Post-apocalyptic zombie comedy is charming, gory, and nearly stolen by a hilarious cameo

Rating: 7/10 (15 July 2018)

I remember loving this film when it first same out, but it didn't hold up quite as well upon rewatching it. It's still good, but zombie films are pretty played out and the film doesn't offer anything unique except for some decent comedy. Co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick would go on to write the highly successful "Deadpool," which I actually haven't seen but hear took the highly played out superhero film and reinvigorated it by bringing self referential humor while also delivering loads of ultra-violence. Wes Craven's "Scream" did the same thing when slasher films were becoming very routine and very played out. When "Zombieland" came out, zombies were not quite to the point where the living dead had become tiresome, so the film's adherence to the conventions of this horror sub-genre were perfectly acceptable, especially since they were executed with style, with an A-list cast (Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin), and with better production values than it's lower budgeted contemporaries. However, watching the film now, it's unoriginal take on the zombie film sub-genre feels pretty tired this time around. This film was a major studio production of what's usually a B-level budgeted genre film. The story, such as it is, is basically a road movie with some dueling comedic duos. The main pair is Eisenberg and Harrelson. Eisenberg is the relatable everyman. He's who we all would actually be during a zombie apocalypse. Harrelson, on the other hand, is complete id, and is who anyone who's ever ruminated about what they'd be like during a zombie apocalypse imagined themselves as being. Harrelson is supremely confident and macho, driving big trucks, carrying big guns, and blowing stuff up real good. These two are repeatedly outwitted by con artist sisters Stone and Breslin, who leave them high and dry on multiple occasions, that is until the two reach an uneasy alliance on a quest to drive across the country in hopes of reaching a zombie-free amusement park in California. In the film's favor, the film is populated with four entertaining and likable lead characters. Also, the road trip premiss allows for an entertaining series of episodic events. The film also benefits form it's studio support, which allows for better special effects, a better cast, a more talented of director in Ruben Fleischer, and an overall a bigger scale and better production for their version of a zombie apocalypse. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the film, but there's a hilarious cameo that on it's own earns "Zombieland" an extra star in it's rating. On the downside, I did not care for the frequent breaking of the third wall, where Eisenberg directly talks to the audience, or when the film makes a random cutaway to the "Zombie Kill of the Week." Also, the film doesn't present any zombie scenarios that seem all that original or interesting, which wasn't all that bad when this film came out because there hand't been quite as many quality living dead films at this point in time, so anything well produced was exciting and good, but now that we live in an oversaturate undead media environment, you need something original like "Dead Set" or "The Cured" or the long-form storytelling of "The Walking Dead" to stand apart from what's become pretty familiar stories and scenarios. Still, despite the film's seeming unoriginality in story and situations, the actors and characters are quite likable, the film's comedy for the most part works, and the better than average production values make this zombie film well worth watching.