ZOMBIELAND (Ruben Fleischer, 2009) ***

Rating: 7/10 (3 March 2010)

As I have often said, I am not too fond of the zombie genre (at least the flesh-eating variety), so I was not exactly looking forward to this one; however, knowing it had a strong sense of humor (zombies are lured out into the open by the strumming of "Dueling Banjos"!), I was willing to make one more trip to the well. In fact, once one gets over the initial "do we really need another zombie spoof?" feeling – especially keeping in mind the satirical elements in George A. Romero's vastly overrated original DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) and, obviously, the equally ultra-hyped SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004; which was voted "best comedy of the decade" for cryin' out loud by the British magazine "Empire"!) – ZOMBIELAND proves quite enjoyable most of the way. The film's second trump card is the (obviously human) characterization, not a typical asset in this sort of gory fare: here, in fact, we have two guys (geeky kid and gung-ho modern cowboy – the latter played by Woody Harrelson) and two girls (the younger being LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE [2006]'s Abigail Breslin) against the rest of the world, infected with some virus (as always) and thus appropriately dubbed "Zombieland". Despite its trim running time, the majority of the action occurs during the opening and concluding sections (with the creatures a blood-vomiting and often obese lot, one is actually thankful for it!); that said, the highlight is perhaps the hysterical scene at Bill Murray's estate (with the "Ghostbusters" star appearing as himself and even becoming an unfortunate victim of the paranoia that understandably grips the normal segment of humanity). The remainder, as already intimated. is devoted to the budding relationship within the group – Harrelson takes on the kid against his better judgment but, then, both are repeatedly double-crossed by the girls (who had made a pact not to trust anyone); of course, at the end, they are happy to join forces and the teens even become romantically involved. New-hand director Fleischer brings plenty of style to the table and generally succeeds in breathing new life (no pun intended) into a by-now exhausted formula; by the way, who would have thought I would ever be hearing an all-too brief snippet of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" by my beloved The Velvet Underground on the soundtrack of a zombie movie? Needless to say perhaps but a sequel to this one is already in the works