Zombieland

Zombieland

Zombieland - Directed by Ruben Fleischer, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin - Rated R

Zombie killin' has never been more fun.



Zombieland might be the most fun I’ve had at the theater so far this year. It’s such a swift, wild ride and the characters inhabit it so naturally; it just plain works. Works as a comedy, that is.

This is not meant to be like the George Romero zombie movies (the original Dawn of the Dead). Most zombie movies deal with emotions and the mental anguish that comes with realizing your entire family and everyone you knew is dead. Sure, zombie movies of late have leaned towards comedy, most notably Shaun of the Dead, though that film is still very much a traditional zombie movie.

Zombieland, however, is a comedy first, a zombie movie second. Sure, we get the gross out close ups here and there and there are scenes of flesh eating, but the film doesn’t bombard you with it. Actually, the majority of the gross out stuff is done in the opening ten minutes.

The first ten minutes of the movie set the film’s tone perfectly. We begin with Jesse Eisenberg’s neurotic character, Columbus (every character is named after a location), delivering a voice over in which he lays out the rules of Zombieland like: Cardio, Wear a seatbelt, Beware of bathrooms, etc. These rules pop up onscreen every time they apply and it’s quite an amusing gimmick.

After the short intro, we’re treated to one of the best title sequences I’ve ever seen (but keep in mind, I love zombies). It’s a slow motion collage of terrified people running from, killing, and being killed by zombies, all set to the song “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Metallica. I thought it was perfect.

So the world is great and the tone is set, but the characters have to match it. Eisenberg’s nervous and awkward character might rub some people the wrong way, but I thought he was hilarious. He’s been playing this same nerdy character since 2002’s Roger Dodger and he has perfected it. The fact that he is so typecast might be a problem, but put a double barrel shotgun in his hands and that image alone is good for a few laughs. And he’s the perfect actor to say lines like, “Oh, you almost knocked over your alcohol with your knife.”

If awkward Eisenberg isn’t your thing, then Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee probably is. The lovable redneck that gets a kick out of killing zombies is easily the funniest aspect of the film. He’s the kind of character most people would want to be in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Tallahassee is fearless, funny, and, most importantly, original when it comes to zombie killing. Anyone who plays a banjo to the tune of “Dueling Banjos” to get the attention of a zombie then bludgeons it with said banjo gets a thumbs up in my book.





The focus on Eisenberg and Harrelson isn’t to say that the other two stars, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, don’t do a good job. Quite the opposite, in fact. It’s just that their con artist characters don’t hold up against the male leads. This film belongs to Eisenberg and Harrelson. It also belongs to a hilarious celebrity in a cameo role, but that’s all I want to mention about that because the surprise of the cameo is what makes for half the laughs of that sequence.

I haven’t mentioned anything negative about the film and that’s because I can’t think of anything I didn’t like. I was worried about the short running time (81 minutes) before I watched it, but I wouldn’t have even noticed the running time if I hadn’t looked it up.

A movie like Zombieland doesn’t need two hours to tell its story. If it had tried to lengthen itself to two hours, the joke would get old very fast. The filmmakers knew exactly how long they could hold on to the audience.

Zombieland is a road trip comedy…with zombies. If you read that line and you’re interested, then you’ll love this movie. If that line sounds stupid, then skip it. If you’re a zombie lover like me, then Zombieland will be well worth the price of admission.

Eric Harris - www.canneltoncritic.com

Zombieland un film de Ruben Fleischer

I must say that zombie movies is my favorite  subgenre in Horror. From Night of the  Living Dead to Shaun of the  Dead I always enjoy a zombie brain being smashed. It's like they  are not people getting kill; they're already dead! From Romero's films  that denounced racism, consumerism and all the XXth century "diseases"  to the zombie/romantic comedy of Shaun  of the Dead I think that zombie flicks are great. I excuse myself  now of being enthusiastic. With that done we'll get to the review.

Zombieland doesn't start  progressively to how the earth became dead, it's already done. We follow  a small group of four that will try to live as normal as they can in a  world surrounded by zombies. It's not a film where you try to figure out  the meaning of life or how to save the planet from being devastated. We  don't learn a lesson from the story either but we embark on a ride of  fun. From the opening credits which are the best I've seen in years til  the end I've laugh myself out loud and I was clapping my lap all along.  The many allusions to the film of my childhood (which I'm not gonna  spoil for you here) was a big pleasure for me.

It is far from the  many nihilistic zombie films we are accostumed. I found this film to be  fresh, appealing, and a big load of fun!

http://cinephiliaque.blogspot.com/2010/02/zombieland-un-film-de-ruben-fleischer.html

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Recommendations: Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie, Duel

Last updated: 2010-04-27 14:59:15 by MichaelParent

Zombieland

Everyone has their fix, especially when it comes to movies.  Some people are into romcoms, some like extreme action, some like kung-fu, or westerns or documentaries or arty foreign films.  For me, my fix comes in the form of the zombie movie.

Oh how I love zombie movies. 

By and large, the consensus amongst film academics is that the zombie represents humanity when stripped of its notions of free will and the social contract.  Yes: there are film academics.  Yes: they do study zombie films sometimes.  Yes: there is subtext to zombies.

Zombies have no desires and no social ambitions -- all that they "live" to do is feed and wander looking for food: all the while ignoring the glaring inconsistency -- if zombies are not alive (the term is undead), then why do they need to eat?
George Romero, who was not the first zombie-maker but might be the best, most zombie filmmakers plop the viewer down squarely on day 1 of infection.  A person living his life, mindlessly brushing past people and thinking that people are so predictable and shallow.  Suddenly, one of the people that he brushes against has pale skin and sunken eyes, and this one enlightened person realizes that something is terribly wrong.  Panic, sirens, car accidents, one zombie become 2, 2 become 4, 4 become 16 -- we all get a lesson in fluid transfer and somewhere a government agency sets up a safe zone.

I've always been pretty happy with this format because the best part of the zombie movie is the obligatory intestines scene, right?  But, until I saw Zombieland, I didn't realize the glaring plot hole: if zombies are the consumer culture, or at least the maladjusted state in  which modern society finds itself, why is it just assumed that the government -- the very top echelon of the malaised society -- is going to have a safe zone?  Before the President can even order the barricade, the intern who lives in a rental apartment in the common part of D.C. will have been turned to a zombie from a bite he received that morning on the bus.  The White House goes down.  D.C. goes down.  New York, Philadelphia, Bangor, you get the gist.

In Zombieland, the viewer is not plopped into Day 1 of the Zombie Apocalypse.  Instead, Zombieland nestles the viewer down a few months after the outbreak.  The planes and cars have crashed, the people are by and large eaten or turned into monsters, and society has officially broken down all together.  Since all hell has broken loose, Zombieland does not bog us down with the metaphysical symbolization of American society and what it means to be a zombie and a person and where to find a safe place and blah blah blah.  The people that we meet have pretty much dealt with that already because they're still alive but alone.  This film is going to be more like Max Brooks' book The Zombie Survival Guide, in that the whys and wherefores are not nearly as important as the basic rules of survival.

Our narrator, main character, and lister of zombie rules Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg, the poor man's Michael Cera) was, pre-Zombie Apocalypse, an anti-social gamer who is probably a virgin.  Though people are scarce, there must be nomadic wanderers and highway travelers because when Columbus meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), he is cautious but not necessarily surprised.  Tallahassee is a little more meatheaded than Columbus, tougher, and takes great joy in exploiting the anarchy of a destroyed world (as rule #32 will tell you: take pleasure in the little things).

They are traveling towards some ideal that will probably be rubble when they get there.  This phenomenon is not unique to these two people in Zombieland.  Down the road, they meet a couple of banditas in the form of Wichita and Little Rock (Emma Stone and Little Miss Sunshine), who are making their way west to an amusement park that is supposed to be zombie-free -- a mutual delusion: when you have nowhere to go, your instinct is to invent safe places to go. 

