World War Z

If it weren't propelled by Brad Pitt's star power, World War Z would be just another apocalyptic sci-fi zombie thriller with massive special effects. Pitt plays Gerry Lane, a heroic U.N. troubleshooter who winds up saving the planet from a global pandemic. Not that he really wants to; in fact, Lane would rather stay home with his wife (Mireille Enos) and daughters. But when ravenous zombies attack, turning Philadelphia and other cities into urban disaster areas and collapsing the entire social structure, the only way that the U.S. military will shelter Lane's family on an aircraft carrier off the East Coast is if Gerry agrees to accompany a Harvard epidemiologist to South Korea, where the virus may have originated. When that mission fails, Lane teams up with an Israeli soldier (Daniella Kertesz) as the quest for the cure takes him to the spectacular siege of walled-in Jerusalem, and then to a World Health Organization lab in Cardiff, Wales. Loosely based on a 2006 novel by Max Brooks, director Marc Forster's adaptation is a choppy, stilted, CGI-heavy flick, with Pitt doing the generic noble-white-man-saves-the-world bit, while Enos nervously clutches a cell phone and hugs the children. Regardless, this is sure to be popular, and should be considered a strong optional purchase. [Note: Blu-ray extras include both the theatrical and unrated versions of the film, the production featurettes “Outbreak,” “The Journey Begins,” “Behind the Wall,” and “Camouflage” (36 min.), behind-the-scenes segments on “Origins” (8 min.) and “Looking to Science” (8 min.), and bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package (on the Blu-ray edition) for a so-so zombie flick.] (S. Granger)