A new comedy touchstone

Rating: 10/10 (8 August 2010)

While *Zombieland* will not go down as a great cultural philosophical film (although if you think about it, there's a little bit of that), it gets a 10 from me as the most hysterical comedy-black comedy I've seen in years. The premise we start with involving "Columbus" (Jesse Eisenberg, an amazing young talent) is used to great comic effect consistently throughout, the double entendrè and profanity are pitch perfect, adding to the comedy, rather than being there superfluously for shock value or to be "cool." The pop culture references are hilarious, and hit all the right notes for the actors in the film as well as their characters (you'll see what I mean), the core ensemble works together like a dream (including the perfectly executed meet-ups which are both funny and surprising), the references to the human condition are spot on, but brief, and do not stop the momentum. No maudlin or preachy here. Bill Murray makes the perfect call back to the ensemble comedies he was so successful at participating in in the 80s that carry the same kind of comic momentum is a different kind of comic world. But this is not his film, and his grace at being the (hysterical) cameo is notable (but not surprising). Everything about his presence in the film is ironic, but the film itself is a mixture of all the elements of black comedy, irony, satire, parody, etc, with an appropriate amount of clearly fake gore, screwball moments, and a new twist on scatological humor. And I see several reviewers have mentioned a particularly funny scene as well, and I'm guessing it's the same one that had me ROTFLMAO, involving a couple of simultaneous situation reversals that are ingenious to say the least (I say no more for fear of spoiling). It's been a long time since a movie has done that for me, and any minor imperfections (a slight lag in the momentum briefly in the middle, for example) are made up for by the overall hilarity, and a solid ensemble, Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson being perfect, Abigail Breslin showing that she's growing up nicely as an actress, and Emma Stone a strong young actress (and comic straight-woman) to watch. If the aforementioned 80s comedies were the comedy touchstone of my generation, *Zombieland* will I expect become the touchstone of today's generation, and rightfully so. And, P.S., the music is fantastic.