Iron Man 3:  Iron Man in Pieces

A Movie Review

By Jessica Dwyer

Iron Man 3 had quite an act to follow in the Avengers.  A billion dollar mega hit, Iron Man 3 was the follow up to a lackluster and troubled sequel in the form of Iron Man 2.  But it had a lot in its corner.  The Avengers gave it a great building block to work from in terms of character arc.  It also had Shane Black in the director’s chair, a man who is known for writing witty dialog and making and scripting great movies like the Boondock Saints, Lethal Weapon, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang which he’d worked on with star Robert Downey Jr.

But sadly instead of a worthy follow up and next step in the ongoing conquering march of the Marvel universe on the big screen, we got an uneven hodgepodge of comedy and angst and straight up out of character moments.  Also again we get a forced feeling love story that takes up a healthy chunk of the film.  Not to say that the film is horrible and it is nowhere near as bad as Iron Man 2 which had the distinction of filming without a completed script.  No, there are moments in Iron Man 3 that are brilliant and are obviously Shane Black with the witty banter within them.  But that makes me wish for the movie that could have been and wonder why this one feels so off.

There are going to be spoilers here.  Because if you read this site there is no way you aren’t going to see this movie.  But in order to explain my points of why I was disappointed by this film I have to reference the parts that made me disappointed.   We’ll count them down. Read more

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Movie Review

By Jessica Dwyer

Comedy is a tricky business.   There’s a magic to it, a combination of perfect timing, delivery, and most importantly good writing.  That magic is absent from The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, a film that had a ton going for it with hilarious trailers and a great cast filled with talent.  But that’s just not enough when you have a script that is as flat as this one.

Read more

The Walking Dead

Arrow on the Doorpost

Recap/Review

By Jessica Dwyer

This episode of the Walking Dead is all about tension.  This is the first time the Governor and Rick meet and it’s as tense and glaring as you would ever think.  But tension isn’t just shown between these two leaders.  Back at the prison things are boiling over between Merle and Glenn.

The episode starts out it would seem at least a few days after the previous one, with Andrea having brought together the two leaders to talk out a peace accord.  It’s obvious she’s not in control of the situation Read more

The Walking Dead

Episode Recap/Review

“Clear”

By Jessica Dwyer

Following up last week’s character centric episode “I Ain’t No Judas,”  TWD continues with another character driven episode “Clear.”  This one shows us what happened to fan favorite character Morgan (Lennie James, who always delivers a stellar performance) and it is just as tragic as you can imagine.

This episode focuses on three of the main characters, an unlikely trio.  Carl, Michonne, and Rick go out to find weapons for what is no doubt going to be a major confrontation with the Governor and his crew.  Rick leads them to the station house from the beginning of the series to find it ransacked with no bullets or weapons left.  Luckily though, Rick remembers those people in town he wrote gun permits for, and they go in search of those houses.

It is during the driving sequences at the beginning we get the first notion of how much the attitudes of Rick and Carl have changed.  Michonne has since we’ve known her been a tough and hardened character, but Rick and Carl have changed more than we may have truly realized.  The trio pass up a lone hitchhiker desperately screaming for a ride.  They leave him behind while ransacking lone cars on the road.  There’s no hesitation, they just leave him most likely to die on the road.

When they arrive in town they find warnings painted everywhere as well as booby death traps for both humans and zombies.  Someone has been busy.  They find out who when they are fired upon by a figure in a helmet and body armor.  Morgan’s a very changed man.

After Carl’s assist we get a peek inside the house that Morgan has built since Rick has last seen him.  Morgan’s rooms are a peek into his mind; violence, insanity, paranoia…it’s everywhere.  He’s got an arsenal of firearms and Rick decides to take half of them, but not before he tries to find out if Morgan can be saved from the path he’s going down.

