Lions for Lambs (2007) - Streep and Cruise's star powers save Redford's boring political drama

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Three major Hollywood stars in dignified black and white stare at us on this poster to get us to go watch Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs

A college professor convinces a student to engage himself in the world. Two of his ex-students are killed on tour in Afghanistan. And a US senator is presenting the new military strategy for the war in the far-away Middle Eastern country to a journalist.

Lions for Lambs is written by Matthew Michael Carnahan (State of Play (2009)) and co-produced and directed by Californian master Robert Redford (Ordinary People (1980)).
Tom Cruise (The Last Samurai (2003)) as the senator and Meryl Streep (Dark Matter (2007)) as the journalist are both good, and their performances and star power make up much of the reason to watch this otherwise boring political war drama, which feels overly constructed.

Related posts:

Robert Redford: Pete's Dragon (2016) - Lowery plays Disney remake safe (actor) 
All Is Lost (2013) - Chandor's Redford-lost-at-sea is compelling filmmaking (actor)
A Bridge Too Far (1977) or, Epic Shit Hits the Fan (actor)
The Sting (1973) or, Partners in Hoax (actor)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) or, Friendly Outlaws (actor)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 63.2 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.80 times the cost)
[Lions for Lambs premiered 18 October (New York) and runs 88 minutes. Shooting took place in Washington DC, Virginia and in California, including Los Angeles, ending in January 2007. The film opened #4, behind holdover hits Bee Movie and American Gangster and fellow new release Fred Claus, to a small 6.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed only 15 mil. $ (23.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy with 8.3 mil. $ (13.1 %) and Spain with 6.5 mil. $ (10.3 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, equal to its rating here. Redford returned with The Conspirator (2010). Streep returned in Mamma Mia! (2008), Cruise in Tropic Thunder (2008). Lions for Lambs is rotten at 26 % with a 4.8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Lions for Lambs?

World War Z (2013) - Forster, Pitt and Co.'s preposterous zombie junk

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If you think this artificial-looking poster for Marc Forster's World War Z shows Brad Pitt sitting in a plane of some sort, look on the next poster at the bottom of the review

A honcho in the United Nations has withdrawn from the various war zones of the world to devote himself to his family, when a zombie pandemic breaks out and spreads death and destruction everywhere, - and he must be the one to find a solution!

Our hero's family doesn't get set up as characters, before the zombie apocalypse hits, and so we don't feel much of anything through their following trials. - It doesn't help that Mireille Enos (The Killing (2011-14)) plays the mother with a very strange above-it-all attitude throughout.
Co-producer-star Brad Pitt (Fight Club (1999)) flies around as some kind of international anti-zombie James Bond in World War Z, wherein he continually winds up in confusing, action-packed scenes full of death and living deads. We don't see any gore because of the film's PG-13 rating, (dictated by its huge budget), and that is in itself bizarre in such a death-littered zombie movie, - a bit like watching a musical in which the songs have been censured away without a word.
It all makes for an uncompelling, boring and pretty ridiculous product until the late scenes in the WHO facility which attain a certain computer-game-like suspense. SPOILER But the the film ends with a line that doubles down on the shallowness of it all: "The war has only just begun", Pitt illuminates us, - after seemingly just having saved all of mankind?!? Apparently, despite the peace that is broached in the film's end, the World War Z filmmakers thought a feeling of continual, devastating war was what was direly needed in 2013 and what their audience should take away from their preposterous botch job of a movie. Of course I am overthinking this; - the truth is they just wanted to plug a sequel.
World War Z is written by Matthew Michael Carnahan (Deepwater Horizon (2016)) and Drew Goddard (Lost (2005-08)), based on the Max Brooks' (son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft) novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006), and directed by the (sometimes) great German filmmaker Marc Forster (Machine Gun Preacher (2011)).

Related posts:

Marc Forster: 2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Machine Gun Preacher (2011) - Butler finds faith and a Sudanese purpose in Forster's incredible true story

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 190 mil. $

Box office: 540 mil. $

=  Box office success

[World War Z premiered June 2 (London) and runs 116 minutes. The project came about because Pitt wanted a film of his that his apparently zombie-loving sons could enjoy before turning 18, (according to himself.) The film was budgeted at 125 mil. $ and so ended up going 52 % over budget. Filming took place in Malta, Wales, Scotland, England, Budapest, Hungary and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from June - November 2011 with reshoots from October - December 2012. The film was plagued by script disagreements, rewrites and, in Budapest, the Hungarian counter-terrorism unit raiding and seizing 85 rifles that were to be used in the film for entering them illegally into the country. The film opened #2 behind Monsters University with 66.4 mil. $, Pitt's biggest opening yet, in North America, where it spent a total of 3 weeks in the top 5 and grossed 202.3 mil. $ (37.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were South Korea with 33.6 mil. $ (6.2 %) and Russia with 24.8 mil. $ (4.6 %). A sequel is in the works, possibly helmed by David Fincher for a 2017 release, although it seems unlikely since production has yet to commence. World War Z is fresh at 67 % with a 6.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of World War Z?