Movie Review: World War Z

Brad Pitt and family flee the zombie apocalypse in "World War Z"

Reviewed by NATHAN COOK

Doubters thought this apocalyptic effort could only end in disaster, but the latest zombie thriller manages to be surprisingly good and constantly engaging.

It starts out like any regular day in Philadelphia. Brad Pitt plays a family man who has left behind his old life as a United Nations specialist to spend more time with his wife and kids. After breakfast, he drives the family around town only to enter into a traffic jam.

This is no ordinary traffic jam, however since the civilians trying to drive through have no idea of what’s going on. The terrifying answer: ZOMBIES!

It seems that everybody is running through the streets to escape the hordes of the undead. Some aren’t lucky. They are killed and instantaneously transformed into zombies themselves. Others, like Pitt and his family, manage to get out alive … for now.

After taking refuge in the nearby apartments for a night, they rush up to the rooftop evading yet another wave of ghouls. Successfully boarding a helicopter, they are guided to an aircraft carrier in the ocean. The family is given a place to stay while Pitt agrees to travel across the globe to fight zombies, find answers, and perhaps come up with some sort of solution that will allow humanity to fight back against the epidemic.

This film is different from other zombie flicks in that it treats the situation less like an arena of carnage and more like global crisis, giving it a more realistic air. Director Marc Forster handles the thrilling set pieces and suspenseful moments well, which gives life to the proceedings. Kudos to the animalistic movements of the zombies, which give a new meaning to the term “horde”.

When the undead aren’t wreaking havoc, Pitt and company are locked in a briskly paced race against time to stop the infection from spreading. Unlike most apocalyptic films, the film has a visual flavor all around, from the cool, busy center of Philadelphia turned into a heart of doom to the bleak, desolate South Korean outpost trapped in the rain, to the warm, walled-up city of Jerusalem still abundant with life. The score is minimal, though the main opening theme is ambient yet attention-grabbing. It is like a warning of the perils to come.

The film’s major asset, Pitt himself. He gives a solid performance as a hero who relies mostly on his wits and experience. Behind the scenes, ever since a film adaptation of Max Brooks’ 2006 novel was first conceived, it was Pitt who had interest and faith in the material. He sought to get it backed by a major studio and launched into production. There were many struggles between Pitt and Forster, production problems, script rewrites (the third act was entirely altered), and release delays for conversion into 3D, which resulted in it being the most expensive zombie movie ever made. It seems as if Pitt has endured the brutalities of war just to see this film come alive onto the big screen.

WWZ is not without its flaws though. The opening sequence is marred by an excessive amount of chaos with the dreaded action-film combination of shaky-cam and quick-cut ending, to the point that some of it is nearly incomprehensible. Plot holes progressively unravel as the film winds towards its wide-open ending.

It’s hard to make a PG-13 zombie film, as graphic displays of blood and gore are the bread and butter of the genre. The filmmakers attempted to tone all of this down, but the lack of grisly carnage causes the result to feel watered down

I cannot compare the film to the novel since I have not read it. I have heard from those who have that this film is loosely adapted, which is a drawback for them. Gamers might recognize that a few scenes are similar to levels in the video game “Left 4 Dead.” Nothing like having your story-boarding done in advance, I guess.

All in all, though, “World War Z” is a well-done, effective piece of work that turned out to be much better than expected. It delivers the goods for a summer blockbuster and offers a pleasant, mindful diversion from the other apocalyptic flicks coming out this year.

Nathan Cook is a recent graduate of Skyline High School who will be attending Boise State University in the fall.

Chamber sponsoring Obamacare workshop this week

The Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce Business Resource Committee will host an Affordable Care Act workshop Thursday from 2 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. at Stevens-Henager College, 901 Pier View Drive in Idaho Falls.

Topics include an "Introduction to the Affordable Care Act" by Dave Noak; "Health Insurance Exchange Option" by Tom Donovan; and "Employer Compliance" by Tim Anderson.

The goal of the workshop is to give business owners an idea of how they might be affected by the law and how to avoid possible pitfalls and penalties, the chamber news release said.

Attendance is free to Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce members and $5 for guests. For information, contact Frosty Wilson at the Small Business Development Center, 523-1087. Seating is limited and those planning to attend should RSVP to hromrell@idahofallschamber.com.

Work continues at Gold's Gym Ammon site

Crews at work at the future home of Gold's Gym, where Teton Spectrum Raceway used to be.  Poking our nose in Monday, the granite counter at the entry has been built. Efforts to find out a projected opening date have been unsuccessful so far. Late last year it was estimated the 40,000-square-foot project would take six or seven months.

Pro-nuke "Pandora's Promise" sparks national debate

Since it premiered last winter at the Sundance Film Festival, my friends at the Idaho National Laboratory have been sharing every post they can find about "Pandora's Promise," a documentary that casts nuclear power in a favorable light.

This should come as no surprise. With the exception of Arco, I don't think you'll find a more pro-nuclear community on the face of the earth than Idaho Falls. Our city owes a lot to the Atomic Energy Commission and its decision in 1949 to locate its National Reactor Testing Station on the desert to the west. The work that has gone on there since then has been controversial at times but nevertheless extraordinary.