This impromptu tribe of four have trust issues, as you can imagine, but eventually coallate in their own social contract that allows them to more effectively kick zombie ass, scrounge necessities, and keep company.  A love interest grows between the two twenty-somethings, and a major motion picture star makes a cameo (I will not be a spoiler).

Zombieland is distinct from previous zombie movies because it does not purport to solve the crisis of the walking undead, it does not subject the viewer to a continuous onslaught of attacks by an ever-growing mob of zombies (there is some of that, but not wall-to-wall), and it does not wholly revolve around zombies zombies zombies.  Rather than cope with the crisis, they've moved on to provoking and hunting because, let's face it, what else is there to do? 

It is a road film.  It is a movie about people who have been isolated in a new environment.  If there is no future, there is no end.  Zombieland's characters will continue on as long as they feel the need.  The frailities of human society are totally abundant in this group of four, and as they are a few of the last living people, they are destined to live each day amongst the walking undead as if it will probably be their last day.  This flick acts as a snapshot of how this crew got together, rather than an all-encompassing thematically driven metaphorical vehicle designed to inspire some sort of grandiose lesson in the back of your head. 

It's an awesome movie.  A fun movie.  A cathartic movie.  My only problem: the zombie purist in me has an issue with fast-moving zombies.  I've never been on board with zombies that sprint at the living.  But that seems to be the way these days.  I suppose the posh thing is to show zombies as plague victims, but I do like me a I died first and then my body moved around as a zombie zombie, which means that they have no brain functionality aside from basic motor skills and the desire for human flesh.  To me, that means biting at whatever you bump into but not recognizing that there is protein across the street and sprinting after it.  I think that's my hang up.  Anyway, Zombieland zombies are sprinters.

I have to deal with that.

Ruben of the Floating Red Couch<br />
http://www.floatingredcouch.com

Last updated: 2010-04-22 21:23:38 by user01

Zombieland: Lots of Zombies Not Alot of Laughs

Over the years zombies have gained a sense of humor.  I guess all that time spent with nothing to do except eat raw flesh allowed for time to develop a funny bone.  Either that or they ate one (Rimshot please).
   After some unlucky bastard eats an infected burger the zombie apocalypse begins or as the main protagonist Columbus (Jessie Eisenberg) describes the timeline “mad cow disease became mad human disease and then worse.”  Nearly all the names of the characters in the movie are derived from the town their either from or going to.
In Eisenberg’s case he is trying to get to Columbus, his hometown, to find out what happened to his family since he was at college when the infection broke out.  He runs into the shoot-first ask-questions-later cowboy-up sun-of-a-gun named Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) who agrees to take Columbus part of the way.  Tallahassee has a severe Twinky addiction and one of his hunts causes them to cross paths with two co artists Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin).  When Wichita lets it slip that Columbus has been turned into a wasteland Eisenberg and Harrelson decide to join forces with the ladies on their trip to a theme park that’s considered a safe haven.   
   There are several conventions of the movie that are great in concept, like the rules to living and the zombie kill of the week, but don’t pan out exactly the way you’d like.  Tallahassee hits a zombie upside the head and asks if that should be considered for the weekly trophy.  I’m not sure that kill would have made Sports Center’s Top Ten let alone a kill of the week.  Although a little old lady dropping a piano on an undead creature is comedy gold. 
The rules are also somewhat underplayed.  One of Columbus’ rules is to keep up with cardio.  He spends part of the opening scene running in circles to get away from some uglies that clearly didn’t get their Zombie GEDs.  There isn’t enough of that in the movie so the rules become more of a weak plot device.
   Zombieland’s crowning moment goes hands down to the cameo of Bill Murray.  He steals the scene, the movie, and my side after he split it.  His zombie practical joke was the type of humor I was having a hard time finding for a lot of the movie.  Harrelson did a great job interacting with Murray too.  I could see Woody lying down in his bed with a life-sized Ghostbusters poster above him.
As is often the case a movie that looks too good to be true often is.  Zombieland hits on a lot of the horror comedy conventions that make the genre great.  It just doesn’t hit them hard enough.  There are a lot of little laughs throughout the movie, but the big belly busters are few and far between.

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Recommendations: Shutter Island, District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, 2009), Morning Glory

Last updated: 2010-04-12 19:04:56 by jpgreenb

FILM REVIEW : Zombieland (2009)

Okay. Before anything else, I must say that I was NOT in any way, shape, or form expecting Zombieland to be good at all. However, when critics weighed in and people saw the film, it turned out that everyone thought it was actually really good! I was still pretty pessimistic in regards to this film. This past Monday I finally got around to seeing what I thought would be a trainwreck failure of a comedy. I gotta tell you... I absolutely loved it!

Zombieland centers around Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), a weak-minded college student who has by his own list of rules survived a zombie outbreak. He is taking a trip to his hometown, Columbus, Ohio, from his current residency in Austin, Texas. Along the way, he meets a tough, slightly arrogant man named Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson). The two decide to travel together and eventually run into Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), two sisters on their way to California. The four embark together on a hilarious and surprisingly good journey that involves self-discovery, finding love, and - yes - killing zombies.

My personal favorite aspect of Zombieland is how unexpectedly good it was. I have to apologize for ever assuming this to be an idiotic and cheap zombie-comedy. It's so much more than that! I was completely expecting this to be a bunch of zombie-killing intended for humor. I don't think that even half of the humor revolved around the zombies.

Not only is it heavy on the laughs: there are actually some great characters here! None of the principle characters lack a sense of reality and humanity. I really enjoyed the ensemble performance here. All of the acting was great. Jesse Eisenberg fits into the role perfectly, and Woody Harrelson has some of the best comedic timing of the year. Emma Stone is just flat-out awesome. Hoping for her to break through to the A-list soon. Now for Abigail Breslin... I must say this: even though I think she's incredibly talented, I don't think that Abigail Breslin is an adept comedic actress. Granted, she has better comedic timing than most "comedic actors," but I'm still not convinced of her comedic talent. Side note: Breslin was absolutely amazing in My Sister's Keeper. Oh, and the cameo is hysterical.

The main problem is that it was a bit short, but that's not a huge problem when you acknowledge how much fun the ride through Zombieland was.

Recommended

Rating: 6.5 out of 10 stars (3.5 out of 5 stars)


Photo Courtesy: Flickr

Julian Stark (pen name)<br />
<br />
Founder/Editor: Movies and Other Things<br />
<br />
http://julianstark-moviesandotherthings.blogspot.com

Booze Revooze: A Drinker’s Skewed Review of ZOMBIELAND

Rounding out the Talent part of our blog is Emma Stone (21) as “Wichita”. Home Sweet Stone

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Al K Hall<br />
Functional Alcoholic Slurperson<br />
(No, REALLY. Google &amp;quot;Slurperson&amp;quot; if you don't believe me.)

Last updated: 2010-04-03 16:33:34 by user08

Zombieland

We are all orphans in Zombieland, adrift in search of friends, family and amusement. Lots of double-barreled bloody amusement!

One Word Movie Review: GOOD

Zombieland is a triumph of rule-based living vs. an undead world of ravenous zombies. One mad cow-tainted burger from the GAS’N GULP and America shrinks down to our four survivors, whose peculiar lifestyles have spared them from becoming “human happy meals”. We follow them across the country as they travel to Pacific Playland, a park supposedly free of zombies.

Zombies have three great cinematic traits which endear them to filmmakers worldwide: they are dumb, they are always hungry and they can’t carry on a conversation. So, you don’t need to write dialogue for them and you don’t need a plot other than tossing them some food (i.e. some real human beings). The typical zombie is so stupid you can put them in the most blood-splattering situations imaginable and rip them to shreds, all for the amusement of audiences.

