He's Got His Love To Keep Him Warm (Film Review: Warm Bodies)

Even Zombies fall in love, apparently. Of course, they do, why wouldn't they? I mean, doesn't *everyone* fall in love at least once in their lifetime, or in this case, even in their post-lifetimes.  "Warm Bodies" is the first (that I know of) movie in that new genre, the zom-rom-com. Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer play star-crossed lovers - he's a zombie, she's a human. In this age of Walking Dead fanatics, why not? They are even named after that other star-crossed lovers, Hoult plays "R" (he couldn't remember his full name) and Palmer plays Julie. They even meet cute: they lock eyes after he has eaten her boyfriend's brain. The movie even follows the formula of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and ... well, you know the rest. I wanted to like this movie, and even went out of my way to see it, as I am not the biggest fan of the horror/zombie genre. And I think it's cute enough: it's droll and witty, and the director Jonathan levine (he did the wondeerful "50/50") strikes the right balance between cutesy and not taking itself too seriously. The performances, especially by Hoult (he's going to be a huge star, I bet) are charming and appealing. This is the perfect date movie: girls will go gaga over the love story, while their dates will be entetrained by action sequences and the gore. And guess what - it was the number one movie in the country teh day it opened. But for me, it isn't "rom" enough for my taste. I thought it was fine, but forgot about it instantly. Ultimately, I wasn't the target market for it. There's still a bit of action-movie formula in it that, frankly, bored me. Like a dish, it was just warm, when  I like my food piping hot.