WARM BODIES Throws The Zombie Rulebook Out The Window With Mixed Results

Opening today at nearly every multiplex in the Triangle area:

WARM BODIES
(Dir. Jonathan Levine, 2013)

The premise of this film, which is being hyped as the zombified answer to TWILIGHT, is promising. 

After a zombie apocalypse, which is getting easier and easier to set up - just display some headlines and news clips about a plague and you're in, a teen-aged member of the walking dead falls in love with a human, and that love may not just bring him back to life, it may save the entire zombie population.

Nicholas Hoult (the kid from ABOUT A BOY and Beast from X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) plays the young zombie who tells us through a running inner dialogue voice over that he doesn’t remember who he was, or what he did, but figures “My hoodie would suggest I was unemployed.”

But wait a second, zombies aren’t supposed to have inner dialogues, right? Well, that’s our first indication that WARM BODIES, adapted from the bestselling novel by Isaac Marion by director/screenwriter Levine, is going to mess around a bit with zombie mythology.

Hoult lives at deserted airport in Montreal, Canada (at least that’s where it was filmed) among dozens of the undead who shuffle around aimlessly, grunting, like zombies do. Our protagonist has what he calls “almost conversations” with his best friend, Rob Corddry (The Daily Show, HOT TUB TIME MACHINE), consisting of mild groans, and he spends his nights in an airplane filled with stuff he collects, sort of in a WALL-E way.

Meanwhile, back in the world of the living, Teresa Palmer and Dave Franco portray a young couple who leave their heavily-guarded walled-off section of the city, ruled by John Malkovich as Palmer’s stern self-appointed General father, with a small group of fellow survivors to raid abandoned buildings for meds and other supplies.

Things go awry with they run into Hoult and other walkers, out on a hunt for human flesh, in a lab. Hoult kills Franco, but saves Palmer from the other zombies as its love at first sight.

Hoult takes Palmer back to the airport, telling her she’ll be safe there - yes, he can actually form a few words - and entertains her by playing records on a somehow functioning turntable from his vinyl collection (kudos for the extremely appropriate use of Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart”). “Better…sound” he actually musters about his preference for the vinyl format.

This is where the plot mechanics break down a bit. Hoult keeps his dream girl at the airport because it’s too dangerous for her to try to return to the safe zone, but then we see them taking a joyride in a snazzy red Mercedes around the runway. If they have access to a car like that, surely they can get her back home, but whatever.

The film breaks more of the established zombie rules by having the real villains be what’s called “Bonies,” that is zombies that are so far gone they have ripped off all their flesh and are just evil not-too-convincing CGI-ed corpses.

So the zombie romantic comedy (zom rom com?) WARM BODIES, with its conceit that the undead can be saved by love, is a mixed bag that made me laugh a few times, but ultimately I couldn’t completely buy into it.

It swiftly runs its course through to a battle climax between the Bonies and the humans, who learn that the not as dead zombies are on their side, but by then its spirit of invention has been replaced by an all too predictable formula.

Still, there’s some wit and charm here that may appeal to matinee moviegoers, Levine's direction is sharp (his previous film 50/50 was a lot sharper), and the visual style of the film, provided by cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe, absorbingly keeps in line with the horror aesthetics of the zombie genre, despite the rest of the movie throwing the rule book out the window.

As for the cast, Hoult and Palmer are likable even if they don't have much chemistry together, Franco has a pretty throwaway role mostly seen through flashbacks (you see, when Hoult snacks on his brains he gets to experience his victim's memories), and Malkovich isn't given the material needed for him to make his mark so he barely even nibbles on the scenery.

WARM BODIES severely stretches its premise thin with its lapses in zombie logic, and its high concept gets overly compromised by rom com conventions. Perhaps if it were funnier I could overlook its faults, but as it stands its promising premise never fully paid off.

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Hey, I Finally Saw…ROUNDERS

Now, when I’ve added to this feature in the past it was usually because I caught up with a classic, like the original TRUE GRIT or ERASERHEAD. But this time out, I’m just catching up with a movie that I’d been meaning to see since it came out fifteen years ago, I just never got around to it.

So now, mainly because I noticed that it’s just about to expire on Netflix Instant, I finally watched John Dahl’s 1998 poker-driven crime drama ROUNDERS.