Let’s face it, audiences do love to see stupid people getting hurt; witness the popularity of the Jackass movies and America’s Funniest Home Videos. Zombieland takes this built-in desire and amps it to “11” and does it for laughs, instead of horror. If you like black, sick and bloody humor, there are some great laughs in this film.

Woody Harrelson is the star of Zombieland, playing Tallahassee, the “Natural Born Killer” king of zombie slayers. In the Oliver Stone movie, Woody’s character kills real people and thus, is a “bad” guy, now he kills unreal people and becomes the hero of mankind. It helps that we don’t consider zombies to be human even though they look like us (on a bad day), act like us (mindlessly walking through life) and think like us (follow the crowd).

The comedy standard-bearer for zombie films remains the satirical Shaun of the Dead but Zombieland compares favorably due to the comic performances of Woody and Jesse Eisenberg as the introverted narrator/loner (Columbus) who records and lives by his rules. Their performances, along with a cameo by Bill Murray, elevate the material from obvious to inspired.

The Story

This is a basic road movie, gathering our foursome together, giving them some moments to define their characters and then set them on a quest to bind them all. The movie opens with a sparse Hendrix Star Spangled Banner electric guitar over a slow-motion montage of America descending from “bad to total sh*tstorm” as the “United States of Zombieland”. We meet Columbus first and his rules, such as:
1. Cardio (have to be able to outrun zombies),
2. Double-tap them to make sure they’re dead, and
3. Wear a seat belt (it’s a bumpy ride – thank you, Bette Davis)

Tallahassee picks up Columbus hitchhiking and together, they allow themselves to be conned out of their car and weapons twice by sweet, devious sisters. However, with obstacles everywhere, in closets, under bathroom stalls and in grocery aisles, the few remaining humans stick together and devise this plan to visit Pacific Playland, and the myth that it is zombie-free. Each character has a personal goal: to get laid or to find a Twinkie, real solid aspirations to build a movie around.

On the way, they stop at Bill Murray’s house, Tallahassee’s idol and find him alive and well, disguised as a zombie to “fit in” and still “go out”, as in play a little golf. They stay, a moment of relative calm before the big finale at Playland where zombie killing in an amusement park works both to resolve the personal conflicts, bond our group finally together, enable the nerd boy to kiss the girl, loner man to finally get his twinkie and all happily drive off into the darkness.

The Genre

The comedy/horror genre is a long and distinguished one, from Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein to Mel Brooks Young Frankenstein to Scream and Shaun of the Dead and now Zombieland. The gore has increased over the years and it is a balancing act to deliver laughs and mutilations at the same time. It is a statement of our desensitized viewing tastes when we can find humor in heads blown off, bodies run over and one scene where a zombie snaps a bloody leg bone to drink the marrow inside. But we are detached because these are not humans anymore, but dead people with instincts, not brains.

The fact that this movie made #1 and other virus zombie movies of a more serious nature didn’t, speaks to audiences needing to laugh at adversity. We live every day with warnings of pandemics like H1N1, mad cow disease and all the other dangers of modern life, from cell phones to artificial sugar. Every once in a while, you need to laugh at what you fear the most and movies like Zombieland fill this need.

However, the preponderance of apocalyptic movies of late make you wonder about the mindset of Hollywood and if they are reading the audiences out there properly. Are we all living in fear of catastrophe? If so, then this comedy/horror genre is an antidote in a sick, stupid way so just go along with the ride.

The Overall Quality

Zombieland is well acted, with some brilliant bits of comic timing and delivery. The pairing of Harrelson and Eisenberg pays off in contrasting styles complementing each other, rising above the material in their delivery. Bill Murray is a gem, playing himself (which he usually does in all his movies anyway) and his dying scene is classic (oops, didn’t mean to spoil his role but sadly, he does die but wait for it, it is great). Also wait for after the end credits because they added an outtake from the dying scene where Bill and Woody riff on the Caddyshack death quote, “In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, au revoir, gopher”. In a way, Woody plays his character as an homage to Bill’s goofy groundskeeper, Carl Spackler.

The use of super-slow motion to isolate zombie attacks on “normal” people is startling over the opening credits, contrasting everyday life going to hell in unexpected moments you cannot anticipate. Then, the first-time director Ruben Fleischer uses it again when our heroes trash a store and deflates the idea. If you like the technical mechanics of flesh-eating and body splattering, there are some excellent moments you haven’t seen before, pushing the whole turning-the-body-inside-out craze even further.

The script delivers in characters and comedy, if not in original plotting. There are classic lines scattered through the movie from the list of rules (reminiscent of Scream) to Woody’s choice observations on life in general and zombie killing specifically.

Movie/Market Analysis

MarketBOB’s sentiment indicators, the GQS (Genre, Quality, Story) rate this movie almost a bull for the good time laughs and “happy” ending, but truly a BEAR for the bleak future it portrays and the fact that Columbus kills Bill Murray, an “accident”.  This little faux-pas is glossed over and off we go rooting for these guys again after the innocent death of an icon. It is also a bear because, from a market point of view, it reminded me of how the markets are tainted by a virus (greed) and how the investing herd runs around like zombies, every hungry for profits at any cost.

Now, if they combined this movie with Caddyshack and had killer gopher zombies attacking golfers, there’s one heck of a movie.

Zombieland: Movie Review

Zombies are one of the most used up characters in movies. What's worse, with all the zombie movies coming out, majority of them have similar story lines - as if their story lines were great from the get-go. Zombie films are as mindless as the brains of their antagonists. We can only count a few zombie films that have captured our minds. "28 Days Later" is one and "Shaun of the Dead" is another. "28 Days Later" changed the way we understood zombies. If you think zombies are the slow and lumbering kind, then you have an outdated view because in "28 Days Later" zombies are pumped up Usain Bolt. "Shaun of the Dead" on the other hand brought laughter into the mix. "Zombieland" promises to be a mix of these - horror,comedy and running zombies (this just brought a tear in our eyes). Can "Zombieland" prove to be a great mishmash? Read on to find out.

"Zombieland" is cast on post-apocalypse America where mad cow disease had mutated to mad human disease which eventually turned almost everyone to zombies. We meet Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), a college student who at best is a geek. Amazingly, Columbus has been surviving on his own with his own personal rules that he uses against the undead horde. Columbus craves to interact with another human being - so desperate in fact that he decides to go to his hometown in Columbus, Ohio in the hopes that he might see his parents alive and well. Along the way, Columbus meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) who roams around the country looking for fried Twinkies. Both eventually decide to travel together for the meantime. When they stop at a grocery store, they also met Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) who both want to go to Pacific Playland in Los Angeles. Although the two groups had a rocky start and the question now is can they all get what they want and still survive the growing populace of the undead?

"Zombieland" had to end and that is the only thing we could see on the downside. It was over eighty minutes of terror interspersed with laughter and amazingly, it had time to let you ponder on life's meaning and purpose. Woody Harrelson was definitely the star of the show even with the supporting role he had. While the storyline was so simple, we were amazed on how interesting it was as it grabbed our attention from the start. Even better are the rules of Columbus - 33 rules that pop up on screen from time to time- definitely a crowd pleaser in our opinion. Also watch out for the final firefight at the end of the film which was definitely worth the ticket price. We could only wished "Zombieland" was a wee bit longer but even in its shortness, we learned a lot of things about appreciating life than we did watching countless films in unison.

Rating: 5 reels

Why you should watch it:
- it was funny as hell especially Woody Harrelson
- a simple storyline that definitely captures the attention of even the most hard-to-please person
- a not-so-serious yet deep film about living life

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- it was a little bit on the short side
- if you are the easy-queasy kind then you will hate the gore

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Recommendations:

Last updated: 2010-03-11 19:54:15 by user06

Zombieland

I give the movie: 4.0/5

Don't groan. This is not just another zombie movie. This is a freakin' fantastic and hilarious run-for-your-bloody-life zombie movie.

