Now THAT is how you do a post-apocalyptic-zombie-horror-comedy!

Rating: 9/10 (11 October 2009)

From the moment you hear geeky college kid 'Columbus' (the narrator's home city; one doesn't bother with real names after a zombie apocalypse) give his opening narration (reiterating his own version of author Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide) over a very imaginative credits sequence, you realize that the zombie genre (or rather zombie-comedy sub-genre) may still have some life in it yet!
On the long, dead road home to see if his family are alright (not that he was particularly close to them, mind you), Columbus meets 'Tallahassee' (Woody Harrelson), a one-man zombie war machine who embodies the gun-toting, SUV driving, liquor-guzzling, made-in- America bravado and bluster that make him both hero AND comic relief. He releases some of Columbus' nerdy inhibitions (but not too many) and in turn, Columbus helps him on his own 'quest'; to find and devour some of the last remaining Twinkies left in the universe! Now that is some of the most brilliant product placement I've ever seen (right up there with ET's Reese's Pieces!).
Before long, these fledging 'Luke and Han'-style partners meet up with a pair of sisters, Wichita and Little Rock, who have their own agenda (and seem to not care who they step over to achieve it). Of course, the girl-shy Columbus is almost instantly taken with the older sister Wichita. After a few misfires in the relationship, a shaky truce is formed. It is at this point in the story where the group goes on a quest back west (to an amusement park) because wherever you come from, it's ALWAYS better out west (or east, if you're from the west!). It is at this point in the story that the movie gains it's title, as the amusement park becomes a kind of zombie-filled version of "Wally World" from National Lampoon's Vacation (which was, in turn, about middle America's zombie-like quest for 'family fun'). Ironic.
But up to this point and well after it, the movie is already an amusement park (forget any plot holes like potentially running out of gas, food, etc; this movie is a comedy/horror e-ticket ride)! From the colorful ways Zombies are dispatched, to Columbus' oft-repeated on-screen lists of rules of survival (which 'interact' with the movie very creatively) and all the way to Hollywood with a hilarious cameo by Bill Murray as Bill Murray (reteaming him with his Kingpin costar Harrelson), the movie is a new high in the zombie/comedy sub-genre (right up there with "Fido" and "Shaun of the Dead" in my book).
Also, having recently re-watched "Shaun of the Dead", it seems the "zom-com" has found the long way home. For just as 'Shaun of the Dead' is a clever, very British send up of the American George Romero dead movies, "Zombieland" is a clever, full-bore, 'ugly American' cousin to 'Shaun of the Dead!' And like the most gaudy amusement parks, it is also a hell of a lot of fun! Well worth the ride.