If you wanna watch a zombie comedy like Shaun of the Dead, watch Shaun of the Dead

Rating: 5/10 (13 October 2009)

If you fancy watching a film about Zombies then something called "Zombieland" would feel like the best course of action. Unfortunately though Zombieland is very far from the rom-zom-com it's emulating, i.e. Shaun of the Dead. Shaun of the Dead had a great love and affection for this genre and played to it beautifully, interweaving sharp comedy with drama. Zombieland attempts this but ends up being a teen road movie that just happens to be set after the zombie apocalypse and I did not want to see a teen road movie. Don't get me wrong there are some good moments and the film starts off quite promising. However after Columbus (Eisenberg)and Tallehasse (Harrelson) meet the two girls it's begins to lose it's shine. The real problem with this film though is the poor writing. For a start the two girls are instantly unlikeable and the sudden attraction Columbus has for Wichita seem tacked on. Tallahasee's search for Twinkie (think thats how you spell it, I'm British so they're not well known over here) screams of smack you in the face product placement. Then there's the plot holes, oh so many plot holes... 1 - How did the girls manage to get past the zombies in the supermarket when they immediately noticed Columbus and Tallahasse? 2 - Why did the girls hide in the back of the supermarket on the extreme off chance that someone not zombie-fied would stumble upon them? 3 - Why bother conning the guys out of their car and weapons when there's millions of cars and guns just lying around? 4 - The amusement park was meant to be zombie free so why smash open the gate with the car to get in, thereby paving the way for zombies to enter? 5 - Since it's shown that zombies can easily climb why did the girls think a paltry 6 foot wooden fence surrounding the park would hold them back? 6 - Correct me if I'm wrong but if you live in a world over-run with homicidal, flesh eating zombies then surely you'd want to keep a low profile? Why then when you finally get to this supposed zombie free amusement park would you turn all the power on, lighting the place up like a Christmas tree? 7 - How did they manage to get on and off the boat ride without someone else to start and stop it? 8 - Why go on the ride that shoots you straight up to avoid the zombies when you know it'll immediately come back down? 9 - And finally, who's running all the power stations? Everything seems to be working without any problem. You can watch TV, pump petrol, even start up an entire amusement park yet surely the power would be the first thing to go?
In all the premise was interesting, though not original, and could probably have worked a lot better with some better writing and perhaps playing to the fact it's a coming of age road movie which just happens to be set after the zombie apocalypse.