NOT Worth All The Fanfare, But A Decent Movie...

Rating: 5/10 (3 October 2009)

I'm always leery of movies that come with a lot of hoopla and grandstanding. Rarely do they ever live up to my expectations.
I wanted to see this movie though and went in with an open mind and low expectations. Saves disappointment later if I don't expect much and the movie turns out to stink.
Hollywood/Big Budget/Non-Indie movies being crapped out by Hollywood are just that, crap and the quality of big budget movies has gotten worse and worse...almost to the point that I will watch nothing but Indie movies now.
So when a big budget Hollywood movie has such fanfare, budget and all the goodies Indie movie makers only wish in their wildest dreams they could get their hands on, it better be worth my $7.
While not really worth the money I paid to see it, it was a halfway decent movie and a lot of fun.
The world has ended thanks to a plague and nearly everyone has become zombies. A few have escaped the nastiness and one of them would be Columbus, who keeps a checklist of things to keep him alive.
I do have to say that how the checklist is sneaked in here and there in the movie, when one of Columbus' "checks" have been made, is really cool.
Anyway, he decides to take off to Columbus, Ohio to find what may or may not be left of his family and on the way there he meets Tallahassee, played the way only Woody Harrelson could have played this part. He actually made the movie and being as I am NOT a fan of his...that says a lot coming from me.
Tallahassee is headed for, you guessed it, Florida and insists that no first names be used in identifying themselves because then you get too close to people and that just makes it harder later if they die, turn to zombies, etc.
Makes sense.
Along the way they meet two scheming and detestable young women, Wichita, the older sister and Little Rock, the younger sister.
On a side note, I just have to say, if the point of having them in the movie was to make me hate them...it worked. They are perfect scam artist cons and I'd have fed them to the first zombie I could find.
And so with the four of them teaming up to survive, the journey begins to find a place where there are no zombies.
This movie has its funny parts. It's campy, silly and at times, stupid, but it is worth going to see if you can get in for cheap.
Just don't expect a thinking man's zombie movie, don't try to make it have deeper meaning or in any other way attempt to psychoanalyze this movie.
Just go see it for what it is...a silly and at times, smile/laugh inducing movie and I think you'll be delightfully surprised at how fun it can be.