Peter Jackson's 1992 classic Dead Alive (aka Brain Dead) set the template for the zombie comedy, and was perfected in 2004 with Edgar Wright's brilliant Shaun of The Dead. Can director Ruben Fleischer take the zombie comedy crown with Zombieland?
While an entertaining film with a lot of laughs, Zombieland is not going to replace Shaun of the Dead at the top of the zombie comedy genre. That's not a bad thing, though; Zombieland is quirky, gory, funny, and stylish. The opening credits are simply brilliant, a slo-motion sequence that sets the tone for the carnage — and laughs — to follow.
There isn't a lot to the plot, but that's to be expected when you're dealing with zombies. A virus has spread across the United States, turning the infected into gut-munching zombies.
We first meet Columbus (the wonderful Jesse Eisenberg, playing... well, Jesse Eisenberg, but that's not a bad thing), our narrator and guide through the zombie landscape that is now America. Columbus has survived being consumed alive by the undead with his 32 rules of survival (rule #1, cardio, to outrun the undead; rule #3, seat belts, for those moments when you smash your car into a zombie and don't want to be flung out the windshield; and so on). Columbus is trying to get home to... Columbus to check on his family (all the characters are named for the cities they live in).
Columbus soon encounters fellow survivor Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson, also brilliant), a man with a knack for killing zombies and a real intense hankering for Twinkies. Of course, the highly-strung, neurotic Columbus and the whiskey-drinking, zombie survival rule-breaking Tallahassee do not initially get along, but that changes over the course of the film.
At a stop at a grocery store to look for, yes,Twinkies, the duo encounter Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and Wichita (Emma Stone), sisters who immediately con Columbus and Tallahassee into handing over their weapons and vehicle; the two have been scamming their way across the country, but their real goal is to reach an amusement park in California that is supposedly free of zombies.
Article comments
1 - tryanhas09
Shaun of the Dead was PATHETIC.
2 - John Lake
twas a great movie! You liked the fact that the characters were named after cities, but in print that's mis-leading.
The special effects were breathtaking and the script was brilliant!
And you took time to mention the rules - that's great!