World War Z

Directed by Marc Forster

(PG-13)

**

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No matter what Brad Pitt thinks about his new zombie thriller, “for the rest of us, it’ll do just fine,” said Rafer Guzmán in Newsday. The star seems to have had grander ambitions for this adaptation of a popular 2006 novel, but though the final product “adds nothing new to the genre,” it makes “darn good popcorn fare.” Pitt plays a former U.N. troubleshooter who’s driving his young family through traffic when the cars are suddenly engulfed by a fast-moving zombie horde. However hokey it may be that this one man could reverse the global plague by undertaking an international hunt for a cure, “you buy it because he’s Pitt,” an actor who adds credibility to any scene, said Rene Rodriguez in The Miami Herald. Yet the film lacks nerve. Trying to be an all-ages zombie movie, it never once delivers “a good fright,” and “the last 20 minutes are so annoyingly predictable that unintentional laughs start to creep in.” So just lower your expectations, said A.O. Scott in The New York Times. “If you want to be diverted and mildly disturbed,” Z “will at least temporarily satisfy your appetite.”