The great thing about Zombieland is that it dives straight into the action. It doesn't bother explaining how this plague came about - you're thrown right into the nerdy protagonist's fight for his life as he battles the undead in zombie-infested America. Along the way, he meets a tough-cookie who revels in killing zombies, and together, after a couple of mis-steps, they join a duo of trickster sisters as they make their way to a seemingly zombie-free amusement park for possible refuge.

Throughout the road trip, laugh-out-loud moments ensue as they battle with the relentless undead, with the audience constantly reminded of our geeky heros' set of (ridiculous) rules to pit yourself against a zombie.

But ultimately, it is the bonding of these 4 unlikely companions that is worth the watch, making the killing of the zombies almost endearing and satisfying to the audience.

The best part of the movie? Watch out for a famous Hollywood comedian's cameo. You'll laugh your heads off.

FINAL SAY:
Handsdown the funniest movie of the year so far. A delightful and rockin' good time through zombie mania.

Wilson Ng - http://wilsoniscurious.blogspot.com/

Last updated: 2010-03-14 05:24:54 by wilsoniscurious

Zombieland

For the sake of not spoiling anything about Ruben Fleischer'sZombieland for anyone that has not yet seen the film, ye be very warned, spoilers are infesting this review. I would hate for someone to evenaccidentally have something ruined for them just by glazing over these here words...okay, snookums?

I am not inventing the wheel when bringing up the fact that there are disturbing amounts of zombie films that have been released since the zombie "new wave" began earlier in the decade. Many can complain about the over abundance, and I don't blame them at all, but with so many movies being made in one genre...you're bound to have a couple of gems here and there. For as many cruddy zombie films that come out as opposed to how many good ones - it's a very unbalanced ratio, to say the least. Nevertheless, it is a ratio I can accept when amidst all the muck comes films trudging through like 28 Days/Weeks Later, Dawn of the Dead '04, [REC], Shaun of the Dead, and now the newest kid on the undead chopping block, Zombieland.


When I first saw the trailers for Zombieland, I have to admit, I was not all that into it...only appeal for me was Woody Harleson and that's about it. I looked at it as another zombie movie that is going the comedic route, but what are the chances that another zombie comedy is gonna strike that Shaun of the Dead gold? Not very good. Shaun of the Dead is one of the best horror comedies, probably since American Werewolf even - so to be even in the same ballpark, let alone the same city would be a pretty difficult task to achieve. You know what, Zombieland is not only in the same ballpark, it's at bat with runners on the corners, no outs, and a 3-0 count.

Zombieland totally hits it outta the park - It was an absolute blast of a film and there were so many things to enjoy about this movie as a whole. Direction wise and technically, Zombieland is very apt and impressive at times. One of the things that had me skeptical in the trailers was the slo-mo stuff that looked like a practice that I have seen one too many times before. That technique is only used in the films opening credit sequence however, and it's used perfectly. To boot, it's an opening credit sequence that flat out rocked as Metallica'sFor Whom The Bell Tolls blares during a great zombie carnage montage. It instantly put me in the right mind set to watchZombieland. I also really liked some of the transitions from scene to scene - very impressive and as with Zombieland in general, a lot of fun.


Zombieland is basic in premise, following only a handful of characters, mainly Jesse Eisenberg who plays Columbus. He also acts as the movies narrator and the concept is sort of inspired by Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide, with Columbus having his own set of rules that he lives by, rules that have kept him alive through this zombie holocaust that has unfolded around him. These rules also serve as the film's driving force for the first act and works in what I would consider a brilliant way to introduce the viewer to this alternate zombie world in a creative and indirect way. I also loved how these rules would pop-up on screen when the actual rule was in use, and thankfully, it is not hokey, nor is it overused.

As Columbus makes his way to his hometown of, Columbus Ohio, he runs into Tallahassee, played by Woody Harrelson. As I mentioned, the only real thing that drew me in about Zombieland originally was Woody Harrelson. I am a huge fan of his work, as most should be, and he is fantastic in this movie. Harrelson as Tallahassee is what drives this film; he takes what is a very good movie and makes it great! He has such perfect comedic timing and his casting as a tough guy with a chip of zombie flesh on his shoulder is pitch perfect. The dialogue is great overall, but some of the Tallahassee stuff was tailor made for Woody, who spits out great one-liners and goes on gut busting tirades about the importance of having a Twinkie sooner than later.


Columbus and Tallahassee team up and go about their ways, till they run into tough as nails, Wichita (Emma Stone) and her tough as thumbtacks, 12 year old sister, Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). Both are a nice addition to the group as they bring a bit of opposition to the boys with the two sisters only wanting to lookout for one another and keep others safely at bay. For Columbus, a self admitted loner who had never even played tonsil hockey with a chick, he is salivating at any opportunity to meet a girl that he can fall for in such a desolate and empty world. It's a rocky relationship between the boys and girls, but that is to be expected when trying to survive the post Apocalypse.

Throughout Zombieland, I laughed out load so many times during this film and Tallahassee was a big reason, another was the surprise special guest, Bill "fucking" Murray! I knew there was some special appearance to be had, and I am sooo thankful that I did not "accidentally" find out whom before seeing Zombieland. The second I realized that the group of survivors are at Murray's house, I got insanely excited! Bill Murray is everything that Tallahassee says he is and to have him show up in Zombieland really added yet another layer fun to this movie. And I cannot express how funny it is when Wichita laughs at Bill Murray's last breath just as he is dying (because everything he does is funny), then apologizes and says, it's so sad! Classic.


A funny Bill Murray is not a stretch and neither is Harrelson for that matter, but it's Jesse Eisenberg that drives the movie and even with a strong performance from the whole cast, if he isn't great, then it would really hurt the film. Fortunately, his is fantastic and while many would be right in him doing a very Michael Cera centric portrayal, he does so very well with a top-notch sense of comedic skill, physically and verbally. He has some hysterical moments and teamed up with Harrelson, the two have great chemistry together and are the perfect "opposites attract" duo.

Even as a zombie comedy, there is of course a message hidden inZombieland and it is actually handled well. Letting go of your past and not letting nostalgia drive your life, when you are living your life right this very second. All of the characters have a sort of distance from one another, in fear of becoming too attached. Everyone they have been attached to has been killed by, or become, the undead. So why bother going through the pain of getting to know someone in a world that has pretty much ended, a world where they can essentially die at any time. No one uses their name throughout the entire film; save for Bill Murray who is playing himself, but even during a Columbus' flashback, his neighbor is refereed to as 406 in reference to her apartment number. Going nameless actually makes for an endearing emotional scene with Tallahassee, and a sweet ending where Wichita tells Columbus her real name...this was a nice touch seeing the two toughest members of the group let their guard down for once.


Only complaint someone could have would be during the second act, where there isn't much in terms of zombie action. However, the character development was solid and kept me interested in their individual stories. Plus there is so much great humor that you don't even notice the lack of undead presence. Even with the slower paced midsection of Zombieland, there is plenty of walking (or running) dead action in the beginning and especially at the end of the film to make up for it. And the awesome Nightmare City inspired (okay, maybe not) ending...lets just say, there is nothing better than Tallahassee holding on to a moving roller coaster with one hand, while gunning down zombies with an Uzi in his other hand. With the solid box office showing of Zombieland, there are already rumblings of a possible sequel. I hope that this comes to fruition - I really had a fun time with these characters and this story, and it would be great to see what other shenanigans they can get themselves into.

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Recommendations: High Plains Drifter , Dalkomhan insaeng , Dial M for Murder

Zombieland

Zombieland

Starring:

Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Horror

Rated: R

In a Zombie Infested future 2 men team up to head back to there respective home towns and kill zombies along the way.

Columbus(Jesse Eisenberg) is a loner who lives by his own rules of survival he meets up with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) to travel together for part of his trip back to his hometown of Columbus Ohio to reunite with his parents, While on there way they encounter two sisters Witchita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock played by Abigail Breslin.

