Warm Bodies, Bullet to the Head out in theaters this weekend

The box office this weekend welcomes three new films, the zombie love story, “Warm Bodies,” the crime-comedy with an all-star cast, “Stand Up Guys” and the action packed “Bullet to the Head.”

Kristen Meinzer, The Takeaway culture producer, had praise for the Romeo and Juliet turned zombie apocalypse film, Warm Bodies.

“The humans are on one side of the world sequestering themselves off, shooting all the zombies. The zombies are off in another part of the world trying just to cope with what they have and you realize, through our protagonist, that a lot of the zombies are still alive,” she said.

In the film, the zombie protagonist falls in love with a girl, who’s still human. But in order for the girl to fall in love with the zombie, he kidnaps her and forces her to love him.

The idea is, zombies can come back to life if they fall in love, Meizner said.

Rafer Guzman, film critic for Newsday, says he likes how the movie portrays zombies as misunderstood alienated loners. But once you get past the idea of the loner zombie, the film is left bare.

“There’s some comedy, there’s some romance, but there’s not that much else going on and for a horror comedy, it’s a little toothless,” he said.

The director of ‘Warm Bodies’ also directed ’50/50′, and though Guzman likes how the director brings youth to the screen, the characters were difficult to get into.

Though the zombie apocalypse love story might be appealing to some, for those wanting more action, Guzman suggests seeing ‘Bullet to the Head’, starring Sylvester Stallone.

“The eighties are back, it’s neon, it’s a blues-rock soundtrack, and the streets are wetted down so the headlights glisten off the pavement. I loved every minute of it,” he said.

But Meinzer disagrees and says the movie is ridiculous. 

Rather than the typical black and white mismatched team, it’s Sylvester Stallone and an Asian cop, Meizner said.

“(There’s) lots of jokes about fortune cookies and eastern philosophy, it’s corny and it’s awful. The violence is over the top, the premise is thin and terrible, and yet if you really love a bad movie this is an excellent bad movie,” she said.