Somewhat smart, relatively funny, but no horror

Rating: 9/10 (7 October 2009)

After watching the previews and the first couple of seconds, I really wanted to dislike this movie: another zombie comedy, narrated by a neurotic geek (yet not a New Yorker), who looks like he's wearing some ridiculous wig. But not long after that I started to enjoy this movie. It has the best opening credits scene in a while, thanks in part to a great Metallica song. Then we meet the narrator: the overacted geek, with countless neuroses (why are there no mentally healthy people in movies?)- even before the world turned to Zombieland. Now that all of the world is filled with zombies, he's even more neurotic.
The initial scenes are all tasteless bathroom humor- literally. Then he tells us how the world changed for him and what he's doing now. He's by himself walking on a highway on his way to his parents' place in Ohio. He runs into a complete jerk on his way to Florida. This guy is somewhat sadistic in his treatment of zombies, likes to destroy things, and is on a mission to find Twinkies.
They join forces begrudgingly and head East. Twice they are fooled by teenage girls into giving them their weapons and cars. Then they all agree to drive to...darn California of course- can't have a movie without that.
That's when the movie goes downhill fast. They decide to live in a mansion and for the next 15 minutes a Bill Murray adoration piece follows that makes no sense. Finally, the girls decide to go to their destination: some amusement park. The geek by then has of course fallen in love with the older girl and has so to go after her. In a bizarre filming mistake, the girls leave in the morning and get there at night, when the guys go after them they get there in 2 minutes. So now it's dark of course and the girls are attacked by zombies while they are trying to enjoy the park all for themselves.
What I liked about this movie: despite dangerously close to annoying, the script is smart. The jokes aren't just punchlines. There is some cultural criticism here as well. Who are really the zombies? Most of us "alive" actually live like zombies pretty much. Another positive is that there was no multicultural cast just for the sake of being politically correct. There are some good zombie kills. There's some good gore, at least in the beginning. The first part filmed in Gorgia (as Texas and Arizona) is good: outdoors in the country, in daylight.
The problems with this movie: the cast, especially the weirdo lead character with the wig, who hired these people and why? I don't care for Harrelson a bit, let alone the whole Murray deal. Enough with the neurotic characters already. Tough teenage girls? we've seen that a couple of times too many. The second part taking place in California, in the dark, is like a different movie entirely, and not nearly as good as the first part. It would be perfectly fine to have a horror movie without a conclusion at night. There is zero sense or fear or dread in this movie.
Overall, it's a different, refreshing comedy- and that's really what it is- a romantic comedy perhaps, set in Zombieland, where only 5 humans have survived. Visually there are a lot of interesting elements here. While overall, the script follows the basics of all scripts, there are a lot of intelligent bits here and there.