But hold on, maybe it’s more than just a movie I missed - the A.V. Club’s Scott Tobias wrote an entry for it in their New Cult Canon series back in 2008.

Tobias argues convincingly that ROUNDERS is an extremely influential film that “lit the fuse on a multi-billion-dollar industry.” He points to the plethora of online poker sites that have endless usernames and/or avatars referencing the film as proof of its huge popularity among players.

For my first time watching it though, it felt less like an iconic celebration of the underworld of high-stakes gambling, and more like a slightly better than average late ‘90s crime drama that effectively maximizes on the then budding stardom of Matt Damon and Edward Norton. Both were fresh faced 20-somethings at the time, who had both gotten acclaim and in the case of Damon an Academy Award (shared with Ben Affleck for the GOOD WILL HUNTING screenplay).

In ROUNDERS, which is defined by the Urban Dictionary as “a player who knows all the angles and earns his living at the poker table,” there’s a familiar dynamic at work as Damon is, in a role similar to his working class but brilliant minded character in GOOD WILL HUNTING, the good guy trying to go straight, and Norton is the bad influence who wants Damon to get back in the game.

Damon, whose voice-over narration is overly prominent, has good reasons for turning his back on the lifestyle – he lost his entire life savings of $30,000 to a ridiculously accented Russian gangster played by a very hammy John Malkovich, and he promised he wouldn’t go near a card game again to his girlfriend (Gretchen Mol), who he is now in law school with.

Still, you know that he won’t be able to resist the lure of the game. Otherwise they’d be no movie, right? The basic premise boils down to the slimy Norton, who is actually nicknamed “Worm,” being heavily in debt, and his old partner Damon dusting off his mad poker skills to help his friend. This makes for some great gaming scenes, particularly one with the duo trying to hoodwink a room full of hard ass New Jersey State Troopers.

The second hour of ROUNDERS which begins with the nagging Mol leaving Damon to his gambling devices, is consumed by these tense gaming scenarios yet despite its predictable plotting, it still pulled me in.

I wasn’t interested as much in Damon’s predicament of choosing the proper father figure - Martin Landau as a muddled but wise professor and John Turturro as a somewhat beat down old-time rounder have hazy scenes in which they somewhat compete for the part, I think - than I was into the bad friend who manipulates his good friend basics this film nails.

Fanke Janssen is on the sidelines as a possible new love interest for Damon, but the movie doesn't seem too interested in that. The poker-powered bromance is what gets the spotlight.

In retrospect, the film foreshadows the relationship between Norton and Brad Pitt in FIGHT CLUB, which would be on Norton’s roster after his turn in AMERICAN HISTORY X (the era was busy for the actor). But if you’ve seen FIGHT CLUB you know what that relationship turned out to be.

ROUNDERS’ had a palpable impact on waves of impressionable poker players, many of who are no longer lulling about casinos or sleazy backrooms, but now playing high or low stake games comfortably at home in thousands of rooms online. For all you cyber-gamers out there, here are some of the better rooms available if you want to try your hand at some virtual Texas Hold’em, so you can sample the game yourself that provides the bookend scenes in which Damon goes up against Malkovich.

It may overly glorify the rush that makes a talented player like Damon’s character unable to quit the game, but it captures that pure excitement (Damon even regrettably tells Mol that he felt alive for the first time in 9 months when he sat back down at the table) so well that ROUNDERS may be the ultimate double edged sword of gambling movies.

ROUNDERS, which I’m glad I finally saw, is available for one more day on Netflix Instant (it expires at the end of February 1st).

More later…

RED: The Film Babble Blog Review

RED (Dir. Robert Schwentke, 2010)

Sometimes it seems like every other movie opening this year at the multiplex is a comic throwback to ‘80s action movies or based on a graphic novel I wasn’t aware of before.

To its credit RED is both. But that’s the only credit I’ll give this unfunny overblown mess though.

RED is titled after the stamp on agent Frank Moses' (Bruce Willis) file, meaning "retired, extremely dangerous."

Willis leads a mundane life as a former Black Ops CIA agent who tears up his retirement checks just so he can continue to call customer service representative Mary Louise Parker because he has a crush on her.

Before you know it Willis is on the run from government assassins and he abducts Parker for the ride. She goes along with it in her typical jaded Weeds fashion, but the unbelievable and incredibly contrived nature of her role never convinces for a second.

