morality and fully embrace the oversexed, bizarre, and comically ridiculous characters and world that Bay presents.

Technical, aesthetic & acting achievements: Michael Bay often makes mind-numbingly noisy and blatantly stupid films – but, he also directs films with a lot of energy and style. When it works, they make for an escapist spectacle entertainment. Pain & Gain falls into that category (and it is probably his best film since his first: Bad Boys – the only other Bay film to cost under twenty-five million), but still feels like it could have been better.

Composer Steve Jablonsky creates a decent score for the film, but it does not really stand out. The best musical moments come from the found music (like Gangsta’s Paradise). Visually, however, the film is very compelling, inviting the viewer into a word of excess juxtaposed with the crumbling sunbaked ghetto that surrounds it, looking on in envy. Ben Seresin’s cinematography and Jeffrey Beecroft’s production design seem to make a clear distinction between the world Lugo lives in and the one he aspires to be a part of, which in turn leads to the audience actually getting behind him as a character. They see his world – decrepit and sun saturated – and then see the nice part of Miami were his victim lives and it is beautiful. In a crazy way, it sort of plays into the class warfare that is quietly gathering steam in America (and around the world).

The characters in the film are slightly one dimensional, as Bay basically just parades them around to be laughed at (which is probably why he added so much internal character stuff in the voiceover narration). The performances, though, are very fun, with the actors giving themselves completely over to the ridiculousness.  Ken Jeong is very funny in a cameo role. Rebel Wilson, Bar Paly, and especially Tony Shalhoub are all good in support and bring some good humor with their performances. The leads, however, make the film. Anthony Mackie is fantastic. He plays Adrian in a much more grounded place, and yet is just as funny as the other two. Dwayne Johnson commits completely to his role as Paul, a cartoonish moron. He is funny, and thus serves his role, but is completely void of real relatable character moments. Mark Wahlberg, like Mackie, is very good as Lugo. His character is the most relatable and is given the most character moments, which he utilizes well. The audience should not like him, and yet they sort of do.

Summary & score: Pain & Gain is an extravaganza of ridiculousness – fun for a while, but eventually it wears thin as it goes on too long. 6/10