Not as hilarious or brilliant as many say but consistently amusing and entertaining (SPOILERS)

Rating: Null/10 (14 February 2010)

The basic setup for this film sees us in familiar territory with a handful of survivors left in the middle of a world full of zombies since patient zero took their first bite out of a human, spreading the disease rapidly and totally. Young loner and geek Columbus has survived thanks to his strict rules of engagement and survival. On the road he meets and joins up with another survivor, Tallahassee, who is alive thanks to his inherent ability to kick ass and kill zombies. He also has a specific quirk as he is not so much looking for a way to rebuild humanity as he is looking for any surviving stocks of Twinky bars. The two meet two sisters during one such search but find that the zombies are only one of their problems.
So far, so standard but Zombieland stands out in a very crowded genre by being consistently amusing and occasionally very funny indeed. The tone of the film has been compared to Shaun of the Dead by everyone and their dog so I suppose I should join them by agreeing to a point because at points it does have some very imaginative and rapid-fire gags (sight and dialogue based). However I don't think it is quite as good as it doesn't quite manage to spread the laughs consistently – yes it manages to amuse consistently and for me that was enough but the bigger laughs tended to remind me that they were not as frequent as I would have liked. The plot is written to fit with the film as a comedy but at times it does slightly irritate because of how illogical the whole thing is – having some of the silly aspects is fine but even within the internal logic of the film the fairground just doesn't make any sense at all.
Of course it is just a silly film and this is what it is best to enjoy it as and the daft plotting doesn't spoil it all that much, just limits it as a film. I know there is already a sequel being planned and, as much as the plot could do with a bit more polish, it is the comedy where the film needs to step it up – with the big laughs repeated and the amusing tone elevated to produce more good laughs. The cast is mostly reasonably good. Harrelson plays up to his character really well and his deadpan reactions to lines of others makes many scenes funnier thanks to his timing and delivery. Eisenberg is good once you try and get used to the feeling that the film couldn't afford Michael Cera. His narration and the use of his rules provide a good structure to the film. Stone and Breslin are both a little irritating as characters but they just about manage to be good enough in other ways to help cover up their characters. The cameo by Bill Murray was spoilt for me but it was still funny (even if it suffers from slightly illogical, clunky writing).
Overall Zombieland is not a brilliant film by any means but it has a hatful of good laughs on a bed of consistently amusing material and tone. The gore is cartoony and not scary but the film is more of a comedy than horror so this is not a problem. Good enough to be worth a look and it made for an enjoyable 90 minutes mostly spent chuckling for me.