The main thing Zombieland has going for it is that it has it’s own unique style with Columbus narrating the film and discussing his rules for survival while onscreen graphics are displayed on the screen for mostly comedic effect. In honor of Columbus’ rules I wanted to share a few of my own for making a good movie particularly in the horror genre. #1 is Violence and Gore but not just run of the mill violence or gore in horror creativity counts and Zoimbieland has plenty of that including some great use of Weaponry, When Tallahassee enters a grocery store in search of a twinkie and uses a banjo to get the attention of a zombie and then proceeds to bludgeon him to death with said Banjo the scene delivers. #2 is Humor, this is after all a comedy horror and there are definitely a lot of laughs to be had here. I personally cant stand when a horror film is intended to be serious but they throw out stupid puns Ala any nightmare on elm street after the first one; however Zombieland doesn’t go for the easy pun or lame joke it uses situational humor typically at a zombies expense to get the laugh. #3 is characters while I love a nice random death scene its great to have a connection to the characters and we are given just enough info and back story to care for all four of the principal characters. #4 is nudity and while Zombieland doesn’t come through on this aspect it succeeds everywhere else so I can overlook this. #5 is not to overstay your welcome and with a scant 82 minutes of screen time Zombieland gets in and gets out.
Zombieland delivers more than enough Violence, Gore, and Humor to fill its short screen time making it a definite must see. It is easily the best horror comedy since Shaun of the Dead

zombieland

this is the movie to see this weekend.  period.  they give it to ya right off the bat.

it’s a touching love story set to the back drop of blood spattered, zombie ravaged america.

you hear metallica blasting as you see people running from zombies and zombies getting their heads smashed in.  it’s freaking awesome!

and i mean it.  they kick you right in the funny bone from the get go.  i expected this thing to be funny, but holy crap man, i almost laughed out of my seat.

it stars jesse eisenburg, who i like to call a bargain basement michael cera.  he’s all alone and has a list of ways to stay safe in zombieland.  number one is cardio.  the first ones to go were the fatties, mr. eisenburg flatly tells you as you see this big fat dude get run down by a zombie.  and his list goes on to include such things as fasten your seatbelt.  at which point you see him crash his car and a zombie that was hiding in his back seat go flying though the windshield.

check the back seat is quickly added to his list.

he comes across another survivor, woody harrelson who is driving a pimped out black escalade with the number 3 written on the side of it.  freaking classic.  the two team up and go about their zombie smashing business until they run into the girls. emma stone and abigail breslin.  comedy and splattered zombie brains ensue.

this is by far the best zombie movie since shaun of the dead.  it might be funnier even than shaun of the dead.  but who knows, with out shaun of the dead this movie probably never gets made.  so we’ll just put the two of them on a pedestal as the best zombie movies ever.

go see it.  it opens at midnight tonight.  unless you are squeamish about splattering zombie skulls.  then you might want to check out toy story one and two in 3D.

i’ll most def purchase zombieland when it is released on dvd.  this might be a day of release purchase.  it’s that freaking good.

oh, did i mention bill murray has a cameo?  what else do you need?

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Cal Reed

Zombieland

Where "Shaun of the Dead" failed, "Zombieland" fails as well. Where "Shaun of the Dead" succeeded, "Zombieland" only makes it halfway.

The latest entry into the zombie farce genre, "Zombieland" takes a ridiculous premise - the zombie apocalypse - and tries its best to make it funny. Key word: tries. Zombies eating people isn't funny. The whole intro to this movie is a twenty minute clip of Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) narrating visions of what happens when you don't follow his carefully planned out rules. When his rules aren't followed the person in the clip gets eaten/maimed/killed. Rule #1: Cardio. I got the pleasure of watching a morbidly obese man running for his life, in slow motion, away from one terrifying zombie. Columbus tells me how cardio is the most important rule of all. Then he says, "poor fat bastard," fat guy gets tackled by zombie and eaten in a very gruesome manner. Whole theatre laughs. I looked around in disgust and told myself if this whole movie was labeled as funny because people died and the movie was classified as a "comedy," I was going to walk out. Then "Zombieland" introduced its characters. This is where "Zombieland" succeeds. Quick, witty characters with fantastic dialogue.

If you could pick anyone who could survive and thrive in a zombie apocalypse, I would pick Samuel L. foot-to-rear-end Jackson. First-time director Ruben Fliescher picked a nerdy, extremely OCD college kid, Columbus. His name isn't really Columbus, all characters in the movie call each other by where they are from. Columbus is trying to get to his home in Ohio (duh) and survives only because he follows strictly to his rules. Without his rules his entrails would long ago have been pulled out of him. Enter Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a gun-toting certified bad-ass with a southern accent and a love for killing zombies. Tallahassee's one goal in Zombieland is to find a twinkie. They travel across the US, looking for twinkies, and eventually come across Wichita (Emma Stone, "Superbad") and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin, "Little Miss Sunshine"). Wichita informs Columbus that Columbus is a ghost town and that they are headed for Pacific Playland in California, the last zombie-free spot on earth. Columbus and Tallahassee join them and that's pretty much the entire movie. At an hour and twenty minutes there isn't much else to describe.

The zombies in "Zombieland" aren't the slow shuffling type, they are the fast, brutal kind, reminiscent of "28 Days Later." They are more of an annoyance during the film. The parts where the zombies play a big role are significantly less funny than ones where only living people are on screen. Once the characters show up, this movie gets pretty good, and very funny. All of the characters play off of each other amazingly, and Woody Harrelson gets my vote for second funniest role in a movie this year. (First goes to Zach Galifinakis for "The Hangover").

"Zombieland" is pretty funny. It has the greatest cameo appearance of the year (watch for it, it's brilliant). While the characters and dialogue make this a funny movie, it certainly isn't required viewing. "Zombieland"'s horror movie feel, and half-hearted attempts at drama fall flat. It is a good entry into the zombie farce genre, but if you want a fantastic movie that does it ten times better, go see "Shaun of the Dead".

Grade: two and a half stars

Last updated: 2010-03-02 09:25:44 by JoeandChrisO

Zombieland

A movie doesn't have to be a comedy to have a sense of humor.

Case in point: "Zombieland," a fast, fun and witty take on the zombie apocalypse.

Our main character is an unlikely survivor in his late teens played by Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg is a loner but not the cool kind. He is the unpopular kind of loner who stays in his apartment eating takeout pizza and playing World of Warcraft.

He operates by a system of rules that have kept him alive when the vast majority of humankind has perished. His rules are commonsensical and funny, like "Beware of bathrooms" and "Don't be stingy with bullets."

He is all alone till he runs across Mad Max wannabe Woody Harrelson, whose secret to survival is moxie. Woody fights zombies with a fearless joy and avoids any but the most cursory attachment to the living. He agrees to give Eisenberg a ride, however, and our movie is underway.

Said movie is a road trip, from the east coast of the US to the west. Along the way Eisenberg and Woody pick up (in a roundabout way) a pair of sisters played by hottie bad-ass Emma Stone and Little Miss Sunshine herself, Abigail Breslin. The sisters are savvier and more ruthless than they first appear, and a curious (and funny) rivalry develops between the genders.

Eventually, to no one's surprise, our four characters develop a cozy family-like relationship. What is surprising is how damn well this plays out. The chemistry is terrific, perhaps because each character is so well-defined and such a stark contrast with the others. Woody's character in particular is sensationally vivid. Not a single line of his dialogue could be mistaken for anyone else's.

What helps this achievement in character is focus. The four characters I've mentioned are the only non-zombie characters in the entire movie -- except for a brief flashback of Eisenberg's and a movie star cameo that has received much attention.

