Zombieland

[Enjoiable]

It's rare to see a movie extolling the virtues of a post-apocalyptic world, let alone finding humor in it, but Zombieland manages to wring laughs aplenty out of its premise without holding back on the blood-soaked carnage you'd expect from a film that pits the remnant of humanity against an army of the undead. Taking place in a land once known as the United States but now completely overrun with virus-ridden flesh-eaters (not really zombies per se, but whatever), it manages to mine humor from mundane aspects of post apocalyptic living that most such films gloss over, like the tortuous search for a Twinkie in a deserted landscape or the new newfound freedom to stroll into the Hollywood palace of a super-secret famous guest star. Like 28 Days Later, it becomes as much about the dynamics of mismatched strangers thrown together by the need for safety in numbers as about the zombie menace itself, but it manages to get a lot more laughs and some legitimately memorable action sequences out of the premise. It's actually fitting that the final act plays out in an amusement park, as the whole movie is a virtual amusement park ride, albeit one where the dangers lurking around the corner are very real.

It becomes apparently pretty quickly that Zombieland isn't a movie to be taken too seriously, but instead is out to pummel viewers with its sheer volume of jokes, action, and various other stimuli. This movie doesn't just break the fourth wall--it pounds it into dust, cramming its brief running time with flashbacks, cutaways, one protagonists's incessant (and occasionally unnecessary) voice-over narration adding color to the proceedings, and his various rules for surviving the apocalypse popping up on screen throughout to frequently hilarious effect. The movie's rampant winks and nods are symptomatic of its generally excessive nature, but the filmmakers seem aware that if you're going to make an excessive movie, you might as well go ahead and make an extremely excessive movie. In that spirit, Zombieland is over the top in every way possible, especially in its periodic outbreaks of gratuitous destruction and cartoonish ultraviolence, but it does manage to stop the carnage just long enough to admit a few moments of genuine warmth and relationship building among its small cast. The movie wears a lot of hats, functioning as sort of a post-apocalyptic-coming-of-age-action-horror-buddy-comedy, and it wears all of them competently and a few brilliantly. Here is just a brief over view of the cast:

--Woody Harrelson in the role he was seemingly born to play as Tallahassee (named for where he's headed), a swaggering, wisecracking redneck zombie-killing machine who's responsible for a disproportionate share of both the film's laughs and its zombie executions.

--Jesse Eisenberg as the perfect foil in the form of Columbus, a nervous loner whose multiple phobias have kept him uninfected amidst the chaos and whose narration provides the film with much of the thematic depth it manages to muster.

--Emma Stone (aka Jules from Superbad) making the leap from attractive to ridiculously hot in a spectacular fashion, plus Abigail Breslin (aka Little Miss Sunshine) graduating to a moderately adult role as Stone's sister and literal partner in crime.

Overall, unless you lean heavily to the pretentious side, it's pretty tough to find fault with Zombieland. It's the sort of legitimately funny comedic hybrid that seems to be in increasingly short supply these days (with a little bit of emotion thrown in for those who like that stuff), and it's over well before it wears out its welcome. If you're expecting something in the vein of George A. Romero's work you may come away disappointed, but those looking for a more postmodern approach to the zombie genre should find this film almost as enjoyable as the justly reversed Shaun of the Dead.

Enjoiable gives Zombieland a 4.5 out of 5.

[Bostel]

I've seen some parts and I think the movies is ok I'll give it 3.5 out 5

[HondaCop]

It's not too bad. I will give it 3 out 5.