While Rick waits with his friend, Carl and Michonne  go to get a crib for Judith (Lil Asskicker.)  Carl has a side trip in mind.  It’s during this time we see Carl and Michonne start to create a bond of mutual respect.  I really enjoyed the interaction between these two that we haven’t really seen be together on screen before.  Michonne doesn’t really treat Carl like a child, she sees he’s beyond that at this point.  He’s becoming a solider and is capable.  The time in the café/store is a nice piece of tension and the payoff of what Carl wants (the photo of his family) and Michonne’s own treasure she snagged (the rainbow cat of doom, I’m naming it officially) is great.

But the scene of the episode has to be Morgan’s storytelling to Rick of what happened to his child, Duane and it is truly horrifying and sad.  You realize why he has become the man he is and why he’s lost all hope.  His task is to make it clear.

We the viewers can take this a few different ways.  Clear the area of Walkers of course, but I think it means clear his mind of the memories or at least try to.  Perhaps clear the conscience of the blame or clear himself of all emotion, something that will never work.  His revelation to Rick that all the strong ones, like Carl, will die in this world while those who are weak like he is is chilling.  James deserves an Emmy nomination for this scene.

Of course this is far from what happened in the comics…but we never heard what he actually did with Duane after he was attacked by his mother.  There’s a chance that Duane may have been hidden inside that building somewhere.  But I’d hope that Morgan kept his son from that fate.

Once again we have another mirror to Rick’s story.   The Governor has lost his child and wife to the epidemic, Morgan has as well.  In a way we can take this to mean that Carl represents the last of Rick’s sanity, his only hold left as both of these men have surely gone down a rabbit hole they aren’t coming back from.  Carl shows Rick who he is, reminding him of that fact by wearing that hat that is now fitting him a heck of a lot better as Chandler Riggs grows up before our eyes.

As the trio leaves Morgan to his seemingly endless task of clearing Walkers, his last words to Carl of never being sorry for having to shoot or kill ring eerily in the air.  This is a new age and a new way of life for these people.   This fact is brought home solidly as Michonne (who tells Rick that she used to talk to her dead boyfriend…something that we comic readers was hoping would be discussed) is driving back to the prison.  The remains of the hitchhiker from the beginning of the episode lay by the road…and they stop to pick up his backpack.

What is truly clear is that this new world is not forgiving, nor are Rick and his crew.  This episode was one of the best of a season filled with great ones.  And from what we saw in this our heroes are not going to give up without one hell of a fight.

The Dixon Brothers need a spin off.  Michael Rooker agrees.  So he said at Portland’s Wizard World.  Rooker is always fun at Q and A’s (and his lightening round idea is brilliant and needs to be employed at every convention in the world.)

After he was scratched by a ardently hoofed Little Pony who asked to hug him, Michael Rooker was joined by his brother from a fake mother Norman Reedus on stage for the last few minutes of the Q and A.  What followed was Reedus and Rooker doing what they do best, making the girls swoon, everyone laugh, and being fucking awesome.

The Dixon boys have a following and the Dixon Vixen’s were in full force at Wizard World (I too am one of these Vixen’s and I wear my Dixon Love with pride.)

Here are some of the pics I snagged of the elusive Dixon Brothers…and some of their fans.

VIXENS!!!

WHUT?

NO CAPTION NEEDED

ALWAYS WITH THE SUNGLASSES…ROOKER POINTS AND YELLS

PROFILE!

WE BAD.

WHUT WHUT?

GIGGLES

ROOOOOKER

MOAR ROOOOOKER

I LOVE YOU BRO…

AND MORE GIGGLES

Bruce Campbell is always entertaining.  He’s got that “I’m a dick and you love it” routine down.  I can’t quit you Bruce, my love is too great…tis the size of your almighty chin.  Plus the man knows how to wear a suit.  He’s like my kryptonite.

I got to see Campbell work the room at the Q and A at Portland Wizard World, and I finally FINALLY got to get him to admit his bashing of remakes and of Batman Begins and how they are the devil…and why don’t we have anything original.  This spoken to the Hollywood Theater years ago during Man With the Screaming Brain (you can read all about THAT here at the old old site).

