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Hey kids,

Yes, it’s true. It’s mid-August and these are films that I saw back in June. You see, what had happened was....

No, no excuses. Just changes and life and adjustments and distractions and priorities and so on. As some of you might have noticed, I’ve also gotten quite a bit gabbier over the past year, at least about certain films. Once the master of the capsule review, now it seems I can’t stop yakking once I get started. And having spilled that much virtual ink, I then feel obliged to track down a few images to break up the wordy beast. Final result? It takes longer to write a review, and consequently, I don’t have as much time to watch movies (which was half the reason why I was writing capsule reviews in the first place!). Add in the ongoing time-management issues of rehearsals and performances and other artistic endeavors (such as a certain booky wook that will soon be seeing the light of day – stay tuned) and what you get is what you see.

The happy/sad news is people keep telling me that they really enjoy reading these longer reviews with all the pretty pictures, especially since most aren’t reading them until after they see the films in question anyway. (I can relate to this, being the spoiler-shy purist ninny that I am.) So, if it’s a post-show chat we’re looking for, might as well ramble on and that’s probably the direction we’re going to continue to head. As a result, there are going to be some films that get the “star treatment” and some for whom the time-honored Fool’s Views Haikus™ are going to have to suffice. Obviously, if you want to hear more about a certain flick, drop me a line and I’ll be happy to jaw on a bit about it.

What I don’t want is this nasty ongoing habit of finding myself weeks and months behind schedule in terms of a weekly Fool’s Views report. So, we’re going to get a little more rigorous about posting in a timely fashion, and then expanding our coverage as time and enthusiasm allows. How’s that sound, true believers?

As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.

Enjoy!



HORROR:

Baba Yaga (aka Kiss Me Kill Me) (1973) (2nd viewing) d. Farina, Corrado (Italy)

Sassy shutterbug
Meets possessive lezzy witch
Holey floor, Batman

Earth Dies Screaming, The (1964) (1st viewing) d. Fisher, Terence (UK)

Where is everyone?
Robots, boiled brains, white eyes
Solid Brit sci-fi

Gorilla at Large (1954) (1st viewing) d. Jones, Harmon (USA)

Hot Anne, skinny Cam
Two times Lee, Ray, George B.
Star studded ape flick

Purge, The (2013) (1st viewing) d. DeMonaco, James (USA)

Fine invasion flick
Enjoyable high concept
Just don’t think too hard

This is the End (2013) (1st viewing) d. Goldberg, Evan / Rogen, Seth (USA)

Stars playing themselves
Decent laughs if sometimes strained
Worth your Redbox buck

Venom (1981) (1st viewing) d. Haggard, Piers (UK)

Poisonous snake loose
Great scenery chewing cast
Silly serpent-cam

World War Z (2013) (1st viewing) d. Forster, Marc (USA)

Megabucks zom flick
Not the book, but not half bad
Missed seeing red stuff

**CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW**





KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY:

Manson Family, The (2003) (2nd viewing) d. VanBebber, Jim (USA)
In the Belly of the Beast (2001) (1st viewing) d. Chisholm, Alex (Canada)
VanBebber Family, The (2005) (1st viewing) d. Gregory, David (USA)

Helter Skelter time
One great feature, two fine docs
Worth the Blu-ray bucks

**CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW**




CIVILIAN:

Gymkata (1985) (1st viewing) d. Clouse, Robert (USA)

Kurt is no badass
Which just makes it funnier
Pommel that horse, boy

Man of Steel (2013) (1st viewing) d. Snyder, Zack (USA)

Big Bam Boom Blah Blah
Huge yawntastic action scenes
Waste of money, time

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) (1st viewing) d. Abrams, J.J. (USA)

Thin spineless cartoon
Zippity doo dumb effects
Just watch Wrath of Khan



2013 Totals to date: 171 films, 160 1st time views, 91 horror, 53 cinema

World War Z (2013) d. Forster, Marc (USA)

Ostensibly based on Max Brooks' bestseller, one has to wonder why producer/star Brad Pitt even bothered to option the rights considering how far the final product strays from its source material's tone and structure. That said, as far as epic Hollywood undead extravaganzas go, this one gets far more right than wrong in doing what it sets out to do.

Eschewing Brooks' reflective oral history take on the zombie apocalypse, screenwriters Matthew Michael Carnahan, Drew Goddard and Damon Lindelof instead deliver a linear narrative, with ex-government operative Pitt and his family caught up in the escalating tumult, depicting with ground level immediacy scenes in their native Philadelphia that are presumably echoed around the globe.

Regardless of one's personal predilections in the slow/fast zombie debate, there's no denying that the supercharged undead horde visuals - wheeling and turning like flocks of birds - are impressive and elicit a genuine emotional charge. Pitt does fine work as an ordinary extraordinary man in hyper extraordinary circumstances. Within the fevered pace and pitch, it's slightly frustrating (especially in a post-Walking Dead world) that the gore quotient falls decidedly on the dry side of the fence. A few memorably juicy set-pieces (the head/crowbar extrication moment comes to mind) would have gone a long way - the bloodless route feels, well, kind of anemic.

For his part, Forster seems equally at home balancing scenes of mayhem and pandemonium (airplane attack, the anti-zombie wall) with quieter human moments, but his finest hour might be when he ramps everything down to a whisper for an outstanding suspense sequence in the abandoned hallways of a disease research center.  The open ended conclusion indeed lends itself to the prospect of sequels, but it also satisfies in a classic "hopeful start to a long road ahead" fashion.

Taken at face value, i.e. it's not the novel, it's not Walking Dead, etc., WWZ survives as a fine slice of big budget monster movie making.