Could have been more, and a bit of a letdown afterwards

Rating: 7/10 (24 October 2009)

The problem with Zombieland is that the movie has nothing really to offer. The beginning promises a lot of gore, humor, and action that the movie never lives up to. What we have here is a coming-of-age movie that has nothing to offer except some occasional gore, a few good half-crafted ideas, and a lot of filler that's interrupted by an amusing cameo by Bill Murray. The cameo's appeal is how it comes completely out of nowhere and works, but you have to slog through a lot of exposition about the characters that is occasionally interrupted by zombies.
And that's the problem: this movie attempts to do Shaun of the Dead but replaces the characterization within that with one-dimensional Hollywood cutouts. This is the fatal flaw: we are then stuck with these characters driving through massive areas of empty space interacting with each other and the audience yawning, kicking back, and trying to stay awake towards some sort of action-packed finale. The pacing is awful in this film and the movie could be cut by half an hour and not miss anything. Also, the lead character is essentially worthless and annoying. The last thing a zombie movie needs is a nebbishy loser type who claims some experience as a zombie fighter yet wields the worst sort of weapon to fight legions of zombies with. The ironic attempt to speak to the audience is possibly one of the most annoying things I've ever seen in film and should have been cut out of the script immediately.
If you want a good zombie action movie, you won't find it here but you'll find some good gore effects and Woody Harrelson actually works on a good level here. It might make for a good intermission in a zombie marathon, but the movie won't stick with you. Outside of the Murray cameo and the gore effects, the movie is essentially forgettable and that's really a shame.