WARM BODIES

Summit Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 98 minutes



Click below to watch the Warm Bodies trailer.



In Summit Entertainment's Warm Bodies, Nicholas Hoult falls in love with Teresa Palmer - the problem is Hoult is a zombie.

Based on the novel by Isaac Marion, this is a different kind of zombie film with a "dead boy meets girl" plot, which is actually a loose retelling of Romeo and Juliet. I like that Palmer's best friend Analeigh Tipton is a nurse, similar to Juliet's having a nurse, as well as having an "R" and Juliet balcony scene in the movie. Warm Bodies is also told from the zombies point of view with Hoult's voice overs, which I do not think I have seen before. Usually it is zombies just walking around eating people, and there is some of that in the movie - including Palmer's boyfriend Dave Franco. I don't think I have ever seen zombies starting to be cured before and regaining their humanity. These elements make the movie different from what someone may expect from a regular zombie movie. What is curious from a movie making aspect, is that the zombie actors chose not to blink on screen, until they started to become more human.

I think my favorite scene in the movie, aside from Hoult's first meeting with his best friend Rob Corddry as "M", was the Pretty Woman scene with Roy Orbison. Music was a very important part of Hoult being a zombie, and probably added the most humanity to me aside from Hoult's relationship with Palmer. Having Hoult's home being at an airport was an interesting location for zombies that I never considered before.

John Malkovich was great as the para-military Colonel of the surviving humans defending their enclave amongst the zombie outbreak, almost despotic in his zeal of protecting his people and with killing zombies. I liked his video about zombies. The Bony zombies - zombies that are all muscle and bones - were appropriately scary and were definitely the horror part of the movie. I just wish the Bonys were more graphic as well as the child zombies.

I would not be surprised if Warm Bodies becomes a cult classic.

Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 98 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

  Pancho's Movie Reviews

THE THING

Universal Pictures

Rated R

Running time: 103 minutes



Universal Pictures The Thing is a prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing which is based on the short story Who Goes There by John W. Campbell Jr. (Don A. Stuart). In Antarctica, a scientific research station discover not only an ancient spaceship - but an alien thing.

While Carpenter's The Thing is closer to the original story by Campbell, this version of The Thing is closer to the Howard Hawkes version of The Thing From Another World, although it is still the same basic story as Carpenter's The Thing. Scientist Ulrich Thomsen brings in paleontologist Mary Elizabeth Winstead to study the discovery in Antarctica. When the frozen alien thaws out and suddenly comes alive, the men and women at the research station not only must fight for their lives - but must discover which one of them has also turned into a thing.

I believe this is the first instance of the movies explaining the thing's chameleon/cloning capability of becoming another person. This movie is just as graphic as Carpenter's The Thing, including pieces of the thing becoming other things. Since this is a Norwegian outpost, it backs up Carpenter's The Thing as the first outpost that was attacked by the thing.

When Winstead is in her lab at the beginning of the film, she is listening to the Men at Work song Who Can It Be Now. This was appropriate to the future paranoia that will happen in the movie. The end scenes in the movie with the spaceship could have been done at the research post. As it was, it was basically the end scenes from the movie Alien and really broke the format of all the terror taking place at one location as well as just seeming unnecessary. I started to go ho-hum when the movie went in that direction. As a result, Winstead's character was based on Sigourney Weaver's character in Alien.

For a research post, the scientists have a lot of weapons - especially flame throwers. Flame throwers are not normal military weapons, for scientists to even have flame throwers is questionable. I might understand if flame throwers are used for ice mining, but they did not establish that and it is still a lot of flame throwers.

Do not leave as the end credits roll as there are scenes which lead directly into Carpenter's The Thing.

Rated R for graphic violence and language. Running time: 103 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

Apollo 18

Dimension Films

Rated PG-13

Running time: 88 minutes

Click below to watch the trailer for Apollo 18.



In Dimension Films Apollo 18, a secret documentary from NASA and the Department of Defense shows the two organizations actually sending a classified Apollo mission to the moon - with horrifying consequences.

A combination Apollo 13, The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and Alien, the movie is more of a suspense film than a horror film. I freely admit that there were a few times where I did jump and flinch - but I was not really scared, just startled. The film starts out with a crawl stating that Apollo 17 was the last Moon landing mission, but then the crawl states that in 2011 hours of documentary footage was uploaded onto the web at http://www.lunartruth.org/ and that this movie of the recovered footage of Apollo 18 is the edited result. The quality of the footage looks like 1970's 16mm footage that would have been in use during the time. Make no mistake - despite the documentary style, and NASA confirms it - this film is a work of fiction.

Clicking on the lunartruth website is not worth it as the website says the footage has been censored. There are no links or anthing on the site except that disclaimer. This site is apparently not available anymore. The website that has the Apollo 18 conspiracy is http://lunatruth.com/. And while not noticing a Saturn V rocket on a launch pad could be justified for the movie, a night launch that was shown is much harder not to notice. I once was at Cape Canaveral for a Discovery space shuttle launch, and we had to pass through a security gate. After driving for a distance through the complex, we parked at a public viewing area. From across the lagoon, I could just barely see the launch pad without my telephoto camera lens. Aside from the noise, and even with the noise, it is quite possible not to notice a Saturn V rocket launch from a distance as the whole area is quite isolated and secured.

The various noises in the lunar module makes you think that the aliens are already around - but the astronauts hardly paid attention to them, so it is difficult to tell if the noises are natural lunar module sounds or the aliens crawling around. The sounds are pretty scary when you consider how empty and lonely the moon is.

Apparently there is an entire species on the moon with the aliens metamorphosing from rock to alien, which apparently got to a previous Soviet lunar mission. You never really get a good look at the aliens, but they appear to be small insect-like creatures instead of man-size creatures, so one astronaut being suddenly dragged away does not make sense. Lloyd Owen being infected by these creatures is reminiscent of Alien. With Warren Christie wanting to go home to his family, and not having a lonely death in space, you could feel Christie's desperation as the situation deteriorates rapidly towards the end.

The sets and effects of the spacecrafts and the lunar surface were very good and realistic in that you could easily believe that this was real footage from NASA.

President John F. Kennedy's classic speech about choosing to go to the moon was a nice touch.

While supposedly set during Christmas time - there are hardly any references to Christmas, with the most notable reference as the Christmas carol instrumental music played during the end credits.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 88 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.