Parker’s life before was boring and now she’s caught up in a world of espionage – I get it, but it’s such a cringing cliché with a capital C.

He re-unites his old crew – the all star cast of Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Ernest Borgnine and John Malkovich – to fight the attackers and it’s one shoot-em-up after another.

The film is solidly staged but it’s a joyless affair with really poorly written dialogue and a distinct lack of laughs.

At this point in Willis’s career it’s surprising he would be attracted to this boring by-the-numbers material.

Willis just sleep walks (sometimes in slow motion) through a barely interesting plot handled with a hodgepodge of styles and clashing tones. The narrative involves a cover-up of Guatemalan slayings orchestrated by the Vice President (Julian McMahon).

There’s some seriousness in the seams but it’s overshadowed by cloying silliness. It’s also off-putting that the film has an unbearable sense of self satisfaction.

Malkovich as a jacked up explosives expert appears to be having fun with his role, but with such lame one-liners (none of which I can remember or else I’d quote one) that feeling is far from contagious.

Freeman, who is 73, plays an 80 year old ex-agent – a role that requires no heavy lifting, just his patented homespun delivery. Borgnine is 93 and like Malkovich he’s seems to be having a good time. Maybe he’s just happy to be anywhere these days.

Then there’s Dame Helen Mirren in a white evening gown firing a machine gun. That’s supposed to be a hilarious image, but it creaks like everything else in this misguided movie.

Oh, and I shouldn’t forget Richard Dreyfuss, still channeling Dick Cheney from W, as a bad guy who is also saddled with lines that fall flat. “I did it for the money” Dreyfuss revealed in a recent interview. 

It sure shows.

I saw somebody on a message board refer to this film as THE EXPENDABLES but with people who can actually act.” I can go with that because just like that Sylvester Stallone all star vehicle, this is ultimately a lame package.

RED, which I think should stand for Really Excruciating Drivel, is a waste every way you can cut it.

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Burning Down The GRINDHOUSE

GRINDHOUSE (Dir. Robert Rodriquez/Quentin Tarantino 2007) 

2 movies in one - that is 2 full-length feature films by 2 notorious directors for the price of one. Sounds too good to be true? That’s because it’s fake – don't get me wrong it really is 2 complete movies but it’s a fake exploitation experience with fake trailers, bucket after bucket of fake blood splatters on everything, fake hair, fake dismembered human organs, fake projector noise, fake scratches on the film, fake missing reel announcements, fake fake fake.

The only thing that’s not fake is the fun – and there’s lots of it here. 

Both films take place in the modern day but as if the schlock methods of ‘70s era sleaze cinema never went away. In the minds of Tarantino and Rodriquez they never did. 

After a fake funny as Hell trailer for a Mexican vigilante flick called “Machete,” we are presented with Rodriquez’s eco-zombie action-horror spectacle entitled "Planet Terror". We’ve got Freddy Rodriquez (best known as Federico Diaz on Six Feet Under) as a cocky outlaw gunslinger who outfits his go-go dancer girlfriend Rose McGowan having lost a leg in the first wave of the attack (“a missing leg that’s now missing”) with a machine gun and they join forces with other non-contaminated humans against the hordes of slime covered with giant zit popping zombies. 

Along the way Bruce Willis and Tarantino himself put in cameos, Josh Brolin appears as a murderous doctor targeting his cheating lesbian wife Marley Shelton, and grisly yet sentimental BBQ chef Jeff Fahey protects an old secret family recipe right to the grave. The action and humor never lag and the breathlessly and purposely crude construction make this one of Rodriquez’s most enjoyable movies. 

Then come more fake trailers. The trailers for "Werewolf Women of the SS" (made by Rob Zombie), “Don’t” (by SHAUN OF THE DEAD director Edgar Wright), and “Thanksgiving” (By director/actor Eli Roth) are so authentic looking, so perfect in their exclamations of low-brow glee, and so funny that it occurs to me that maybe the whole movie should have been made of fake trailers. 

I guess that would have gotten tiresome after a bit. Speaking of tiresome Tarantino’s “Death Proof” has more of a polished sophistication than Rodriquez’s and unfortunately that means a drop-off in fun. Dominated by lengthy dialogue scenes that sound at times like Tarentino lecturing us on his sexual agenda, obscure pop-culture references, and hip-hopisms through the disguise of girl talk. This bit brings the whole GRINDHOUSE down but once it gets rolling it redeems itself roaringly.

