"Any Regrets...Garfield, Maybe"

Rating: 7/10 (10 October 2010)

Fast-paced from beginning to end, Zombieland defies what has been done with zombies beforehand and goes for the laughs in the same way if not the same manner as films like Shaun of the Dead. Jesse Eisenberg plays the narrator and lead as a young man ripped from his humdrum life to follow a code of rules he has developed in order to survive the zombie holocaust. Throughout the film we are reminded of his rules, his fears, his phobias, and his thoughts in a most humorous way. He ends up teaming with wild and crazy guy Woody Harrelson(who is always good with these kinds of roles)and later with hot Emma Stone and her sister(in film) Abagail Breslin. Thefour shoot, hack, bludgeon, etc... zombies along the way to California as the young girl wants to see the Pacific Play Park(something like that) from her youth. The characters are known from the cities they are from and I found the film's script to be rather witty and disgustingly funny throughout even though there really, on the surface, is not a lot to work with in terms of plot structure. About halfway in the film a cameo of a major star comes up and it IS the highlight of the film. It is incredibly humorous and the guest star does his level best to be self-deprecating as well as amusing. Director Ruben Fleisher shows he has a future with his directorial flair and ability to care for characters even in a funny film like this. There are so many good, solid laughs that come from all kinds of sources and types of humor that this one does not just rely on the "beat" a dead zombie up to a pulp mentality. I thoroughly enjoyed Zombieland - especially the climatic end. Despite the comedic intent the film obviously has, there are some truly scary moments as well, and I found myself jumping out of the seat a time or two. Even regular horror films today don't often do that for me. I guess part of it deals withe the ability to create suspense, the care we have invested in the characters, and, perhaps most importantly, there is more here than just death and killing and none of them over the death bloody(the beginning credits being the exception).