Violent, gross and so much fun

Rating: 6/10 (7 October 2013)

In this somewhat different post-apocalyptic comedy, we learn among other things how much fun it can be to kill the undead in pretty much any way you could possibly imagine, and some you don't even want to imagine. It's the first full big screen feature for director Ruben Fleischer, who was far from being a rookie before after having learned the business from the scratch by having worked on short films and television before including a couple Jimmy Kimmel episodes for example. Same can be said pretty much for the two writers, who just recently returned to Zombieland and wrote a TV pilot. It included some references to the movie, like the characters of course or the "Zombie Killer of the Month" or whatever it was called. It wasn't too bad, just the material not that fresh anymore and nobody from the original cast returned to pick up his role again. So consequently, it was not picked up for a series.
Anyway, back to the film. Besides the zombie killing, it also includes a nice little story on human bonding. Central character is played by Jesse Eisenberg, who keeps telling us from early on how rules helped him survive the zombie apocalypse and plays his usual sarcastic loner character, maybe the weakest performance from the quartet here, but mostly because the other 4 are just so damn fine. The best performance comes from Woody Harrelson, who once again finds the perfect balance between comedy and drama. Of course it helps that his character is such a badass zombie mass murderer and that he's got the best quotes of the pack as well. Some highlights: "You wanna f... Wichita? Sure why not. She's been f...ing us the last 24 hours." Or the scene where Eisenberg is depressed from watching a zombie eat out some corpse and all Harrelson's character feels is his ravenous appetite for Twinkies rising. Or that scene where he's in that little house at the theme park and with hundreds of zombies closing in you wonder if he's really sacrificing himself for the others. But nope, he kills them all. Good thing he enters the picture before the ten-minute mark and stays there until the end. Easily the best thing about the film and definitely nomination-worthy. But he got in for his other 2009 film "The Messenger" and probably ended up runner-up to Waltz, so I won't complain.
The two girls play interesting characters too and initially put up a nice fight to the guys with their car-stealing stick in order to make the little one's roller-coaster dream come true. The way they were introduced may have been the best thing about them. Oh and then there's Bill Murray of course in a cameo. No need to elaborate on that. The words "Bill Murray in a cameo" should be enough for everybody to run and rent the film right now. The scene with Murray and Harrelson in fanboy mode was so much fun. Stone just stood next and was amazed, just like she'd probably have been if she wasn't acting. The giant clown zombie near the end reminded me of the cult classic "Killer Klowns from Outer Space", quite a fun movie too. Besides that, Zombieland has lots of interesting movie references, decent music (Puppy Love, Metallica and even some Mozart). It's not a must-watch by any means, but a very funny 90 minutes with an uplifting ending and that's why I recommend it, especially to folks who want to get into the zombie genre. This one may be a good start because of its mass appeal. Also, thanks to Columbus' rulebook, you'll be prepared for the day when zombies inevitably really take over. So you really read all that??? Now get your ass up for some cardio, folks!