I saw an expanded World War Z trailer while watching GI Joe: Retaliation this afternoon (itself a fun popcorn movie full of explosions, fight scenes, and good acting by Jonathan Pryce but almost no one else). Apparently in it zombies can fly so as to bring down a helicopter, tear their way through the side of an airliner fuselage, and make new zombies fast enough that it goes like the wave through a crowd in a sports arena. Good to know so I can make sure to never, ever pay any money to watch it.

Have you read the book, Matt? I know they had a lot of issues with the filming, but I've heard mostly quite positive things about the source material. I'm still only at the start (continuing with the theory that I'll read the book before I see the movie), and it's 28 Days Later-esque in that it's an infection, not supernatural, and these are speedy-assed motherfuckers.

The novel GI Joe: Retaliation shows a definite influence of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, but ultimately is a pale comparison to the latter.

Bwah!

Have you read the book, Matt?

Nope. I've read extensive criticisms about the military being handed the idiot ball to contrive certain plot points, which makes me less than eager to read it, but no one complained about magic flying zombies that could make more zombies instantly with a wiggle of their noses. I assume those are original to the film.

I didn't see the trailer you did, Matt. I only saw zombies creating some sort of undead human bridge in every direction of food. So I can't say. But the speedy infection of the whole world is definitely in the book.

Tom, which influence? Is that in some way different from the seven million other "Oh, no, us supreme soldiers have been double-crossed by our superiors, and now we need to go renegade vigilante and punish the real bad guy and re-earn our places in The System" (aka The Losers, A-Team, possibly the Expendables but I fell asleep)?

Nothing in the World War Z trailer resembles anything in the book. Except that there are zombies. Around the world. It looks like a fun movie that I may see, but I'm not expecting it to be an actual adaptation of the book.

Saw a pre-Code oldie over the weekend that I just have to talk about, in the must-be-seen-to-be-believed way.

It's called Smarty. It's Vicki's (Joan Blondell) birthday, and her husband Tony (Warren William) has tickets to the theater. But Vicki would rather invite her friends Vernon (Edward Everett Horton), Anita (Claire Dodd), and George (Frank McHugh) over for bridge. Vicki starts teasing Tony and doesn't stop until Tony slaps her. At this point, Vernon urges Vicki to get a divorce on the ground (it's the 1930s, you still needed grounds for divorce) of extreme cruelty. Should I mention that Vernon is a divorce lawyer as well as madly in love with Vicki? And Anita likes the idea because, well, Anita already has several divorces under her belt. Soon, Vicki has divorced Tony and married Vernon.

A year or so later, Vicki wants to give a dinner party. She runs into Tony, so she invites him and his new sweetheart, Bonnie (Joan Wheeler). They both accept -- after all, Bonnie's husband is out of town, so she's free. Vicki decides to get a new dress for the occasion, so she buys a backless gown that Vernon thoroughly disapproves of. She insists on wearing it. Soon Vicki and Vernon are bickering, and Vicki taunts Vernon with language along the line of, "Go ahead and hit me. You really want to hit me, don't you? Why don't you hit me?" Vernon slaps Vicki, and Vicki leave Vernon -- for Tony.

I'm not sure what the most flabbergasting moment of the movie is. A few options:

A (proto?) screwball comedy about domestic abuse.
Some of the dialoge, which to say the least, both suggests that it's acceptable to hit a wife and also suggestst that it's kind of inconsistent for a wife to divorce a husband that hits her. (Sample: Vicki to Anita: If [Tony] really loved me, he'd have hit me long ago.) (Yes, that's really in the movie.)
Vicki is so unlikeable that you wonder why one man, never mind two, would want to marry her.
The aforementioned dress, which is not only backless, but so low-cut that it defies the laws of physics by not falling off.
Vicki's look of complete shock when Vernon takes her advice and slaps her.

I know we're talking about the '30s, when James Cagney could become a star by shoving a grapefruit into a woman's face. But this movie goes out of its way not just to condone domestic abuse, but to suggest that it's a necessary part of a good marriage.

Not to mention, it isn't that well-made a movie. Only Frank McHugh gives any snap to the supposedly snappy dialogue. Although it might have helped if Warren William and Edward Everett Horton had traded roles.

Wes Anderson fans, did we know this was a thing?

Prada, Candy, L'eau.

It's like an ad series by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola (mostly Roman, I think) that's a riff on Jules et Jim, but also I think (moreso) Band of Outsiders. Charming and gallic, if you like that sort of thing. (Which I do.) Twee and precious - somewhat! But I have a high tolerance for that if its stylish and smart.

HOLY CRAP casting spoilers for Captain America 2 (the link itself is spoilery, so mouse over carefully): [link]

I may have just peed a little.

Oh, please, please, please let them to that well.