Blog 5

Germaine Lussier's style is very distinct in his reviews, blending verbose descriptions of film techniques while throwing in cheeky one-liners and easy-going conversational points that include the reader. Everyone likes to "talk movies", so he blends an obvious, advanced opinion with everyday "popcorn chat".

Written in the style of Germaine Lussier (blogger for Slash Film Blog): "Warm Bodies" Review

Though this pun may be a bit on the nose, the "zombie" genre has recently been in some serious need of reanimating. The walking, groaning dead are everywhere, (call them the new vampires?) but have somehow stumbled into a rut. Maybe its the brains they've been eating, but the flesh-hungry species has suddenly become redundant and mundane. Does anyone have any fresh ideas for these born-again creatures to sink their teeth into? Luckily, "Warm Bodies"offers a cute, quirky meal to hold us over in the midst of our post-apocalyptic-obsessed media.
Written and directed by Jonathan Levine, "Warm Bodies" stars an amiable and easy-to-look-at Nicholas Hoult and cute, tough-cookie Teresa Palmer as star-crossed teeny-boppers R and Julie. What seems to be keeping these youngsters apart? R just happens to be dead. Even worse, Julie's father, the unsurprisingly intimidating John Malkovich, has made quite a name for himself leading the resistance in this dystopian future full of hungry undead creatures. When R rescues Julie from a gruesome end of brain devouring, this corpe's eyes suddenly fill with ooey-gooey puppy love, and the "Romeo and Juliet" story told "Walking Dead" style begins.
Levine seems to have a knack for successfully mashing together genres that would easily be scoffed at during pitch meetings with executives. He effectively pulled off a miraculous balancing act of combining cancer and comedy (what?) in last year's "50/50" starring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Seth Rogen, resulting in one of the most underrated film's of 2011. He managed to make us both laugh and cry in the carefully written "dramedy" due to a great script, great actors, and a great darkly comedic tone that new where its limits were. "Warm Bodies" shows that there is an undeniable likeability in his films, which allows the young director to succeed in his hip genre-mixing. As he tries his hand in swirling teen "rom-com" and "zombie-flick", Levine knows how to establish the perfect off-beat tones and lay the foundation of his films in his characters. The movie starts off strong with an insightful and funny inner monologue from R as he wanders through an airport, which Hoult delivers with a perfect combination of dead-pan comedy and teenage musing. His scenes with Palmer feel genuine and are sprinkled with just the right amount of unique humor that only a film involving a zombie falling in love with a human can own. To top things off, the movie contains a stellar retro soundtrack to infuse the film with the youthful, funky soul that gives it its legs for its target audience.
Where "Warm Bodies" seems to stumble is in its third act when the eccentric love story staggers into an awkward, adventurous conclusion. The action doesn't gel well with the rest of the unconventional romance that succeeds in its small moments and smartly-crafted idiosyncratic jokes focused on shedding light on the untold side of zombie love. However, the fact that "Warm Bodies" limps over the finish line does not take away from the flat-out fun to be had in the rest of the fresh, inventive tale. Nicholas Hoult is perfectly cast and happily carries most of this weight on his undead shoulders, and Levine shows to once again have steady direction in what could have been a tangled mess of genres-blending. At 98 minutes, the "zom-rom-com" is modest and cute, and isn't necessarily epically ground-breaking, but it's very comfortable in its own quirky skin and will breezily be enjoyed on Valentine's Day.

Molly Oretsky
Sports Writer
TPP Bellaire High School