A Zombie movie with a heart

Rating: 7/10 (18 November 2009)

Zombieland is full of zombies but left me feeling good about humanity.
The plot is thin but the characters are very likable and the fact that I wanted them to be okay kept me interested in the film until the end.
Describing the plot won't take long. After a zombie plague very few humans have survived. Four of them decide to travel together to LA where there may be a Zombie free area and/or Twinkies. The four are: uber geek Jesse Eisenberg, redneck Woody Harrelson and grifter sisters, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin.
Eisenberg has a long list of rules for survival in a zombie filled world and we see in flashback why he came up with some of them.
Most of the film consists of our four heroes having gory/funny encounters with zombies. The dialogue is funny and the acting is good. Abigail Breslin is growing up at an alarming rate but is perhaps wasted in the smallest role as the younger sister. Eisenberg and Stone have good chemistry in their roles and look set to gave decent Hollywood careers. Harrelson is perfect as the wisecracking NASCAR fan who loves nothing better than killing zombies.
A comparison with "Shaun of the Dead" is inevitable. The English film had a stronger plot line so perhaps I would give it the edge. Although Zombieland has Bill Murray as himself pretending to be a zombie so he can play golf in peace! That must count for something.
This is a funny film with its heart in the right place. The films message, or at least the one I gleaned from it, is that people need to help each other to make the best out of life.
I enjoyed it in the cinema but it would also be a perfect DVD for a night in.