And lo, here comes Evil Dead the remake and Campbell is producing.  I couldn’t let it go.  The need was to much, I had to ask.  Turns out he actually did look a bit embarrassed and then admitted that he and Sam Raimi just didn’t have the time to do it themselves.  Plus they wanted it to be done with a budget.  I can’t fault that logic…even though Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn was a remake with more of  a budget.

Okay Campbell, you win.  You and that snazzy black suit and purple shirt of lust.  I can’t…I just can’t say no Brisco.  I am in fact your whore.  As I hang my head in shame and pet my Jack of One Season DVD set you can check out some of the pics below.

STOP IT…STOP BEING SO DAMN FILF.

GET OUT OF MY WOODS AND GET OFF MY LAWN

WHY YOU SO TIMID?

LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING

THE POWER OF THE BRUCE’S LAUGH SHAKES ALL CAMERAS

YEAH I KNOW I’M AWESOME.  

YEAH, OKAY HE IS…(THUD)

Hey Gang,

Your friendly neighborhood editor here,

Last weekend was the first ever Portland Oregon Wizard World convention.  And I would say that it was a huge success.  The turnout on Saturday alone would qualify for this as I would guess a number around 15,000 attendees converged on the Portland Convention Center to see Stan (the Man) Lee, Norman Reedus, Michael Rooker, Bruce Campbell, and various names from the world of comics, film, and television.

I was there on Saturday and had a blast seeing some friends as well as the great Q and A’s by Bruce Campbell, Ashley Bell (the star of Last Exorcism and Last Exorcism 2,) and the Dixon Brothers.  While it wasn’t as big a show as Comicon or Dragoncon, it was a great experience.  It wasn’t as overwhelming in terms of just being bombarded with all the just vast amounts of stuff that Comicon can cram at you.  Portland was a decent sized event and a huge hit for a first time convention.  I can guarantee that there will be more vendors and eye candy come the next event, which I heard may be happening in January of 2014.

But without further adieu, here’s the first of some great pics I got during the event.  First, here’s some of the costumes that were walking around (if you use images please give credit to Jessica Dwyer: Fangirl Magazine):

GAGGED LOKI AND TONY STARK…I LOVE THIS SO MUCH

TARDIS DRESS OF WIN!  THERE WAS MUCH WHO TO BE SEEN

PRO COSPLAYER CEQUINNE, CHECK OUT HER WEBPAGE!

FEM HOLMES!  (HER FRIEND WAS DESPERATELY TELLING HER TO NOT SMILE)

The Walking Dead Recap/Review

Home

By Jessica Dwyer

The Walking Dead has many levels to it, and one of the main story levels is family and home.  As the simple one word episode title states, that’s the center of what this episode is about, but there’s far more to the concept than a lot of people think.

Home to some of the characters is simply your family.  Home can mean the place you feel safe.  Other times home means just the opposite of safe.  It’s something this series does well because the concept of The Walking Dead’s universe is pretty much the end of the world and the loss of everything you’ve ever known.  Home is no longer home.

As I suspected last week The Governor is out to use Andrea to help control Woodbury.  In this instance he’s lost his family and that last piece of anything that connected him to humanity (his daughter.)  His home, even though Woodbury is still in one piece, has been taken from him by Michonne and Rick’s crew.  He’s angry and he wants revenge, even though he tells exactly the opposite to Andrea.

The Governor plays her like a fiddle.  That slight, hesitant, almost admitting he needs her was most assuredly fake.  He knows she’s looking for someone to connect with since she’s lost everything too.  He knows she needs some sort of connection.  And so he works that angle.  It’s the same with Milton, making the man feel needed and as though he’s important to him.  Playing to his need to feel important to the Governor and making him feel “manly” by saying he’d take a bullet for him and putting him on the same level as a soldier.

The man is a smooth, crazy operator.  And Andrea doesn’t really figure it out until it’s too late that he’s lied about the whole not going to seek payback on the prison gang.  Will it matter to her when she figures that out?  Who’s to say…Andrea is stuck between a rock and a hard place of her own making.