Here's the spoiler:

The movie star is Bill Murray, played by Bill Murray. Our foursome takes refuge in his Beverly Hills mansion and discovers the man himself is home -- and miraculously not a zombie. This is a hugely crowd-pleasing sequence, since everyone loves Bill Murray, but I thought it detracted from the overall sense of reality, bizarre as that is to admit in a comic zombie road movie.

Nevertheless, Murray enters and leaves the picture, and our characters continue their quest for the amusement park that Little Miss Sunshine has always wanted to enjoy. The climax is thrilling, surprising and even moving. (But most of all, fun!) I liked every choice the film-makers made.

And who are those film-makers? They are director Ruben Fleischer and screenwriting team Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick. What few credits they have to this point are obscure ones. Anyone could be forgiven for not knowing who these guys are.

But we know who they are now. They're the guys who made "Zombieland."

SCORE

How Accomplished: 87/100

How Much I Enjoyed: 89/100

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Zombieland

Whoo! ZOMBIELAND! The land of zombies, guns and AWESOME! Damn this movie is soooooo stupidly dumb and I freakin love it!



The show is kinda like an American version of Shaun of the Dead. It's about Columbus, a college nerd trying to get back to his home in Ohio. Along the way he meets Tallahassee, a zombie killing machine who's gunning down all of America in search for a Twinkie. The two form an unlikely bond together with a pair of con sisters as they travel the world that is ZOMBIELAND!




Okay you think I'm being sarcastic about the plot right? Hell naw.. that's really the plot of the movie. Stupid right? This film is so hellishly funny and stupid, you can't help but enjoy yourself to death. Zombieland breaks all the usual zombie movie stereotypes. I'd even dare say Zombieland is more of a parody than an actual zombie movie.



And damn Emma Stone is fine! And the movie cleverly plays off her hotness like "What are the odds, everyones dead and I come across a really hot girl. Time for some love making" Suck on that I Am Legend.


Woody Harrelson people! This guy was freakin badass in the movie. Kinda like Clint Eastwood badass but with retardedness. Are Twinkies that nice?



The first 2/3 of the movie was great. The dialogue was funny and the characters had really good chemistry but things kinda fell apart when it came to the climax and ending which I thought was really really stupid. Not funny stupid, like stupid stupid. But it doesn't effect Zombieland's awesomeness.



So if you're looking for some awesome gore with lots of laughs and idiotness, watch this bloody movie. Satisfaction, crunchy and nice... no compromise!

RATING: 8/10

NicholasC

Super Marcey's Zombieland Review

Rating: 4/5

What happens when a crazy disease turns people into zombies? Well you’ve seen many films like this before, but nothing quite like Zombieland. I mean zombie films usually have the same kind of formula, people turn into the living dead, they want to eat you, need to survive and get away from them. I mean sure they all are different, some have humor, some are done serious and some are just really badly made films. What set Zombieland apart from the rest was its characters and its heart, yes this film had heart!

I felt that Zombieland isn’t just a film for fans of zombie and horror films, it is more main stream and it has more appeal to a larger audience. A bit a long the lines of Shaun of the Dead in that respect however these two films are very different and I really don’t see the need to compare them at all. The film starts off with our introduction into the world of Zombieland with our main character who is known simply as Columbus (As that is where he wants to go) played by Jesse Eisenberg, he runs down the ground rules as to how he has survived. On the way he meets up with quite possibly one of the COOLEST characters I have seen in a film for some time (I want to buy this man an entire building full of Twinkies) known as Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson). Now these two are easily an odd couple, yet they have chemistry and it all works. They go about trying to get to where they are going and of course they come across more survivors who are well let’s just say a bit more then a handful with Wichita (Emma Stone, HOT) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin).

That is about all you need to know story wise, I mean it is better if you just sit back and enjoy it, because it is so much fun and enjoyable. If you are thinking this is a film all about killing zombies, well it isn’t. Sure there is that in there, but there is so much more going on. It is about the characters, their story and their journey, and I gotta say it really sucked me right in. There is also this awesome cameo which I wont ruin for you, but it is so fantastic I loved every second of it. I felt the story and the script were pretty strong, the humor was great, it was mostly hit for me too which is always good.

On the acting side, Jesse Eisenberg felt like he was playing Michael Cera. It got really annoying too, I mean why didn’t they just cast Michael Cera? It felt like it was written for him, it really did. I mean he did alright, but it was just too Michael Cera. Woody was easily the stand out, he just rocked in this. I have always been a fan of Woody Harrelson, from Cheers to Transsiberian (If you haven’t seen that film check it out, brilliant performance from Woody), and this role was just perfect for him. He brings so much to the table and he made every aspect work, I mean even with some silly things, you don’t take notice because he just rocks the role. Tallahassee is now one of my all time favourite film characters, I loved him! Emma Stone, wow she looked incredible! She was gorgeous to start with, very hot too, just WOW! I can’t say enough nice things about her, she had a character which could have been rather unlikable but she really made it work. I thought she was great, good casting. Abigail Breslin sure has grown up since Little Miss Sunshine, and she is a strong actress, this was a good role for her and I really liked her in this. Again she made it all work and the chemistry between all the characters was great, it needed that to keep the film flowing and keeping it fun.

There wasn’t much I didn’t like about the film, aside from some plot points which seemed a bit silly and some of the pacing was a little off, but overall I just thought everything worked really well and came together nicely. I enjoyed being with these characters and going on their journey. I liked all the survival rules and how they related to things which happened in the film. I had heard so much good stuff about this film, I decided as I do to just go in with no expectations and I had a really good time. This certainly will be a film I will probably end up watching over and over, if only so I can spend time with Tallahassee!

(Review written December 4th 2009, first posted on SuperMarcey.com)

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Recommendations: Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009), Milk, Hurt Locker, The (Kathryn Bigelow, 2009)

Last updated: 2010-02-14 20:12:07 by SuperMarcey

Zombieland - ***

Starring:  Jessie Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrellson, Abigail Breslin

Review: So I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.  After seeing the trailer I thought it was going to be another comedy zombie/horror movie, which I have never been too high on really.  However, this was nothing of the sort.

Jessie Eisenberg gives his second solid performance of the year (now let's see if he can be in a good movie that doesn't end in -land).  Woody Harrellson, who I have always liked since his 'White Man Can't Jump' days, gives a hilarious and at times heartfelt performance.  Abigail Breslin may grow up to be a pretty good actress and it is hard not to fall in love with Emma Stone.

The movie centers around four characters who are brought together to try and survive after the world is taken over by, you guessed it, flesh hungry zombies.  Many scenes of craziness ensue as this quartet tries to make it's way across the country.
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During their trek the crew develops relationships and kill a few zombies along the way.  Ultimately, there is no greater truth to be exposed through this movie.  There is no real ending as when we leave the world is still filled with zombies.  However, this movie does leave us with a more positive outlook on their world.  These people can make it through a theme park worth of zombies and still come out on the other end better for the experience, I suppose that would have to be the end goal if this really did happen.

This movie was so enjoyable because of the characters and how much fun the movie was in general.  The characters don't sit around moping about the fate of the world or trying to find a "cure."  No, these people accept what happened and just look for the little things to get them by.  Perhaps a good life lesson, perhaps I am reading too much into it.  Either way, the movie was good, fun, and definitely worth your time.

Zombieland

I must preface this with a bit of a confession.  I LOVE zombie movies!  I will attempt to be as objective as possible in this review, but it will be difficult to find the line between the merits of "Zombieland" and my own, personal bias.

    Amazingly, this is my third zombie comedy.  I know, those words just don't sound like they go together, but, just like anything else, if you have all the right elements, the setting or subject matter shouldn't effect you that much.  Ok, sure, an undead apocalypse full of bloody, disgusting, zombies killing people and eating human flesh might effect that delicate balance of all the right elements more than other subject matter, but you can adjust.  "Zombieland" does this well.

