how to have a kick-ass time and laugh your brains out with people... and zombies too

Rating: 10/10 (1 October 2009)

Inevitably, Zombieland will be (and already has been) compared to Shaun of the Dead, the other most notable "Zom-Com" of this past decade (or in that case 'Rom-Zom' due to it being a romantic comedy with zombies). This goes without noting other notable zombie-related comedies like Fido or involving animals like Black Sheep. But if one has to compare apples and oranges growing on practically the same field, here's the difference: 1) as much as I love Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's work (specifically Hot Fuzz and Spaced), SOTD started to not be quite as effective, even as it was being admirably tried out technically, when it switched from a really funny and spot-on comedy and spoof of Romero's film to suddenly taking itself a bit too seriously as a zombie movie. 2) I (almost) hate to say this, but... Zombieland ultimately wins on counts of being so funny- or as the kids say, "f***in' funny as hell, OMG"- that it hurts, and giving us characters to take away with that we care about when, you know, they aren't slaughtering the undead one by one. It's also so bad-ass you can taste the awesome, something rare to find in movies outside of the Road Warrior.
It stars Jessie Eisenberg as a guy whom we may have seen him sort of play before, more or less, as the awkward kid who hasn't had sex and spent much of his time playing World of Warcraft and hooked on Mountain Dew when he got attacked by the first zombie he met - a girl from apartment 406 who got bit by a homeless man. What does this last part have to do with the plot? Well, only inasmuch that it gives the first incentive for Eisenberg's character, here named Columbus after the city he's going to originally, to craft a list of things to do when confronted with zombies. For example, seat-belts, or the "double-tap" rule which involves shooting a zombie, and then making sure to shoot once more in the head. He keeps this list and lists it almost like out of Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket, and as a not-quite-wuss he fares OK on his own... and then he meets Talahassee (Harrelson, good Lord), a seemingly walking-talking-cursing redneck who misses his puppy Buck and just wants a damn Twinkie - and NOT those Hostess Snowball things.
It's after they pair up, and subsequently meet two con women (or rather con-woman and con-girl played by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) who at first just car-jack Columbus and Talahassee. That is until they start riding a bit together and find they need each other way more than they don't. This might make it sound like a squishy story, perhaps with some room for some ample social commentary like a Romero movie. It doesn't really have that. It's more akin to National Lampoon's Vacation, complete with a "quest" to reach a theme-park in Los Angeles, and maybe running into some hijinks and surprises along the way. If one of those may happen to be Bill Murray in his mansion where he's in zombie-garb and make-up to "blend-in", then so be it. Holy crap, did I just mention Bill Murray in a zombie movie? Damn straight, and now you know what kind of movie this is.
So yes, Zombieland has the things zombie-movie lovers go for first and foremost, which are really effective looking un-dead, some genuine scares (at least the kind that give easily-impressionable girls watching the movie at midnight the screams), and some really solid action. But it's first and foremost a comedy, one that is focused on character and wit and surprise and ingenuity over just satire, and it fires on all cylinders. I don't think I've had this much pure fun at a movie in a while (not counting the kind of a movie-lover like Inglourious Basterds or the "guy" movie comedy of the Hangover), and its all due to newcomer director Ruben Fleischer and his writers not pulling any punches. Since we believe in the world they're in, pretty much, we can buy whatever comedy springs out, sometimes from simple one-liners like the banter while driving in the car (i.e. Hannah Montana, Willie Nelson), or just the sheer insanity of the climactic battle at the theme park where the rides are used to their maximum, including (yes YES!) a Haunted House!
From its opening credits sequence that promises as much and gives an impression of its tone like none other this year except Watchmen, to the odd-couple bond between Eisenberg and Harrelson that works so well you can't see it any other way, to that nearly quirky/awesome way that Columbus faces his fear of clowns while re-writing his own rule on heroics, to... almost every scene with a couple of exceptions, no opportunity is wasted, or just taken upon by its makers. It's so sharp and original a take on a subject nearly beaten to death (pun intended) that its success just shows the potential still there: for all of the horrible and cheapo living-dead product out there, one can go back to this or the original Return of the Living Dead and realize something essential. It's about the people, not the zombies, and the people here, and how zombies are 'treated', simply just... rocks.