Speaking of crazy, Rick is once again losing it and seeing Lori everywhere.  This is his version of home and its forever lost to him.  This is again more of the similarity between Rick and the Gov.  They can’t ever get these pieces of home back.  Lori’s spirit seems to have a purpose though, and perhaps we will see what that is by the end of the episode.  But I still feel this part of the story is more of a way the series is showing us how similar the paths of Rick and the Gov are.

Maggie and Glen’s story during this and last week’s episode is growing a bit repetitive.  I’m not quite sure why they are so angry with one another or at least that’s what it feels like.  But this part of the story is showing that need to protect your home and family, what Glen feels he failed to do with Maggie.  He’s now desperate to show he can do that, to step up and be the leader for the group with Rick’s mind seemingly broken.   This seems to be blinding him to the very thing he needs to see, which is Maggie herself, something that it takes Herschel to see.

Herschel’s role in this episode is one of a voice of reason, if we know The Governor is coming, we need to leave.  Glen wants to go on an assassination run to Woodbury and kill him before he has time to react.  The rest of the group either doesn’t want to leave or doesn’t know what to do…but they don’t feel up to the task of Glen’s plan.  Glen doesn’t want to leave the prison though, it’s their home.  It’s a bad situation all the way around and no good outcome can come from any one of the choices before them.  Also at this point Tyreese and his crew have disappeared, taken off for parts unknown.

In the part of the episode I like to call The Dead of Hazzard, Daryl and Merle Dixon are traveling the woods and trying to decide which of them is right about the direction they are going.  We’ve not really had time together with Daryl and Merle like this, and it’s entertaining to see Rooker and Reedus play off of one another.  When Daryl hears what he thinks is a baby crying (thoughts of Little Ass Kicker in his head) he runs off and discovers a Mexican family being attacked by walkers on a bridge.

This scene is pretty amazing and the music is great, bringing in a whole southern undercurrent of bad ass to the mix as Daryl takes out most of the walkers and Merle steps in to help out for a couple.  The zombie gore runs fast and free.  When it’s all over and Merle decides they’ve earned some payback from the family Daryl pulls his crossbow on him, telling him to leave them alone and tells the family to get the hell out of there.

This leads to a moment of revelation on the Dixon family dynamic and also another one of those many references throughout the episode of what home is.  Daryl finally tells his brother what he thinks of him.  He defends his choice of staying with Rick and his crew, and tells Merle that his lost hand was his choice long before it was actually cut off.  We also discover that Merle left his brother behind to an abusive father who was also abusive to Merle.  It’s a great scene and Merle actually shows something other than hate and smarminess in his face.  Rooker’s stricken expression tells it all as he sees Daryl returning to the prison gang which is more of a home to him than his own family has been.

Back at the prison, Axel and Carol have been flirting a bit and we’ve learned about Axel’s past issues.  He’s not been a lucky guy…and Carol’s history with men hasn’t been so lucky either.  Turns out that both their bad luck has come to nail Axel straight in the head with a messy bullet (I blame myself after posting on Lew Temple’s Facebook page “Please don’t croak, I like Axel.”)  Axel’s not really surprising but still crappy death starts off one of the most awesome scenes of the season.  Carol smartly uses his now dead body to shield herself (Carol seems to be the angel of death anymore…first T Dog and now Axel have kept her alive.)   And we see that The Governor is the man who pulled the trigger.  It’s on.

Bullets start flying and Herschel is trapped in a field as is Rick who he was trying to talk back inside.  You wonder if Lori’s spirit was trying to get Rick into a position he needed to be in before the attack started.  As it is though, Carl and Beth are trapped in the courtyard and Carol is trapped with the rapidly hole filled body of Axel.  Michonne is trapped next to a bus.  Glen has left and is unaware of what is going on.  Bullets keep flying and things are not looking great at all.  Maggie comes running out of the prison carrying some big ass guns…and I wonder while all this is happening “Who’s with the baby?”  The answer is no one…and that’s sort of a scary thought isn’t it?