     Much like "Shaun of the Dead", which almost killed the genre of zombie comedies that it, its self created, by doing it almost too well, "Zombieland" uses a mix of light comedy, very dark comedy, and just enough human drama.  This mix seems to allow you to have comedy in what would, seemingly, be very unfunny situations, by allowing the characters to use those humorous moments as a crutch for dealing with the end of their world.  Just don't stray too far in the other direction, letting the weight of the end of the world fall on the character's shoulders, and it remains a comedy.  Sort of the difference between M*A*S*H in the early years and the later ones where Alan Alda was writing and directing.  "Zombieland" does this, without a lot of obvious, over the top, gross out comedy, and also manages to allow its characters to grow some, which makes for a story that holds your attention while enabling you to find humor in some really dark moments.  (There, actually, is not a lot of gore in "Zombieland".  Oh, there's some, obviously, but not nearly as much as there could have been.)  Woody Harrelson does an excellent job as loner, zombie killer, Tallahassee.  Jesse Eisenberg also does a great job as the almost neurotic loner, Columbus.  Rounding out our cast are Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin as Wichita and Little Rock, respectively.  (If you think you've noticed a theme in our characters names, you are right.  Names lead to emotional attachments that they just can't afford, so they stick to destinations.)  Stone doesn't really get a chance to flex her acting muscles much, but, then again, her character, hot, last woman on earth, isn't exactly a challenging role or a challenge for her.  Breslin, doesn't exactly have a part that she can shine in either, but she does well and has a lot of talent that, sadly, "Zombieland" just doesn't give her the chance to show off.  Oh, and let's not forget Bill Murry as, Bill Murry.  He only has a small part in the film, but manages to bring his best Bill Murry.  Although, I think his 'final' scene may have crossed that very thin line between dark comedy and morbid humor.  Or maybe they were just trying to get a bit of suspense out of the moment, and failed.

     Now, as much as i love zombie movies and love to see them spoofed well, "Zombieland" has its faults.  The plot, characters, and their stories aren't exactly original.  Of course, part of that comes from the fact that "Zombieland" is spoofing zombie movies and characters found therein.  The comedy is good, but not constant, laugh out loud funny.  I was amused throughout the movie, but I wasn't exactly in stitches.  Also, the penchant to point out the rules along the way with on screen text might throw some, more, let's say, 'more traditional,' movie viewers, but is forgivable, because it is a comedy, and it goes along with the almost constant narrative provided by Eisenberg's character.

     All that having been said, "Zombieland" may not be the best comedy out this year, or even the best zombie comedy ever, but it is funny, well done, and worth seeing, unless, of course, you just can't take undead corpses feasting on the flesh of the living.  To each his own, I suppose.


P.S.

     As a side note, the third zombie comedy I've seen, and easily the worst of the three, was Black Sheep.   No, not the Chris Farley movie.  I'm talking about a New Zealand based, zombie sheep movie (yes, I said zombie sheep) that's so bad, it's funny, if you're into that kind of thing. 

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Brian
Ciné Critique Américain

Last updated: 2010-02-14 17:01:25 by BrianSmith

Movie Review - Zombieland

Most horror comedies don't appeal to me, mostly due to having only semi-funny jokes and skimping on the more serious side of the horror genre. Yet Zombieland is a different breed of horror comedy, seamlessly blending both distinct types of film together to create a highly funny and scary gorefest.

The film has a way of hooking the audience from the very beginning, with its slow-motion zombie attacks being the highlight of the credits. But it is really our main character, "Columbus" (Jesse Eisenberg), who gives the film a plentiful dose of relatibility. Columbus narrates some of what we see on-screen, but instead of becoming too focused on supplying the viewer with information that could have been pieced together on one's own, Eisenberg's voice-overs contribute to the comedy and supply the quirky rules for living in a society overrun by zombies.

Columbus is a rather nerdy loner who is making his way from college to his parents' house. Developing a set of "rules" that corresond well with all of the cliches of zombie flicks, Columbus has survived thusfar because of his ability to outsmart the dumb zombies where others couldn't. Along the way, he stumbles on a gritty cowboy, "Tallahassee" (Woody Harrelson), which is where the city names come in - Tallahassee doesn't like to get too attached to the people that he meets in case they are taken down by zombie hordes, so he calls people by the city of their home. Tallahassee is an ass-kicking zombie hunter who has made his way through the zombie infestation by brawn and hatred of zombies. Both loners decide to band together, at least as far as Tallahassee is willing to take Columbus, but they are hustled by two younger ladies, one of which is played by Abigail Breslin, who steal their car and their guns. Later, they meet up with them again, and though being tricked by their ploys, decide to travel with them in hopes of finding some safe civilization. Columbus begins to fall in love with the older of the two girls, "Wichita" (Emma Stone), and Zombieland becomes both a love story and an escape from hungry zombies.

Naturally, the audience comes to root for Columbus and Wichita together, not through the use of cheesy love-story plot elements but through sheer charisma. Zombieland is not a romance, but its romantic elements are surprisingly good. Plus, the love story does not detract from the sheer mayhem of the world.

Columbus' rules, too, show up as an entirely new addition to the zombie realm. Though Zombieland works to satirize the zombie film formula, it is also a smart addition to a genre chock full of dumb characters and mindless intestine-gnawing. The rules allow for the characters to use their smarts; they obviously survived so long for a reason, and their characters feel both helpless and able-bodied. This gives the film that sense of horror along with the comedy; we root for the humans hoping they survive, feeling like they can survive, but they are still victims.

Fortunately, the film does have some gratifying scares that catch the viewer off guard. The violence is extreme, complete with hammers to the face and tons of zombie beat-downs. Woody Harrelson is excellent, and someone has a cameo. Everything fun about zombie films is somehow worked into the movie's short hour and a half run-time.

The comedy is also excellent. Many times, I find that the funniness of horror comedies is completely lacking, more based on stupid one-liners than anything else. But Zombieland brings the laughs in spades, because it knows how to manipulate the cliches that we all laugh at in bad z-grade zombie flicks into something fresh and original.

If you see a horror comedy this year, make Zombieland the one. Fun, fresh, and absolutely entertaining, the film is one of the smartest comedies I have seen in a while, and probably even one of the better horror films to release this year. And I have to mention again, someone has a cameo in a completely ridiculous and hilarious scene.

Zombieland

Well ive been watching a lot of movies that have exposed my tender  side. To be honest its been by random chance. I actually went to rotten tomatoes and looked up movies out on dvd with great reviews and have been following a list. Zombieland has really good reviews. No romance at all. I didn’t cry with this one, but i did do the evil zombie kill laugh. Let me explain, im not one of those people who LOVE zombie movies, but i watched Shawn of the dead (review pending) a month ago, and for the first time i viewed zombie movie genre in a new light. It’s not just about the gore of it, it’s about the horrible feeling of having to fight for your life and doing whatever it takes. Within the first 10 minutes of this film i knew i wasnt fast forwarding thru this one. So i sat back, dimmed the lights and enjoyed. I had no idea who the cast members were, but when Woody Harrelson appeared i knew immediately that no one on that set was eating meat. Or something like that. He is a militant vegan and a great actor. I don’t condone extreme militant veganism… well it’s not bad i guess, but forcing your ideas on other people sounds too churchy for me. Anyways Woody Harrelsonis is in it and he’s great. The pace of the movie is pretty good, not a dull moment and to be honest its witty and just plain funny. You have to watch this film. Be aware that this is a zombie film tho. It’s gross, theres gore, there is blood, there is death, there is the end of humanity in a heartbeat, there is disembowelment, decapitation, infanticide, bill-murray-cide and other things that ONLY the zombie “condition” makes fair game. I thought it was really cool that the opening credits song is “for whom the bell tolls” by metallica. The non mtv media whore metallica of my youth. My hatred of metallica is to be explained in another blog. Anyhow the effects and makeup were amazing and the ending quite satisfying. I read later that woody agreed to do this film if the director went the whole shoot without milk and agreed to some other undisclosed demands. Pretty harsh if you ask me. I also read that woody lives in a self-sufficient home in Hawaii. What a cool dude. I have to watch natural-born killers again and do a review on it. So what else about this zombie movie… well if you like fast paced gratuitous violence you should watch this. The thing is not so gratuitous because of the zombie factor. It’s necessary survival violence like in aliens, predator, and the halo franchise. I don’t know, i mean i wont watch the movie again anytime soon,  but it was very entertaining. I’ve tried watching some other films today (funny people) and can’t even get 2 words on it. I wonder what would happen if something like this happens to our technology and comfort dependent planet. I wonder wich one of us has what it takes to survive in such an extreme environment.  For sure people who are now rich and powerful would not have the hardship endurance that only comes from experience to survive. In other words paris Hilton would be the first person to go. Along with all other people who can’t cook or look after themselves. Oh yeah and people who go around on Segway and have no medical need to do so.

