Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

This is the classic story of boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, girl wakes up one day and realizes she loves boy and can’t live without him. Will daddy approve? Not likely since the boy comes from the group that daddy is trying to wipe off the face of the Earth, so the young couple must overcome long odds to live happily ever after. Although there’s a twist here that you don’t often see—the boy is a zombie who can’t even remember his name other than it begins with an R.

Somehow I missed this during its theatrical run in 2013 and its subsequent Blu-ray release, but fortunately Lionsgate decided to make this one of their catalog UHD releases—a win for me! My wife and I absolutely loved this film. Sure, it’s somewhat predictable given its Romeo and Juliet–based story line, but R’s narration is hilarious, and the interaction between him and his love interest is quite touching and does a great job of selling the fact that somehow this undead teenager wants to love again. What makes the film work is that it never veers off its straight and narrow path, and you can’t help but fall in love with the main characters. I hope my daughter is lucky enough to find someone like R someday—a caring man who’s willing to undergo a life-altering change for the one he loves.

Although the film is only four years old, it was actually shot on film and finished with a 2K digital intermediate. Comparing it to the bundled Blu-ray shows an uptick in detail in clothing and facial pores along with better-resolved shadows, most likely from the HDR10 treatment. The film was very heavily color graded in post-production with a mix of cool blues on some interior shots with a much warmer yellow tone for exteriors. The result is a pleasing upgrade over an excellent-looking 1080p disc.

The Blu-ray sports a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track, but the UHD has been upgraded to Dolby Atmos with outstanding results. This is apparent from the first scene of the movie when R’s narration comes from the overhead speakers giving his dialogue a very spatial sound. Additionally, the action scenes make good use of the entire speaker array and include some great panning effects along with rock-solid LFE performance.

All of the supplements from the bundled Blu-ray can be found on the UHD disc as well. These include an audio commentary, some great featurettes, deleted scenes, and an UltraViolet Digital Copy.

Blu-Ray
Studio: Lionsgate, 2013
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio Format: Dolby Atmos / True HD 7.1 core
Length: 98 mins.
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Jonathan Levine
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich