I've never hit a kid before. I mean, that's like asking who Gandhi is.

Rating: 9/10 (26 August 2010)

Zombieland is directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a Zombie apocalypse thrust together on a road trip in search of a fabled Zombieless sanctuary.
As it stands now, Zombieland is the most successful Zombie based film in history. Proving that there is still life (no pun intended) in the undead based comedy. Reese and Wernick have stated that the idea for Zombieland was milling around their heads in 2005, a year after Shaun Of the Dead had made such a joyous appearance on the horror/com circuit. You get the feeling that the guys desperately wanted an American version to rival the British torch bearer. They got it.
Where Zombieland differs greatly from Shaun is that it unashamedly lives in a cartoon fantasy world. It blasts right out of the blocks with a montage sequence of death, dismemberment, crash, bangs and wallops, and never lets up on its carefree abandon approach. And hooray to that. In fact the film only pauses for breath for a short time at the mid-point, and even then it's to slot in one of the best ever cameo performances to grace a comedy. Away from the tricks and smart gimmicks that gloriously light up the narrative (the rules, baby, are awesome), Zombieland works so well because of its four characters.
This maybe a Zombie movie (and what Zombies they are too), but this is about four likable human beings asking us to invest some time with them as they surge from one situation to the next. Something we are only too glad to do. Be it Harrelson (never better) laying waste to any number of the undead, or Eissenberg (hello there little Woody Allen) offering up witticisms that hide a lonely heart facade; these characters prove to have depth. Yes we could possibly argue that both Stone and Breslin (spunky & perky respectively) deserve more screen time, hell they sure earn it, but as a foursome they combine to make one of the brightest buddy buddy-buddy buddy movies out there.
It's plot lite, and unlike Shaun, it has no great peril sequences to fully form the horror aspects of it. But it's so funny and awash with carefree charm we have no right to dwell too long on its tiny faults. One of the best crowd-pleaser's of 2009 and proof positive that an apocalypse really can be quite fun after all. 8.5/10