Plenty of fun, but a wish-fulfilment zombie movie is something of a paradox.

Rating: 7/10 (18 February 2010)

The opening riffs tell you all you need to know. The first scene riffs on the Scream-style survival rules of a horror movie. The second riff is from Metallica's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'.
Zombie flicks, like eighties thrash metal, might appear oppressive to the uninitiated, but to the fans they are thrillingly fun. And Zombieland is very much a movie for the fans. Not a Shaun of the Dead-esquire homage to Romero and the like; but an homage to the fans.
The characterisation is simple. Our heroes are named by their destinations- Columbus and Tallahassee- and defined by their driving desires. Geeky Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) craves the opportunity to chastely brush a girl's hair behind her ear, while badass redneck Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) lops off undead limbs in search of the world's last Twinkie.
These are less characters than they are avatars for the fans. The title invites us into a theme park for ninety minutes of whack-a-zombie. Columbus has the aforementioned list of rules of how to survive a zombie apocalypse, addressing lore that any fan will have fun recognising. The characters take perverse pleasure in discussing the most disgusting zombie kills they've witnessed, sounding like true gorehounds. And they ratify for us that great (yet curiously unaddressed) desire we all share about post-apocalyptic living: they break stuff. For fun.
But that's also the problem with Zombieland; it's too much fun. It's too slickly presented, concerned with looking cool and getting laughs, and seemingly forgetting to be scary. It's a balance that Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright managed to get right with Shaun of the Dead. They understood that the laughs come hardest when they puncture genuine tension. Without the peril and the fatalism, Zombieland feels a little lightweight.
Nevertheless, it remains an enjoyable ride, with funny performances from Eisenberg and Harrelson, as well as a delightful cameo that heightens the fanboy fantasy feel of the movie. But for all the human meat munching it displays, Zombieland is a little too much like confectionery.