Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies - 98 min – PG13

I am a zombie fan so this ZomRomCom (Zombie Romantic Comedy) already has my attention. It’s a really a well put together film. They have a good mix of zombie lore with all of the angst of a young romance. Being a young woman in a zombie apocalypse is hard, especially when the man who is looking for your affections is dead, and he who ate your boyfriend. The story shambles along in a very formulaic way but it has some good funny parts to keep it lighter than your normal zombie face-eating movie. I think it is the lightest apocalypse movie I have ever seen. I was originally thinking yellow light but as I think about it I am leaning more toward green.

R (Nicholas Hoult) is a zombie who feels empty and trapped by his existence. He is looking for something more out of life. He and his friend M (Rob Corddry) head into town to scare up something to eat. They stumble upon Julie, Nora and Perry (Teresa Palmer, Analeigh Tipton and Dave Franco), a group of human scavengers. R is bitten by cupid and falls for Julie, but not before eating her boyfriend Perry. Hey, at least R feels bad about it. R has an idea that he can save Julie so he covers for her and gets her to shamble back to his airplane lair for safety. He keeps her safe for a few days then they make their way back to the human settlement. The change in R seems to be catchy and other zombies are having a change of heart. There is another more deadly brand of zombie that the zombies call “boneys” that are not affected by the love bug. Apparently they are too far gone to be saved. Julie pleads with her father, Grigio (John Malkovich), that the zombies are changing but he is very set in his ways.

This is the first zombie movie that brings us the zombie’s point of view. I wonder if this is more of a commentary of the increase in non-interactive media that people are engaging in. There is a quick scene at the beginning where R laments the loss of being human and interacting with other people and everyone in the scene is looking at an electronic device. I guess you could continue the thought here saying that love will awaken the human in all of us electronic addicted non-human engaging modern zombies. We can break down the walls like in the movies through mutual understanding and tolerance for different people. Or it could just be a cute romantic comedy with a different twist on the whole zombie craze.

Jonathan Levine brought together a great cast and did a good job of delivering this heavy setting in a light-hearted way. His body of work is on the lean side but he has some really good stuff under his belt. I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next. Nicholas Hoult’s performance in this really makes the movie. It’s seeing his transformation from rotten to human that sells the story.

This movie was good but is nowhere near the awesomeness that Shawn of the dead was. That is still the gold standard of ZomRomCom.

I did notice that in the trailer they had mixed elements from the film but not in the right order. I did a few articles (Coming soon… Part One, Coming Soon… Part two) on trailers misrepresenting films. I don’t think I talked about movies that use elements that are in the movie in different scenes. I might have to look at this again. Another trailer takes all of the best parts and uses them. I hate it when they do that.

Warning Spoilers!!!!!! Only people with a pulse beyond this point!!!!!!!

Ok I am not sure I completely buy the whole “love saves the day and makes zombies into humans again” idea, but I have to rein myself in. I am talking about what can and can’t affect a mythical creature called a zombie, so I am not going to look at that too closely.

The using the brains to steal memories from the living was a bit gross and somewhat creepy that he was living vicariously through the memories from her boyfriend to get more information about her. But as she may be suffering from Stockholm syndrome and a mild case of necrophilia I guess it all works out.

Analeigh Tipton is showing more of a stronger presence on screen. I really liked how she was holding the gun to Grigio’s head and told him “Oh I would so shoot you” Strong, tough, funny role for her.


What movie genre should be zombified next?

Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. – 118min – PG-13

It has been a while since I have seen a good comedy that layers story elements as finely as this movie did. This film has an excellent sense of comedic timing and was enjoyable to watch. There are three sets of couples all working on finding and defending love. The cast was well chosen and I felt each did a stupendous job in bringing these everyday struggles to light. I really love the humor in this film. I can’t remember the last film that made me laugh out loud. The writing was so well done I was completely taken over by the story and taken in with the journey of these characters. This movie gets a green light from me.

Cal (Steve Carell) and his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) open the movie by getting a divorce. This is a heavy topic to start a comedy with. They really worried me about setting a tone of a dark comedy but this is not the case. We also see Hannah (Emma Stone) get approached by a pickup artist by the name of Jacob (Ryan Gosling) who gives her the full court press but she refuses his advances. Lastly we have Robbie (Jonah Bobo) a kid who is in Middle school who is in love with his babysitter Jessica (Analeigh Tipton) a high school student. All of these couples carefully contend with the same elements of love, relationships and self discovery. The journey that is life takes them all for a spin and we see real character growth.

There are several enjoyable aspect to this movie but one that stands out for me is Cal’s journey toward rediscovering himself. Jacob sees Cal in the bar and has a soft spot for him and in a Mr. Miyagi fashion gives him a makeover he desperately needs. The main focus of the film is Cal and how he deals with getting his life back on track, and how he approaches relationships. One thing this movie does well is keep the focus on hope and not give in to the easy joke or the canned Hollywood elements when it delivers its message.

I have to hand it to writer Dan Fogelman: he does do an entertaining story. I have to say I did not recognize his name until I looked him up. His writing credits include Cars, Tangled and Bolt. I have enjoyed the stories that he has done in the past so unbeknownst to me I am a fan of his work. This is something a little different than his normal film milieu but it’s defiantly one of his better films. The co-directors, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, did a great job of translating this script into live action. They have worked on other films but I have not seen them and it looks like they have only directed one other film. They collaborated on I Love You Phillip Morris as directors.

Spoiler Warning!!!! Do not look beyond this point!!! Unless you want to.

Ok the timing of the surprises in this film took me in and I had absolutely no idea they were going to cross paths as much as they did. I loved how they added the complexity to the funny moments. I am thinking of the back yard scene when everything comes to a head. As fun as that was, I really loved how it was a realization moment that nothing is going to be the same ever again.

Another scene was the end. Typically the average American viewer wants to have everything tied up neat and tidy at the end. I loved how they ended the story with a hopeful message one that really says that nothing ever gets completely resolved but all of the characters had a better perspective of how things were going to change from there. It left them and me hopeful.

One of the better moments is when Cal realizes that being a ladies’ man is not for him. I love how characters grow in this movie. Film makers seem to not give that as much attention as they should. The line I really liked from this discovery is “It was not about showing you, it was about getting on with my life.” Good stuff.

I forgot to mention that Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei were wonderful in this film, I completely spaced they were in this, I was so taken by the main players. I do want to say that Marisa Tomei hit it out of the park Kevin Bacon was excellent as the office love that is awkwardly trying to fit in.


What is one movie that took you in a direction you were not expecting? What was it and how were you surprised.