Meh

Rating: 5/10 (14 January 2012)

Zombieland has a lot going for it, but it tries too hard and too much. It never quite makes up its mind on whether it wants to be a parody, an action movie, a road movie or a coming-of-age drama; which isn't a bad thing by itself (some of the best films ever made are the ones that defy definition under any specific genre) but Zombieland plays each genre by the book, feeling like a montage of clichés; the best example of this is the Bill Murray segment, which, while it's the funniest in the movie, feels completely out of place and seems to have been glued in just to add a few laughs to an otherwise mostly jokeless comedy. While the movie is a lot of fun - the pacing is mostly flawless, Woody Harrelson is wonderfully cool (Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone are not at their best, but Abigal "Little Miss Sunshine" Breslin makes up for it with a compact but wonderful performance) and the premise - basically, a zombie movie with no gore or deaths (well, hardly any) is appealing but the movie fell flat for me. Shaun of the Dead wasn't perfect either but it had more groove.