widescreen wednesday - WWZ and White House Down
Yes, it's that time of year when the cineplexes are filled with explosive entertainment. But apart from the high decibel count these two movies don't have that much in common. WWZ might arguably be the better movie but I enjoyed white house down much more.
My problem with WWZ i that i don't do zombie movies. i even found warm bodies scary. and this movie is much scarier than that. so much so that i found myself laughing out loud once or twice more to release the tension than because it was particularly funny. having said that and putting aside the whole zombie thing the plot more or less was coherently fleshed out even though there were some telling signs of the major re-write it went through. But ultimately it is about Brad Pitt heroically saving the world from massed CGI zombies. which does not interest me.
On the other hand Channing Tatum heroically saving the POTUS does. It helps that said president is played by Jamie Foxx more as Jamie Foxx than any real life president. And this movie knows that it is a silly summer popcorn flick and doesn't try to be anything else. So we have light hearted banter even as the rocket propelled grenades and SAMs destroy tanks and stealth helicopters. there is one rather irritating girl who uploads her life onto the internet thereby saving the day but she gets slapped rather than shot dead like almost everyone else so that worked for me. And somewhere along the way Channing Tatum loses his shirt, so he spends the rest of the movie dressed as Bruce Willis in Die Hard. If only Brad Pitt found a reason to lose his shirt I might have enjoyed WWZ more.
My problem with WWZ i that i don't do zombie movies. i even found warm bodies scary. and this movie is much scarier than that. so much so that i found myself laughing out loud once or twice more to release the tension than because it was particularly funny. having said that and putting aside the whole zombie thing the plot more or less was coherently fleshed out even though there were some telling signs of the major re-write it went through. But ultimately it is about Brad Pitt heroically saving the world from massed CGI zombies. which does not interest me.
On the other hand Channing Tatum heroically saving the POTUS does. It helps that said president is played by Jamie Foxx more as Jamie Foxx than any real life president. And this movie knows that it is a silly summer popcorn flick and doesn't try to be anything else. So we have light hearted banter even as the rocket propelled grenades and SAMs destroy tanks and stealth helicopters. there is one rather irritating girl who uploads her life onto the internet thereby saving the day but she gets slapped rather than shot dead like almost everyone else so that worked for me. And somewhere along the way Channing Tatum loses his shirt, so he spends the rest of the movie dressed as Bruce Willis in Die Hard. If only Brad Pitt found a reason to lose his shirt I might have enjoyed WWZ more.