This is no sound stage and this entire sequence, already awesome, ratchets up past ten when we see a delivery truck come rocketing through the gates at high speeds and crashing into the prison grounds.  The Gov seems to be smiling creepily at this as the truck comes to rest in the middle of the field.  A few seconds pass and then the back of the truck opens up…and out pour a horde of walkers.  This is a Walker Delivery and it is beyond messed up.  The driver comes running out of the van in full body armor and brandishing a gun and you finally realize just how gone and evil The Gov truly is.

Rick is running out of ammo and Herschel is about to be killed as he’s in the same area as the walkers that just showed up.  Glen arrives, passing the Gov on the road back into the prison as he’s heading back to Woodbury, his message delivered.   Glen manages to get Herschel and everyone (sans Rick) into his truck and back to relative safety.

Rick’s about to become biter food, with two walkers holding onto him; then suddenly an arrow bursts through one’s head.  The Dixon boys, both of them, have come home.  Merle and Daryl help Rick take out some of the walkers but there are still a lot left to handle and the noise of the gunfire has no doubt attracted a ton more.

As the episode ends we see Rick looking at the horde and the horror that has been brought to his home and his expression is dark and dangerous and filled with just as much fury as ever we’ve seen.   Retribution is about to come down hard I have a feeling, straight into the heart of Woodbury.  Rick’s family and his home have been attacked and that’s something that no law man or man for that matter will stand for.  It’s going to be an eye for an eye, and the Governor only has one left…and I think Rick’s ready to stab it out.  This may be my favorite episode of the season and I can’t wait to see how they top it.

The Suicide King

Season 3.5 Premiere

The Walking Dead

Review/Recap

Written By Jessica Dwyer

SPOILERS

The second half of the new season of the Walking Dead begins immediately with where we left off with episode 8;  Merle and Daryl Dixon, both cornered and being yelled at by the very pissed off residents of Woodbury.  The Governor watches on, his remaining eye as cold and dead as those of the Walkers, Daryl looks scared perhaps for the first time since we’ve ever seen him.  It would appear the tag line of “Fear the Living” is appropriate as we see how people react once society has fallen and they are “governed” if you will, by the need to survive.   Norman Reedus does a great job in this scene as does Michael Rooker.  Daryl’s reaction to what is happening is telling and you can see that Merle is trying to figure it out in his head how he’s going to get his little brother out of there and save his own hide at the same time.

The Calvary arrives in the form of Rick and Maggie as they use tear gas and some well-placed (and not so well placed) fire power to rescue Daryl and (unwillingly so) Merle.  It’s during this time that Andrea gets a rude awakening on what’s been going on while she’s been playing house with “Phillip.”

It’s interesting to see the reactions by not only Maggie, Glenn and Michonne but also Rick’s reaction to Merle coming along.  Daryl’s response to them is also not surprising.  Merle of course is goading everyone on and laughing at the absurdity of it.  Daryl is trapped but his choice was made for him long ago when it came to Merle.  That’s his brother, and blood is blood.  Not even bothering to go back to the prison (he tells Rick that Carol will understand) he leaves with Merle rather than go back home without him.

This is where I have to say that this episode becomes truly more about the human interactions and about the characters and their motivations than zombies.  I think that’s one of the best parts of season 3, that it’s really ramped up the characters and letting the actors shine.  The arc of Daryl, Rick, and everyone else is really jumping ahead, especially with the relationship between Maggie and Glenn.  Glenn’s need to protect her and to prove himself to not only her and her father, but to his own sense of worth is intense.  I can only see things going badly and even darker.

When the gang arrives back at the prison we see Rick telling Carol that Daryl didn’t come back.  She’s stricken to tears by that (perhaps Daryl was wrong about her understanding.)  But later we see her talking to Beth about him.  This scene and Carol’s understanding of what makes Daryl tick is one of my favorites of the episode.