As we wind through the non-stop chatting of 2 separate groups of women (including Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Vanessa Ferlito, Rosario Dawson, Zoe Bell, Tracie Thoms, and McGowan again this time as a non-ass kicking blond) we get a leisurely introduction to Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) who turns out to be a predatory psychopath – though one not without charms. The 3rd act is car -chase road-rage revenge city with Zoe Bell (Uma Thurman’s stunt double in the KILL BILL movies) spending a good deal of the action on the hood of a 1970 Dodge Charger hanging on for dear life by a belt latched to the door frame while Stuntman Mike's death proof muscle car rams and bams up repeatedely up against the side. Bell, playing herself and amazingly doing all her own stunts with no CGI help, wants to take the car out for a test drive because it’s the same model as the car in the 70’s cult classic VANISHING POINT - a movie that’s referenced to a number of times and that calls out the difference between Rodriquez and Tarantino; not one movie or song title obscure or otherwise is mentioned in “Planet Terror.” “Death Proof” features numerous pop-culture pontifications and it suffers for it. Tarantino appears to be in love with his own dialogue while I and the audience around me were getting antsy. Probably the most apt old-school Hollywood phrase would be “cut to the chase”. Once he does it’s a thrill ride and the audience woke up and even cheered at the end. Even as a low-concept double feature fake-out GRINDHOUSE is awfully awesome, blazingly badass, and most importantly hilarious.


THE HOST (Dir. Joon-ho Bong, 2006) The early reports that posited this Hong Kong monster movie as a mixture of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE and JAWS weren't completely off the mark. Sure that kind of oft-repeated critical shorthand irks me but the clumsy neurotic antics of a family whose youngest is abducted by a bizzare beast - one that was created by discarded lab chemicals in the Han River by an American military officer mind you - does recall at times the best moments and heart of those accessible reference points. River-side snack shop slacker Song Kang-ho aided by his ornery father Byeon Heui-bong and sister Bae Du-na who has a handy flair for archery struggle to save Kanh-ho's school girl daughter Ko A-sun who spends most of the movie in a sewer with other captured Koreans. The Host which is so named because the tenacled CGI sea creature is the carrier of a deadly virus, drags quite a bit in it's second half and the action is too often restricted to the dank disgusting gutters or the sterile flourescent lit labs but there is an undeniable heartbeat here. With hope more quirky horror or creature feature genre exercises will follow suit. 

And once again by popular demand - some more new release DVD reviews: 

MARIE ANTONIETTE (Dir. Sofia Coppola, 2006) Sofia Coppola's 3rd movie as director reworks the same theme - a young woman coming of age in a unfamiliar almost alien world - this time around the legendary 18th century French queen of the title gets to do the fish out of water honors and to a hip contemporary soundtrack no less (New Order, Sioxsie & The Banshees, The Cure, etc). Kirsten Dunst is adequate (or as Lindsay Lohan would say "adequite") in the role - she wears the extravagant wardrobe well and has the appropriate glibness down but is more than a little out of her depth. Jason Swartzman as Louis XVI is also questionably cast - he's Coppola's cousin and that seems to be the sole reason he's here. Better with tone and prescence in supporting rolesare Rip Torn, Judy Davis, Steve Coogan, Molly Shannon and Marriane Faithful.

Turning the oft told historical tale into one big glossy rock video is not a deplorable idea - it actually works at times like when a costume banquet-ball is shot like a decadent all night rave - but a sense of narrative drive is severely lacking. Coppola's technical skill is impressive with a definitive visual flair and confident color scheme - it's just not as interesting as I'm sure future projects of hers will be.

COLOR ME KUBRICK (Dir. Brian W. Cook, 2006)



Alan Conway (aptly named) was an odd British man who for a period in the early 90's impersonated legendary film director Stanley Kubrick (2001,DR. STRANGELOVE, THE SHINING, and so on). The fact is that he did it for such piddily low degree theviery reasons and was rarely able to get more than the money to but a few drinks is the crux of this particular cinematic biscuit.

Portrayed flamboyantly by John Malkovich in COLOUR ME KUBRICK which has the tagline of "A TRUE...ISH STORY" Conway is finally gets his coveted spot-light but one that never shows a good side of him. Every time we start to feel for the increasingly irritating imposter he does or acts in an even worse unforgivable and/or embarrassing manner that swindles our sympathy immediately from us. It's especially sad when he hoodwinks comedian/singer Lee Pratt (Jim Davidson - who was actually conned by the real Conway as the accompanying making of featurette tells us).

