Review: Zombieland

Some days there is nothing more fun than a good zombie movie. Beginning with George Romero's original Night of the Living Dead from 1968, audiences have shown their love for the brain-craving undead and those who shoot them with boomsticks or bash their heads in with shovels. There's no getting around it - fans eat this stuff up (see what I did there?). The best of these movies, in my opinion, are the ones that don't take themselves too seriously. Shaun of the Dead and the cult classic Evil Dead trilogy are widely considered the most successful of the zombie comedies: they recognize the ridiculousness of their subject matter and give us something to laugh at while still maintaining the terrifying notion of a cannibal trying to dine on my gray matter. Well, those films now have some company at the top in the form of Zombieland.

Zombieland gives us everything we're expecting from a zombie movie. After all, there's really only so much you need to do with the concept, and what's worked in the past has worked well. Flesh-eating virus? Check. Small band of survivors? Check. Intestine-eating undead? Better believe it. All the staples of the genre are there, with the only noticeable difference being that the zombies can run. Fast. Which is horrible (in an awesome way). What sets Zombieland apart and makes it so successful is what distinguishes the aforementioned films - its highly memorable characters. I won't divulge too much about them here, because the less you know the funnier things will be, but to sum up, our four protagonists are scrawny narrator Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), whose strictly-followed list of rules such as "cardio" and "double-tap" has kept him alive; perennial badass Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson); and sisters Wichita (Superbad's Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin). The standouts of the cast are easily Eisenberg, who delivers his frequent voiceovers with perfect deadpan, and Harrelson, in the most hilarious performance I can ever remember him giving. That's not to say Stone and Breslin are shabby by any means, but Columbus and Tallahassee are the ones that'll really stick with you.

As much as I loved the movie, I was a bit disappointed by how not scary it was. Zombieland is full of blood, gore, and "zombie kill of the week" moments, but as far as legitimate scares, there was a lot to be desired. I can think of maybe one instance of a genuine made-me-jump fright, but the focus of the filmmakers was obviously more on the humor than the horror (which I can forgive because they pull that off so well). My only other real qualm was that the setup for the big finale could be seen from a mile away, which is just a case of the zombie-movie conventions taking over a little bit too much for my tastes. But these are small complaints with an otherwise incredibly enjoyable film.

This is a highly entertaining movie and it deserves to be mentioned with the A-list of the horror-comedy genre. When it comes time to nut up or shut up, Zombieland delivers the goods in style.

Rating: 4.5/5