Anyway, any movie that premieres at Sundance usually starts being seen by the rest of the world five or six months afterward, which means that's also when you start seeing movie reviews and online discussions. This weekend I noticed a piece on Salon.com about "Pandora's Promise," which I found interesting. I'll post the link -- http://www.salon.com/2013/06/22/are_environmentalists_rethinking_nuclear_power/ -- and invite those of you interested in such things to read it and the comments.

Likewise, the film has begun to get some ink (or whatever the Web equivalent is) on the New York Times Web site. Today we see an article by Richard Rhodes, who has written an exhaustive four-part history of the nuclear age (if you're looking for a power read, try the first book, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb.") Rhodes has come to the conclusion that nuclear power is essential to our effort to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. He also has a clear take on why nuclear power has such vehement opposition.

"Nuclear testing, nuclear crisis and nuclear power were all born together in the long wake of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. I’m not surprised that the clean and peaceful technology, which today provides about 13.5 percent of world electricity without air pollution or greenhouse gases, was tarred with the same brush as the Bomb. I am surprised, however, that idealistic, intelligent people who want to clean up the air and limit global warming are opposed to nuclear power. They might as well be out there promoting fossil fuels. In effect, they are."

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/welcoming-a-real-debate-about-nuclear-power/?_r=0 

Idaho Falls chamber names Michelle Holt new CEO

Michelle Holt

Michelle Holt has been named the new chief executive officer of the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce.

Holt has worked as executive director of Lost Rivers Economic Development since 2005, and has more than 20 years in non-profit organizations, with experience in board development, grant writing, fund-raising and economic development. She has served as chairwoman of the Lost Rivers Medical Center Board of Trustees in Arco; as past president of Eastern Idaho Economic Development Partners and the Idaho Economic Development Association; and in various roles in local education.
 

Acting CEO Kerry McCullough will resume her previous role as programs and events coordinator until the chamber's July 4 activities are over, at which time she will begin full-time as the city of Idaho Falls' public information officer. McCullough will continue to serve as a volunteer on the chamber's Taste of Idaho and annual golf tournament planning committees and board of directors.


Holt will begin work on hiring a new programs and events coordinator and working with the staff on the upcoming Independence Day Parade and Liberty Festival on the Falls.

Relay for Life organizers want people to paint the town purple

Starting today, Idaho Falls residents may notice the color purple appearing in windows, on bridges and in banners, all in support of the American Cancer Society's annual Relay for Life event. Through June 30, people are being encouraged to decorate their homes, businesses and vehicles with purple, all part of a warm-up to the actual event, which is scheduled for July 12 at Bonneville High School's Thunder Stadium.

Relay for Life events happen all over the world to raise money for cancer research, promote awareness of the work being done and recognize the struggles past and present of patients and the people caring for them.

Leading up to the event, teams raise money with car washes, garage sales, fashion show, and special events like "Dancing With the Idaho Falls Stars."

"We recognize that many small local businesses and individuals do not have the means within their budgets to support the annual Relay For Life fundraising event," said Liza Leonard, this year's  chairwoman. "Paint the Town Purple was created with the goal of involving more people without overwhelming them with the expectations of substantial donations. This event is to help generate cancer awareness in fun and creative ways, while bringing the community together."

A person can do anything from dressing up in purple to offering a special discount on all purple items or add a vinyl sign to their window.

"We are not all personally affected with cancer, but if we come together we can help raise the spirits of those battling with the disease and restore hope for many," Leonard said.

For questions or to get involved, call (208) 201-4133 or email lizaleonard@hotmail.com. The local Web link is relayforlife.org/idahofallsid.

D Street underpass project hits 'rocky' patch

The view Thursday from the top of the big hole at D Street and Yellowstone Avenue

Anyone who has driven on North Yellowstone Avenue since Wednesday has most likely noticed the big pile of rocks in the hole where the D Street Underpass used to be.

Crews blasted into 10 feet of basalt at 2 p.m. Wednesday to clear away space for the new bridge's footings, said Kelly Kofoed of Cannnon Builders, the city of Idaho Falls' contractor on the project.

The stones will be hauled away to a Landon Excavating pit. The tree immediately south of the stone tower is also slated to be removed next week. The city wanted to save the tree, but the excavation around the tower, which is actually a pump station dating back to around 1910, damaged too much of its root system, Kofoed said.

Building a bridge is a lot different than building a house or office building. "It's kind of like building a house around your wife while she's making dinner," Kofoed said. Cannon has also been the contractor on the John Adams Parkway bridge over the Idaho Canal, due to be finished in  July. "We had to go deep for the footings at the same time we had traffic going over it every day," he said. In the D Street project's case, train traffic had to be re-routed with a "shoefly," a four-month undertaking by itself. The new underpass is scheduled to open sometime in 2014.

The D Street excavation has yielded all sorts of interesting things: masonry foundations from buildings that made up the Oregon Short Line Railroad depot, which was torn down in 1964, and old tools that had been discarded by railroad workers decades ago.

Kofoed said he and his crew were the first people since the '60s to set foot inside the pump station. There was a hardwood floor that had rotted and a lot of sludgy water in the foundation, which goes down 30 feet. "I'm sure the old pumping equipment is in there," he said.