Zombieland



In a seemingly not too distant future, mankind is overrun by zombies. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) finds that the only way to prevent being devoured is to follow a few dozen simple rules on survival. After awhile, he runs into Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a man who becomes willfully ignorant of these rules while trying to reach what seems to be his only goal: finding what could be the last Twinkie. They decide to keep each other company as they're heading in the same direction. To avoid attachment, they decide not to give their real names. Instead, they use the names of the places they're headed.

At a grocery store in search of Twinkies, they encounter two sisters. After being conned and robbed by them, they find a Humvee and follow them. After catching up with them, they are once again conned out of their car, but taken for the ride. After a fight breaks out, they decide that it would be safer to stick together. Based on a rumor, they all head toward Pacific Playland, an amusement park free of Zombies.

I wasn't expecting much out of this movie at all. There have already been so many zombie movies you can make a genre out of them, zombie comedy being its own subgenre. Some are good, some are bad. My first impression of the trailer was, "Okay, there's an American remake of Tokyo Zombie." After I looked into it, I realized that wasn't the original idea. "Okay, so there's an American ripoff of Tokyo Zombie." I thought it might be worth a watch, but probably not. I definitely wasn't going to get my expectations too high. Afterall, I was only familiar with Harrelson and his work is pretty hit-or-miss, though usually hit when he's the star. I had no idea who Eisenberg was. I just assumed that he was a Michael Cera clone. But after hearing good word about it, I decided to give it a try.

After watching it, I have to say that I was pretty pleased. The violence was pretty good, but nothing spectacular. A few creative zombie deaths and some gore, but nothing that really sets it apart from the rest. The special effects were lacking in some scenes, but nothing too horribly noticeable (really, I just miss the low budget '80s style gore). It was predictable at times, but I'm not expecting too many twists and turns from a zombie movie. Some parts bugged me a little, but everything I can think of would just be nitpicking. People made a stupid mistake or two, but it's a zombie movie. Considering that, I can't be too hard on them. I really didn't like a couple of songs they picked for the movie, but that's the chance you take when you choose popular music for majority of the score. Some songs worked, other's didn't. Overall, I'd say that it was a pretty solid movie.

As for the cast, Eisenberg did have some Michael Cera moments, but he brings other things to the table that made me change my first reaction. He's not bad at all at what he does. I wasn't expecting much from the two female leads, but aside from one really stupid thing they did (no spoilers), I have to say that they weren't too bad either. Nothing great, but not too bad. Harrelson's character is what stole the show, to no surprise. He was hilarious and surprisingly genuine when he needed to be (actually, someone else was even more memorable than him. If you haven't looked into it too much, I won't spoil it for you, but it was one of the best cameos I've ever seen).

Which reminds me, that's what really sets the movie apart from all of the other zombie comedy flicks I've seen. This movie has heart. Certain scenes took me by surprise and made me forget what I was watching. It's definitely not a necessity when it comes to these types of movies, but when it's there, it can easily set it above the rest. If I had to set a number to it I'd give it a...

4.5/5 on a zombie comedy movie scale

solid 4/5 overall.

I thought it was really enjoyable and definitely better than your average zombie movie.