The Zombies can keep up the enthusiasm...why can't we?

Rating: 8/10 (9 February 2010)

First of all, I really liked this film. Well-paced and, in the end, folds with a healthy stack of chips on the felt. Just in time before the tables turn, I thought. "Nice job!" Still though, the movie illustrates a gripe I've had with the motif of the resulting production of what seems to be evidence of gestating talent at the helm. I'm talking SUSTAIN, people. There is the pure magic at the beginning of the film....the seduction, if you will. Those of us in the movie going world begging to be seduced WANT to be intoxicated and then sinfully transported into the same rapture promised in the throes of the seduction. To be blunt...we want a crescendo and then a earth rupturing climax, dammit! And why not? Millions of dollars were involved in the production, were they not? Where's the goddamn sustainable energy....enthusiasm.....unadulterated LUST that causes us to wiggle in our seats at the beginning...turn to our date and say, "OMG...this is gonna be GOOD!"? A movie rarely lives up to the initial thrust. Why is that? I don't get it. The inspirational juice is flowing at the beginning...why can't it flow right up to the end? It's just not fair.
Same thing happens with Zombieland. The cinematic displayed action literally disinters us from reality so thoroughly, like the initial rush of an IV drug, I felt suspended right along with the time elapsed motion of the zombies and their exquisitely rendered panic-enslaved prey. It was perfect. Within a few moments, I felt the swoon and said, "Take me!"....that wonderful feeling while watching a film we're all familiar with. And then...the story unfolded...the character development amidst the motion of the plot. Don't get me wrong. There was novelty...enough to keep me alert and appreciative. But, it wasn't quite what was advertised, I'm afraid.
It's so rare that a movie sustains a level of energetic edgy-ness. The kind of alpha-to-omega romp that has you walking to your car dazed with rumpled shirt tails hanging out and your hair messed up....with your cell phone in hand and the insurmountable desire to "kiss and tell".