Laugh Out Loud Funny, Sweet, Gory, Violent. Worth It

Rating: 7/10 (11 October 2009)

"Zombieland" is funny and sweet. It is also gory and violent. I'm not into gore and violence so I averted my eyes a lot. The humor, sweetness and inventiveness of the film were worth it for me.
"Zombieland" includes many zombies and their grotesque deaths, of course, but its structure is a road movie. Characters are named after their hometowns. Columbus meets Tallahassee; the two men then meet Wichita and Little Rock. A boy grows into a man by violating his own rule, "Never be a hero." Strangers bond. Lessons are learned. Hugs all around. Very sweet, and laugh out loud funny along the way.
Woody Harrelson gives his finest performance as an eager zombie killer. He's so good here I really wished that there had been an Anton Chigurh zombie Harrelson could have offed, to even the score after "No Country for Old Men." "Zombieland" is a lot like an older, forgotten road movie, "Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins," in which a marginal man (Alan Arkin) makes a road trip and bonds with two female con artists. No zombies in that one.