Warm Bodies Movie Review

Warm Bodies is the latest zombie movie offering, with a twist, it's also a love story. Before you cringe and claim that this will ruin zombies like Twilight ruined vampires, give it a chance and don't look to closely at that poster on the left that is very Twilight. Yes this is a sweet zombie love story, but these kids can act!

Based on the novel by Isaac Marion, this update of “Romeo and Juliet” takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where normal people aren't exactly getting cozy with the world’s population of staggering, flesh-eating corpses. Instead they've erected a wall and have taken a shoot those zombies in the head mentality. You know normal run of the mill zombies eat brains post apocalyptic stuff.

Nicholas Hoult plays the undead hottie, "R", who is just a bit of an odd ball. Sure he's a flesh eating menace, but he's also a bit of a horder, collecting trinkets of humanity and stashing them inside his airplane, which makes him different from most of the mindless walking corpses around him. He actually has thoughts, though slow and garbled, and has a weird quirky existence. Something sparks inside of “R,” who falls in love with human Julie (Theresa Palmer) after eating her boyfriend’s brains, which threatens to change the world as they know it.

'R" isn't the only one who has a change of heart. He shows Julie just how different he is, and together they work to change how everyone, including her father see the zombies, who are evolving right before their eyes.

Hoult exudes an awkward charm and Palmer is hard not to fall in love with with her tomboyishness, and tough on the outside act, these paired with clever dialogue, laugh out loud moments, and tons of sentimental energy of a John Hughes romance revive this classic tale of Romeo and Juliet. I'm not sure the bard would enjoy this retelling of his classic, but it's certainly a road not usually traveled. Who knew Zombies could be sexy? While there are parts of the movie that do drag, its comedic moments make it worthwhile.

Warm Bodies shambles into theaters February 1, 2013