Rule Number 1 - Enjoy This Film

Rating: 8/10 (15 October 2010)

Director Ruben Fleischer's first theater effort is quite successful as a piece of entertainment. Jesse Eisenberg is one of the male leads & the narrator for a world pretty much taken over by Zombies. While you'd expect early on that maybe the world is too far gone, the film becomes interesting & funny. Columbus (Eisenberg) is featured in the credits going over his rules on how to survive as a human in a world full of Zombies.
He meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) after the credits, & they start on a trek to Columbus where Columbus wants to see if his parents & family have survived. On the way, they meet Wichita (Emma Stone)& Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) who immediately steal all their survival gear & leave them to start over for themselves. Once they do, they meet the two young women again.
Here the aim of the trek they are on changes as once the women decide they need to join up with the guys, Columbus finds out that there is nothing left where his family was. Meanwhile, the women's goal is an amusement park outside LA. This becomes the groups goal.
The special effects in the movie are pretty realistic & the abandoned cities, highways full of wrecks, & other sets look very realistic. The cast works well together & are just deep enough to keep the viewer engaged. This is done for laughs & the cast is a good ensemble. Abigail Breslin is 13 when this movie was done, & you can still recognize Little Miss Sunshine though she has a more extensive role in this movie than the former. While Eisnberg & Harrelson dominate the film more, the two women have fairly full co-star roles.
Watching it I swear there are a couple of times I see people in windows behind the actors that are not part of the film. While there is a major cameo in this film, these other folks in the background look like they just happen to be watching the shooting as they do not look like zombies. While this film is not long on plot, it is well acted, directed & solidly put together. A pleasant diversion for a rainy day.