A few Kubrickian touches are thrown in by director Brian W. Cook (who was Kubrick's assistant director on 3 movies) - an opening scene involving punks coming close to roughing up an elderly high class couple while hunting down Conway for an unpaid bar tab recalls A CLORKWORK ORANGE and Richard Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (better known as "2001 theme") amusingly accompanies Conway as he carries a garbage bag filled with his dirty clothes to a local dive laundromat. 

Malkovich is for the most part hilarious as the vodka-swilling tackily dressed shyster who uses a different contrived accent for each of his victums. COLOUR ME KUBRICK is by no means a great must-see film but a good one. Well maybe good...ish.

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Babbling 'Bout Some Recent Release DVDs

“Take myself, subtract movies, and the result is zero” - Akira Kurosawa

A few reviews of recent release DVDs:

RIPLEY'S GAME (Dir. Liliana Cavana, 2002) 

Decent sturdy thriller but it could use a little more wit. Many lines are basic and stiff. Which is a surprise considering these are based on Patricia Highsmith's wickedly witty Tom Ripley novels. John Malkovich plays the same character that Matt Damon did in THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY (1999) but as somebody on the message board on IMDB stresses this is not a sequel. Dennis Hopper also tackled the character in Wim Wender's THE AMERICAN FRIEND (1977). A dry dull game Ripley plays this time around.

OSAMA (Dir. Siddiq Barmak, 2003)

Beautiful, but disturbing as Hell. The basic line that this is the first movie made in Afganistan since Taliban fell is news enough but to experience this movie is to witness as harrowing a depiction of oppression and indignity that's ever graced the silver screen. Marina Golbahari plays the title character, a 12 year old girl forced to pose as a boy in order to support her hungry mother and grandmother. The ruse doesn't last long and she is exiled to a worse fate. Watch at your own peril.

MONSTER (Dir. Patty Jenkins, 2003)

Charlize Theron won an Oscar for her portrayal of Aileen Carol Wuornos, a Floridian serial killing prostitute who had been executed in 2002. Argubly, she deserved to win because as Roger Ebert and many other critics gushed she completely inhabits the role and it's fascinating to watch. Unfortunately the movie that houses Wournos' story is uneven and routinely presented.

There are many effective moments like when teen lesbian Christina Ricci and Theron go roller skating and fall in love with each other to the tune of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" (yep, they're just that kind of '80s white trash) so ultimately I recommend it. For footage of the real Wuornos check out Nick Broomfield's (yes, the twit who made the silly docs BIGGIE AND TUPAC and KURT AND COURTNEY) AILEEN : LIFE AND DEATH OF A SERIAL KILLER. Watching that or MONSTER will make you want to take a shower after. 

ELEPHANT (Dir. Gus Vant Sant, 2003) 

A meditation on a Columbine style high school shooting that left me short. The look and feel is convincing, but ultimately this is a afterthought project with a muddled sense of purpose. Nice acting though from a cast of unknowns, Alex Frost and John Robinson particularly.

21 GRAMS (Dir. Alexandro Gonzalez Inarritu, 2003)

From the same team responsible for 2000's AMORES PERROS (2000). For a movie that got a few Oscar nominations, and a round of good critical notices this flick seems to have been thrown onto DVD with the same loving care as GIGLI - that is, with no Special Features to speak of. 

Not even a trailer except for other films (I hate that). The story here is 3 characters whose destinies of course intertwine and unsurprisingly is told out of sequence. How indie! You have to pay close attention to absorb the subtle details so that may lose a bunch of viewers right off. If that doesn't, the grainy washed out film stock might.

So anyway, this goes back and forth in time the narrative surrounding an automobile accident killing a man and his 2 daughters and the aftermath his widow (Naomi Watts) faces as a haggard pale professor (Sean Penn) is in need of a heart transplant.

Benecio Del Toro plays an ex-convict who's to blame for the accident. Any more I would tell you would give away this film's secrets. Basically this is Penn, Del Toro and Watts embroiled together in a tale of intrigue and blood! Almost poetic. But, as Christopher Guest said in A MIGHTY WIND, "Almost."

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