World War Z

There has always been something faintly ridiculous about zombies and yet this is film making of the highest order. From the innovative credits to the emotive ending, World War Z comes from another dimension.

Brad Pitt deserves much of the credit. He co-produced and plays the lead with a commitment and authority that may surprise you.

The plot hits hard from the opening - a traffic jam in downtown Philly - and never eases off. The world is under attack.

"The president is dead. The VP is missing."

Explanations are blown away by the speed of this global catastrophe. No-one knows why. No-one knows what to do.

News breaks like a storm.

"We've lost Boston."

No-one can say for sure why hordes of infected humans have changed into crazed beasts, famished for flesh.

Pitt plays a UN investigator who is thrown into the front line, leaving his wife and daughters on a warship in the Atlantic.

As nations are overcome by what might have been a pandemic, but turns out to be more horrific and visible - these zombies are not goofy, drooling idiots, but raving wolverines - fear spreads like wildfire.

Somewhere, somehow, a vaccine must be found. Somewhere, somehow, there has to be an answer.

Pitt's character is resourceful and courageous without being a superhero. His connection with family is central to his motivation. Unlike the modern trend in disaster movies CGI is used with discretion and for once 3-D helps. Words such as "absurd" and "ludicrous" are as dead as yesterday. Marc Forster's direction has a confidence that silences doubt.

"Mother Nature is a serial killer," someone says, and it doesn't sound cheesy because the action smashes through the walls of scepticism and highjacks your logical mind.

Let the terror take you, but remember, keep breathing.