Zombieland (Sony Columbia)
Rated R for horror violence/gore and language.
Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Amber Heard, Bill Murray, Derek Graf.
Written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.
Directed by Ruben Fleischer.
GRADE: A-
REVIEWJust when you thought they'd made every possible zombie movie, along comes another "living dead" film, complete with flesh-eating humans and substantial gore. I'm not a big fan of the zombie brand of horror film, but I understand the appeal of such movies to the legions who appreciate the nuances of killing hordes of former humans by what ever brutish means necessary. I wasn't exactly looking forward to seeing
Zombieland, the latest living dead gorefest to hit american cineplexes, but my attitude changed within the first few frames of the opening credits.
Jesse Eisenberg stars as Columbus, a young college student who has survived an apocalyptic zombie plague that has wiped out most of the world's population through living by a set of rules he believes will keep him from being eaten by the infected masses of living dead. Among his rules are several safety measures, like always using a seatbelt while driving and avoiding the use of public toilets, since zombies have figured out that restroom stalls make for good human buffets.
Columbus meets up with another uninfected survivor named Tallahassee (the main characters decide that using city names instead of their real names is better in case any one of them should die or be eaten by a zombie - the use of city names allows for a certain amount of detachment), and the two team up to travel east from Texas to places where zombies aren't. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) is a redneck with an addiction to Hostess Twinkies who has discovered his true talent in life: killing zombies, which comes in handy for the uptight Columbus.
The pair eventually meet up with two grifter sisters named Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), and the pair becomes a foursome who decide to travel to the west coast to visit an amusement park they think will provide a safe haven from the zombies.
When the group gets to Los Angeles, they take a detour before they get to the amusement park via the Beverly Hills home of the real Bill Murray (playing himself). Things turn sour when the girls decide to strike out on their own, the men must decide whether to save them or follow the rules and save themselves.
Zombieland has to be my favorite guilty pleasure movie of the year. It is full of belly-laugh inducing humor via an appropriate amount of camp delivered by a talented cast. Eisenberg's narration and recitation of Columbus' rules of survival are a clever gimmick throughout the movie (although I maintain that Eisenberg is the living example of a cross between Michael Cera and Woody Allen) and his dry wit is complimented well by Harrelson's scene-stealing performance as the brutal zombie killer maestro. Breslin does a fine job as a tough kid in a gory world, and Emma Stone delivers another knockout performance as a hustler ripe for a little romance.
If you can get over the gore and course language,
Zombieland is one of the funniest movies of the year, despite slowing down toward the end of the film.
I guess the zombie films will keep coming, just like zombies keep marching toward their human prey, but I don't think any of them will be as fun a ride as
Zombieland.
