Ah, Zombies. There’s really no better way to spend an evening with your loved one than in the tender care of the recently deceased or horribly infected. Zombies are fun for the whole family!
There’s something in the Zombie movie for everyone. Delight in the shambling hoards of the slow Zombie as they lurch, crawl, or slide, trailing little bits of peeled, mouldering or putrefying outer or inner fleshy stuff, recently but no longer near and dear to the re-animated dead or bloodshot and wild eyed microbial infested remains of the corner checkout girl. If the slow Zombie isn’t your style, the fast Zombie may be more to your liking. Where the slow Zombie must employ mass numbers of the heaving and decayed to get you cornered, the fast Zombie is all kinds of fun all by themselves. The fast Zombie isn’t just fast, he’s quiet and sneaky too. Unlike the slow Zombie, which likes to gibber and grunt all the time, the fast Zombie waits until he’s just about to eat you before uttering his crude vocalizations.
“Zombieland” is a comedy that understands fully the myths, behaviors and mandatory gross out components of any movie featuring the walking dead. It follows in the lurching footsteps of one of the great comedies of our time, “Shaun Of The Dead”, staring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. “Zombieland” is not quite up to the standards of Shaun but it has it’s heart completely in the right place. The cast includes Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin alongside a very large number of Zombie extras who are truly in fine Zombie form. Jesse Eisenberg as Columbus (the cast uses their home towns as names to avoid getting close) narrates and fills us in not only on how the whole Zombocalypse begin (a virus in a bad burger) but how he has managed to stay alive amidst an army of leaping and sprinting horrors. Columbus has rules. These rules serve as excuses for mini scenes in the movie that drive the story along.
There are many rules (47 in all) and all of those we learn about are funny. After Columbus fills us in on the basics of the infection and how it started, along with a few rules, he meets up with the rule-less Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee. I think that there is a place in every movie for Woody. I never get tired of seeing him. He is wonderfully enthusiastic as a man that has found his calling in life as the most creative and spirited Zombie killer left alive. Tallahassee takes pride and joy in his work, shooting, chopping, smashing and smushing every Zombie he sees, all in the quest for perhaps the last twinkie in the United States. Columbus and Tallahassee have differing styles for staying alive and the mix makes for fine road and buddy movie material.
Along the road the fellas meet up with a sister team of survivors, Wichita (Emma Stone), sexy and smart and her tough little sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). After a few tense moments the four agree to team up for a journey to the West Coast, to visit an old amusement park for the childhood benefit of Little Rock. Zombie killing can be a maturing experience. What is great about “Zombieland” is the completely happy and joyful approach director Ruben Fleischer takes in the torture and dismemberment of one Zombie after another. Zombies are killed in every possible way and clever sequences are constructed in many fun places such as supermarkets, gift shops and the climatic amusement park location to showcase our heroes numerous talents at gratuitously and graphically putting the hurt on the infected. It’s a good time. “Zombieland” seems to be a popular date movie from what I have seen myself and from what I’ve heard. Beware that “Zombieland” is as violent as a movie gets. It’s really not disturbing though, since there’s no empathic connection to the torment and slaughter of the Zombies. Killing them is good. You may clap along and cheer as I did. There’s a fantastic cameo from a famous actor mid way through. Just an added bonus to the feel good movie of the early Fall. Expect a sequel.
Ruben Fleischer (Director) Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Screenplay)
CAST: Woody Harrelson (Tallahassee)
Jesse Eisenberg (Columbus)
Emma Stone (Wichita)
Abigail Breslin (Little Rock)
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