Warm Bodies
Directed by Jonathan Levine
Written by Jonathan Levine
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich, Rob Corddry
Summit Entertainment
Rated PG-13 | 97 Minutes
Release Date: February 1st, 2013

Back in 1993, Bob Balaban directed an obscure romantic zombie comedy (a rom-zom-com, if you’re one of those people) called My Boyfriend’s Back, about a teenager who returns from the dead as a zombie to take his high school sweetheart to the prom.

I won’t lie to you, I secretly kind of love My Boyfriend’s Back – it’s a guilty pleasure, what can I say. As a kid, I would rent the VHS tape every other weekend – along with The Sandlot and Critters – until the tracking button on the VCR begged for mercy.

Guilty pleasures (code for ‘bad movies’) are essential to appreciating good cinema. I won’t say My boyfriend’s Back paved the way to my discovery of films like Touch of Evil or The Seventh Seal, but as the late film critic Pauline Kael once said, “Movies are so rarely great art, that if we can’t appreciate great trash, there is little reason for us to go.” Amen, sister.

Balaban’s movie is great trash, and worth seeing for, if nothing else, early appearances by actors like Philip Seymour Hoffman, Matthew McConaughey, Renée Zellweger, and Matthew Fox.

Why am I talking so much about this damn movie? Well, because I found myself thinking of My Boyfriend’s Back and films like Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead and Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead while watching Jonathan Levine‘s latest film, Warm Bodies, based on the novel by Isaac Marion.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is scheduled to begin principal photography in March 2013, with Chris Evans reprising his role as the titular hero and Anthony Mackie signed on to play The Falcon, directors Joe and Anthony Russo are still searching for an actress to play Captain America’s love interest.

We previously reported that Anna Kendrick, Felicity Jones, and Imogen Poots were in the running for a mysterious role. No one could confirm it, but it was speculated that the mysterious role was that of Captain America’s love interest. Not much has been heard since the report was made public, but it appears that Poots was the only one who tested well, as her name appears on new set shortlist of actresses vying for the role.

Up and coming actress Riley Keough is currently in talks to grab a role in Mad Max: Fury Road, the upcoming fourth title in the franchise. Keough is the daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and granddaughter of beloved King of Rock, Elvis Presley.

The original three films — Mad Max, The Road Warrior, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome — all starred Mel Gibson as a man whose family were brutally murdered at the hands of a biker gang in a dystopian and eventually post-apocalyptic future where anarchy reigns. After gaining his revenge for the tragedy, Max goes into a deep, dark place, but eventually resurfaces as a warrior ready to protect the innocent and fight the evolving evils of the depressing world.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Directed by Jon Turteltaub
Starring Jay Baruchel, Nicolas Cage, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, Toby Kebbell
Release date: July 14, 2010

I’ll save you the suspense. Despite the fact that I don’t find it a particularly good movie, I liked The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Don’t mistake that for indecision. I think people’s ability to compartmentalize their taste in movies has a direct impact on their enjoyment of movies as entertainment. Saying a movie is bad isn’t the same as saying you didn’t like it. For as evolved as a lot of our taste in movies have become, there are still those inexplicable few that slip through that we like despite every inclination not to. I grew up watching some terrible movies and liked quite a lot of them. Some I still do. I know they are bad, but there is more that goes into liking a movie than knowing it was well made. Nostalgia, perspective, fandom, all of these things can also shape our experience outside of the quality of the film itself. We just like what we like and sometimes there is just no explanation for having a good time watching a movie. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is that experience for me.