A Fair Comedy, a Terrible Zombie Film.

Rating: 4/10 (23 August 2010)

The opening shots of Zombieland possibly depict some of the most gleeful carnage ever filmed. I had been nothing but excited to see Zombieland, and this sequence only made me more so. I am a fan of zombie films, and on of the cornerstones of any zombie film is the gore, and this movie looked like it was going to deliver. I am also a fan of funny zombie films, and I have certain expectation there as well, mainly that I will get to see some zombies killed in hilarious ways, and some obnoxious characters offed creatively. I was prepared to die laughing for the next two hours in sheer, carnage filled, comedy bliss.
Then, the credits ended.
And so, we meet the main character, the cookie-cutter virgin nerd who will lead us through this tale. He kills a couple zombies. Doing good so far. He meets cookie-cutter redneck, they kill some zombies. Still doing fairly well. They meet cookie cutter female characters, boy likes girl. OK, maybe not doing as well anymore. They go on a road trip.
No, really they do.
By this point in the film, I was noticing a trend. Rather than being a zombie comedy, this was more like two films. A zombie film and a road trip movie, squashed together. None of the zombie deaths were particularly inventive or entertaining, indeed at one I found myself rolling my eyes (That would be the banjo. Now while I've never seen a zombie killed with a banjo, there was a game several years ago called 'Dead Rising' which featured many inventive ways to kill zombies, including my personal favorite, with electric guitars. It was very similar.)
In addition to the fact the zombies are not dispatched entertainingly, they also are almost nonexistent in the film, after the credits. Yes, this zombie film contains almost no zombies.
Which leaves us with the characters who are all a bit flat and uninteresting, which is fine in most zombie films where they are really just zombie fodder. But here it is nearly the death of the film. I mean, we have virgin nerd, redneck obsessed with Twinkies, twelve year old, and in slight departure for routine, the bad-girl rather than the bad-boy.
And they proceed to be only as interesting as these stereotypes allow. It turns into a road trip movie, with these four making their way across county, because. Really that is the other great flaw, there is no logic to their cross country drive. The girls heard that there are no zombies at a random amusement park in California. It is never explained why they believe this, or indeed how it make sense that the zombies would not go in the amusement park. After I spent the entire film questioning this logic, when they finally get to said amusement park, I was unsurprised to find zombies there. Which means I can only conclude these characters are idiots.
True, some of the jokes are amusing, Bill Murry is Bill Murry, rednecks obsessed with Twinkies are good for a few laughs, and the rules are surprisingly sound (though I'd still prefer to have a copy of The Zombie Survival Guide in the inevitable zombie apocalypse). But it's just NOT a zombie comedy, not when the only zombies appear at the beginning and end, aren't remotely menacing, and none of the deaths are creative.
And no one dies. This may be a zombie film first, no body dies, at least not from the zombies. So I don't count Bill Murry.
Quiet simply, I didn't get what I paid for, had I known what I was getting, then I wouldn't have bothered to pay in the first place. So, if you go in expecting a road movie with some 2-d characters, a random cameo and jokes about Hanna Montana, with a couple of zombies peppered throughout, you will be very please.
However, if you are expecting something like Shuan of the Dead, BrainDead, Evil Dead II or any other great zombie comedy flick, keep walking. You have not found the next great entry in the genre.
In short: for the mainstream audience only.