Carol tells Beth that basically Daryl is the victim of abuse, a lifetime of it really by his brother.  He’s got to break free of that hold to allow himself to be happy (or close to it) and accepted within the family he has now at the prison.  But she understands why he didn’t come back because not only is there the relationship with Merle he needs to break out from, but the code of ethics he’s got, and the world they live in now, a man like that is rare to find.

That sort of complexity comes from some great writing and the work of the actors like Reedus to give depth to what a lot of people that haven’t seen TWD probably throw away as just “that zombie show.”  Here we have an abused woman who has grown in strength of spirit and made it through the loss of her abusive husband and her only child still alive.  And she’s talking about how the character everyone considers the biggest badass of the show is a victim just like she was…and he hasn’t been able to break that cycle or that chain.

Back at Woodbury The Governor and Andrea are each dealing separately with the chaos that has ensued with the escape.  That escape has also left the town open defense wise to some Walkers who get inside.  The residence of Woodbury don’t consider themselves safe anymore and people want out.  Tensions run high and then the Walkers that managed to get inside attack.

Andrea is wondering where The Governor is in all this madness.  He’s not coming out of his apartment for whatever reason, and is letting the town feed upon itself.  So she takes command somewhat and helps take out the few Walkers who got inside.  But she can’t bring herself to shoot the still living victim of their attack.  The Governor at last appears and as unemotional as he was before, shoots the crying man in the head.

Andrea is told by the Governor after she follows him back inside that she’s got no business getting involved with Woodbury.  She’s a stranger, a visitor there.  And even if they were dancing in the sheets it didn’t mean she was going to be staying.  The Governor knows how to play people like a fiddle, and this is another one of those scenes we see it happen.  Andrea walks back outside and immediately starts telling everyone how Woodbury needs to stick together and that when the history books are written they’ll remember how “their” town survived.  Oh Andrea, you really are the queen of bad ideas and bad choices in men.

Back at the prison a decision needs to be made about Tyreese and his group staying or going.  Rick’s decision is they need to leave.  That’s not a real popular choice by everyone there…and then the figure appears on the catwalk.  The silhouette looks to be that of Lori and Rick’s reaction is not good.  While everyone thinks he’s screaming at Tyreese and his people to leave, it’s really Lori’s spirit that’s haunting him he is begging and pleading to leave.  Rick’s descent into madness isn’t quite over yet and that’s where we are left to wonder how far that descent into darkness will go.

I truly love how Rick and the Governor are still mirrors of one another.  This episode shows it again perfectly.  Rick feels too much, he can’t handle the amount of pain and sorrow, the grief he’s had to deal with upon losing everything.  His strength and clarity seem to all be personified within Carl now (maybe there is power in the hat after all.)  The Governor is in a way, the opposite.  The loss and grief have shut him down completely emotionally.  There’s nothing there within him anymore.  He’s turned into a machine.  When the two finally do meet face to face will be truly interesting to behold, because that mirror will no doubt shatter into a million jagged and blood pieces.

Warm Bodies

Movie Review

By Jessica Dwyer

Horror and Romance don’t always go hand in hand.  Depending on who is at the helm the movie or the book can be horrifying for completely the wrong reason.  But when it is done right and you get the right mixture of actors, story, and crew it can be great.

Warm Bodies shambled from the pages of writer Isaac Marion’s novel of the same name.  The book made quite a splash when it was released because it took the concepts of zombies and flipped it on its severed head.  It told the story from the zombie’s perspective and it added bits of Romeo and Juliet and an actual story about the power of humanity and love that at its core was surprisingly deep and touching.  Simon Pegg himself touted the novel as did, for better or worse, Stephanie Meyer.

Zombies as metaphor and being used as tools for such is nothing new.  Romero, the man who is the Granddaddy of all Zombie started with this very same notion.  Using zombies to tell stories of where humanity is at the time and covering everything in a nice bright red blanket of gore is the un-beating heart and soul of his stories and so it is with Jonathan Levine film and the book by Isaac Marion.

