Lightweight quick-witted subgenre movie.

Rating: 7/10 (5 December 2011)

If there is actor better suited than Woody Harrelson to play comically disturbed tough guys he probably doesn't have enough juice to open a film. His casting and that of Jesse Eisenberg as the nebbish-y Columbus Ohio elevate this feather-weight zombie comedy from good to very good. The plot which could be thoroughly summarized on an index car is also aided by gimmicks including titles which interact physically with the world of the film (similar to TV's "Fringe") and some "Lost" style flashbacks. The rapid-fire and snappy dialogue (reminiscent of "The Girlmore Girls") also helps although there are obvious gaps where the writers take a breath after running short of it. To his credit, neophyte director Rubin Fleischer does not resort to gore that to fill the slow parts and limits the heavy blood-play almost exclusively to the beginning exposition of the zombie infection. Zombie films are often interpreted as societal allegories and this one could also be viewed in that light. The characters spend a lot of time driving a Cadillac Escalade and a yellow Hummer H2 the two least politically correct vehicles. Harrelson's Tallahassee is travelling the ruined U.S. society in search of Twinkies, the least politically correct food. The two female con artist characters (there are all of 6 total characters) have set for their post-apocalyptic goal getting to the Pacific Playland Amusement park -- such parks are the least politically correct and environmentally unkind form of entertainment. The Columbus character has managed to survive because he abides by a set of politically correct rules (another gimmick) that effectively make him a zombie of sorts. So is the spread of the zombie virus a means of lampooning the spread of political correctness so pervasive that nearly everyone thinks and behaves in a self-pious homogeneous fashion? Maybe. Although the hilarious Bill Murray vignette in the center of the film doesn't quite fit the thesis. Murray's classics including "Stripes", "Meatballs" and "Ghostbusters" are risqué at times but never counter-cultural. Deeper meaning or not, this is a film worth seeing.