Welcome to February. This month’s releases are more promising than January’s, but not by much. Starting today, we get one decent movie, and a few other titles that might be good, but probably aren’t.
After ‘28 Days Later‘, I became quite a fan of zombie flicks. (Yes, I know that ’28 Days Later’ isn’t technically about “zombies”, but about infected humans. But when I got to hang out with – NAME DROP! – Danny Boyle for 90 minutes just before the release of ‘127 Hours‘, I referred to ’28 Days Later’ as a zombie movie and he didn’t correct me. I think we’re safe to rank it in that category.) Even so, I’m getting burned out by this newfound zombie craze. I used to warmly welcome these movies, but now I believe that less is more. The trailers for Summit’s ‘Warm Bodies‘ haven’t looked all that great, but I promise you that it’s much better than it looks.
‘Warm Bodies’ stars rising ‘X-Men: First Class‘ co-star Nicholas Hoult and the cute Australian actress Teresa Palmer. Hoult plays a not-so-mindless zombie wandering through a post-apocalyptic world. A good chunk of the movie is set to his witty inner monologue. Unlike the genre standard, he’s fully aware of the monster that he has become and of what’s going on. His body may be a corpse, but his soul is definitely alive. He’s about to find a reason to come to life again, which is where Palmer comes in. ‘Warm Bodies’ doesn’t have enough gore to be considered a standard zombie flick. With its PG-13 romance, it’s more like a romantic zombedy. Like I said, it’s much better that it looks and applies a few very cool twists to the genre.
Arnold Schwarzenegger fizzled back onto the big screen a few weeks ago with ‘The Last Stand’. Now, Sylvester Stallone follows in his tracks, and I presume that his flick will flop even worse. In ‘Bullet to the Head‘, Stallone stars alongside Jason Momoa, the lead from the failed 3D ‘Conan the Barbarian‘ reboot. A cop and an assassin join forces. Why? Because both of their partners were killed by the same villain (Momoa). Word on the street is that you should be prepared for excessive and gruesome violence.
This week’s limited releases include ‘Stand Up Guys‘, a comedic crime flick directed by Fisher Stevens (you know, that guy from the ‘Short Circuit‘ movies). It’s about a group of old thugs who reunite for a final revenge-fueled mission. The leading roles are played by Alan Arkin, Christopher Walken and Al Pacino.
Do you remember that ‘Haunting in Connecticut‘ movie from 2009? Me neither. I never saw it, but apparently enough people did that it warranted a small sequel: ‘The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia‘. So, which is it, Connecticut or Georgia? You lost me at the title. The IMDb description explains that it’s about a family that moves to Georgia, so why not name it ‘The Haunting in Georgia’? That fact that it’s directed by the editor of ‘The Apparition‘, stars a gagillion no-names and is getting an on-demand debut leads me to believe that this is a dud.
The most noteworthy of several documentaries opening this weekend is ‘Sound City‘, which just debuted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. I’ve heard nothing but great things about this Dave Grohl-directed doc which highlights the many successful acts that have recorded tracks at the iconic Southern California studio.
