Close, so close...

Rating: 8/10 (19 March 2010)

This film has been rather obviously compared to Shaun Of The Dead. For some it eclipses the Wright/Pegg offering. For me it comes very close, but has one major drawback - the love story sub-plot.
The rest of this film is fantastic. Woody is superb (is his rehabilitation complete now?), and I found myself watching every move of his character. The two sisters also work well, and the nerd is, well, a nerd. The situations and development of the zombie plague are handled extremely well, and the solutions the characters evolve in their quest for survival are believable as well as very funny. And did I mention that Woody is fantastic? I'll mention it again because it deserves to be emphasised. He's great in this film.
Of course, at a couple of moments the younger characters act like dumb-asses, but this is forgivable in the context of the film - they're teenagers and teenagers don't always do the logical, intelligent thing.
Did I laugh out-loud? Absolutely, and often. Did I empathise with the characters? At almost every moment.
And so to the love-story. It was just not believable. In fact it was a typical nerd's wet-dream. Perhaps somewhere in the world the nerd occasionally gets the babe, but when it's splashed up on celluloid it just doesn't ring true. If she'd fallen for Woody I'd have believed it. As it is I found it really getting in the way of my enjoyment. However, I suppose the money men will insist on the director ticking all the boxes and reaching out to the "nerd profile" of a percentage of the audience. However, for me it was achingly predictable, in a movie that in every other way was fresh.
So, whilst I'd give Shaun a 10 I can only see an 8 here. Having written this I suppose I should declare my interest - as an Englishman I can see that perhaps Shaun is better in my eyes because it presses my cultural buttons in a way that Zombieland, excellent film that it is, can't.
Finally, whilst I have some criticisms, I would always recommend this as a film. In fact, my criticisms reflect my irritation that they came so, so close to making a perfect 10.