Levine, who both wrote the screenplay and directed Warm Bodies kept to what makes the story of “R” and his Julie(t) so great.  It’s not a clean love story, not when your relationship starts with you eating the girls current boyfriend (and keeping bits of his brain to snack on later.)  The zombies in this film still eat people.  And they even have their own sort of predator in the form of the Bonies, walking scowling skeletons ready to destroy and consume whatever comes near them.

What makes the film and the book so great is that it manages to meld the story so well.  It keeps the zombie quotient and doesn’t shy away from the fact that they are in fact corpses.  They eat brains and people, and are trapped inside these aimless bodies simply wasting away.  There’s no explanation for why they are changed, what started the outbreak…not really.  The inner monologue of R is hilarious and at times poignant and telling.  He’s on automatic pilot like nearly all the zombies are, rambling through existence.

Levine doesn’t try to keep the message here from being obvious; it’s obvious to anyone with an uneaten brain.  As we see R trying to remember what it was like in his home of an airport he gets a flash of every person there not making eye contact and being glued to their cell phone screen…nearly walking the same way the zombies are around him in present time.

When R crosses paths with Julie and her human friends it happens when he and a pack of zombies are attacking them.  He saves her after a flicker of emotion comes through him which is amplified by eating her boyfriend’s brain and absorbing his memories of her.  That’s another part of Marion’s novel that I’m very glad was left in.  We’ve only ever been hinted at over the years as to why so many zombies love to eat brains.  This time around we get a fairly unique reason…brains contain the memories and emotions of the people they belonged to.

Zombies can eat them and feel, at least temporarily, human again.  With this idea, R decides to save Julie instead of killing her.  As the relationship plays out we get some great scenes between Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Plamer as R and Julie.  I truly believe that if it hadn’t been cast with these two actors the film would have suffered badly.  Hoult has some of the most expressive eyes I’ve seen on an actor.  R could have come off hokey and lame, instead you really love this guy and want to give him a hug or a blanket or something.  He’s sweet and funny and is perfect in the role.

The same for Palmer who brings a tired toughness to Julie, as well as a sense of fragility.  She’s been through hell but has acclimated to the world around her because she has to.  She’s all her father, played rather cardboard by John Malkovich (I’m not sure what happened to Malkovich…he’s got the same problem that Robert De Niro has now…which is he can only play Robert De Niro) has left.  Her father is the man in charge of the city that is the refuge for the surviving humans.  And so Julie learns to be a sort of soldier for him.  She’s used to the death that happens in this new world…something her boyfriend Perry (played by Dave Franco, James’s brother who could be his clone) sadly never gets used to.

The only thing I’ll say about Rob Corddry is he needs to be in every movie ever made from here on out.  That’s truth, plain and simple.

Warm Bodies looks great too.  I love the style of the film, the zombie make up, and also the Bonies who are total cousins to the Ray Harryhausen skeletons that fought Sinbad years ago.  Levine brings together everything and brings to life the book that I loved so much.  He also adds a great use of music and soundtrack to add to the fun factor of the movie.

The films personality makes it a close cousin to Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead, there’s no doubt.   It’s aware of what it is and has fun with it. Warm Bodies manages to be a blend of many genres, like those previous modern zombie films.  It’s a love story that knows its basis is in Shakespeare and makes no apologies.  It’s a horror film that knows many a zombie shambled before it.  It’s a comedy that knows how to be funny.   And it also has a great moral at its center, one that should appeal to everyone.

THANK YOU GOD FOR STOPPING THIS FROM HAPPENING

I’m glad the studio didn’t go the route it was thinking of when marketing this movie, which was hopping on the Twilight train (since it is the same studio).  The comparisons to Twilight started almost immediately even though other than the two main characters being a (dead) boy and a girl in love, there is nothing between the two books (or films) that could really be comparable.

Where Twilight in many ways (some not so healthy) says that love is worth dying for, Warm Bodies message is that love is worth living for.   Go see it…you won’t be disappointed.