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Recommendations:

Peter B. Waffles

Movie Review: Zombieland (2009)

If I had to sum up the zombie comedy

Zombieland in five words, it would be “Pretty good but not great”.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer (no previous work worthy of noting), it has a premise we’ve seen a few times before – the country (America) being overtaken by zombies and an unlikely hero trying to survive against all odds.  That’s about as much as I want to give away.  As with most films, try and avoid the previews if you can.  Plenty of great scenes, lines and jokes were unnecessarily ruined by the previews I had the misfortune of coming across.  If I hadn’t seen them in advance I probably would have liked the film more.

What sets Zombieland apart from other zombie movies of late is that it is more comedy than horror, and what sets it apart from other zombie comedies is that it is actually pretty funny.  It’s definitely more Shaun of the Dead than 28 Days Later, but the laughs aren’t as silly or outrageous – not quite, anyway.  Much of the humour stems from the quirky character traits of, and the witty banter between, the two leads, played by Jesse Eisenberg (from Adventureland, who seems forever destined to battle Michael Cera for all the goofy, awkward boy roles) and Woody Harrelson (last seen by me in 2012, the movie not the year).  Rounding out the main quartet are Emma Stone (Jules from Superbad) and Abigail Breslin (My Sister’s Keeper, Little Miss Sunshine), who both put in solid performances without stealing the show.

Zombieland knows exactly what kind of movie it is trying to be.  Extremely gory (no shortage of over-the-top blood and guts), tongue-in-cheek, and nonchalant about the fact that the whole country (and probably world) has been overrun by zombies who just want to eat human flesh.  And yet, Zombieland does have charm and it does have heart, though it never steps over the line into melodrama as that would mean caring too much – and that would just be too uncool for a movie like this.
That said, Zombieland is far from perfect.  There are a number of slower bits strewn throughout the film, far more than there should be.  And while it is funny, not all the jokes hit the mark, and sometimes it even risks trying too hard to be amusing.  And of course, though it is technically a comedy/horror, the film is not particularly frightening.  The zombies are there more for the laughs than the chills, and you never get the sense that there is any real danger.

Weighing up all the pros and cons, I’d probably say Zombieland is a 3-star movie that is worth watching, but to be honest I
wanted it to be much more than just a sweet, mildly enjoyable film.  However, there is a special surprise in Zombieland that is worth a whole half-star by itself – hands down the most unexpected, insane, hilarious cameo I’ve seen in…possibly ever! 

Accordingly…
3.5 stars out of 5!

PJM

Last updated: 2010-01-23 03:24:29 by pacejmiller

Movie Review: Zombieland

Zombieland takes you to an adventure where you can forget all about aliens, vampires or werewolf. This time, the undeads are the zombie clan as well as the zombie killing quartet. As promised, the movie delivers a great deal of humor as well as horror. Zombieland is truly a phenomenon and no wonder why many people loves it.

Zombieland takes the audience to discover the post-apocalyptic America, where a zombie apocalypse has been triggered by mad cow disease (a contaminated beef burger). Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is on his way back to hometown to see if his parents are alive. Losing his car, he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) and they travel together to accompany the mad cowboy to search the probably last Twinkie in the world. Then they meet two sisters, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), and together after some bizzare moments, form a partnership to kill zombies.

The film possesses some uniqueness in it. First is the ability to tell the story of apocalypse through the witty dialogue and popular culture. Conventionally a horror film requires seriousness in tone, but thank god that we do not need to go through the pain of attempting to kill the undead like Alice. Instead, the whole road trip andthe zombie killing were made so much fun to do.

Second, Zombieland is able to stay in attention of what it tries to deliver. The comedy is able to stand alone with its focus goal on zombie. Third, the gore is timely and this by far to show that zombie can be an interesting subject matter. The whole zombie-theme is in fact an expansion of the highly creative and innovative experience that mash well with the plot.

Zombieland is a smart and high actionable flick that can be enjoyable at time. It has on itself able to create its own running gag, dialogue and popular culture that will stand alone for the next film installment (the sequel looks imminently will happened).

However, I have to assure you that Zombieland is not meant for kids. Gory and bloody - those are the elements you will see throughout the movie. Bloody mayhem rules the street along the road trip no doubt. The only down side is that the humour joke can be lame at time. Usually I don't find it laughable but luckily, this is a special case that should be spared from others.

Woody Harrelson, fresh from seeing him in another madhatter role in 2012, in undeniable for his natural comedic role. Jesse Eisenberg played well both as a lead role and as a narrator, been witty while maintaing his phobia for clown evenly. The four characters - including the two sisters as portrayed by Emma Stone andAbigail Breslin form a likable team with conflicting personal influential on each other. Perhaps, the biggest surprise is indeed Bill Murray, which I believe his cameo role is outrageously funny.

In shorts, looking for a fantastic zombie killing spree that has some romantic curiosity sub-story, road trip that makes everyone happy and a real ass-kicking zombie directly on their head? Well you got one. Zombieland may perhaps be the best comedy of the year. I have to say the cinematography is very satisfying.

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Recommendations: Inception

Have yourself a cup of green tea

Last updated: 2009-12-19 03:41:34 by BernardGT

Zombieland

When I first saw the trailer for this flick, I initially thought it was just  some sort of random horror film and had no intention on seeing it as I’m not  really that into horror, but it turned out that this was more of a comedy than a  tried and true horror film. After I found that out, my interest shot up 100  fold.
There was a time when zombies were as popular as vampires are today. Not sure  what happened, but they lost that hold over pop culture. Hopefully  Zombieland will be the start to them dethroning the vampires.
Of course, I say that as if the zombies are the major characters in this  flick, but the fact is they mainly appear in the beginning and in the climactic  final scene, with a few thrown in here and there. For a film about a zombie  apocalypse, one would think there would be more.
3/4 of the cast is awesome. Emma Stone sheds a bit of her hotness for this  role and comes off as a bit of a cold, focused, hard woman who only thinks of  surviving and protection her sister. Speaking of her sister, Abigail Breslin is  perfectly cast. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that these two were sisters.  Although, I do think that she could have been used a bit more, but given the  pacing o the film and whatnot, it was enough.
Woody Harrelson steals the show as Jacksonville. This guy lives to kill  zombies and has some sort of obsession with Dale Earnhardt since he paints the  #3 on every vehicle he obtains. He is also obsessed with Twinkies. Somewhere I  heard that if ever there was any type of apocalypse, Twinkies and roaches would  survive. I didn’t see any roaches in this picture, but there sure were a ton of  those sno-ball things, but Twinkies were a little less abundant.
Jesse Eisenberg, who is supposed to be the “star” of the film is also the  weak link. He just doesn’t sell me on his character. It was like he was trying  to be Michael Cera-esque, but not making it look that way. Unfortunately for  him, it didn’t work,
Bill Murray made a surprise appearance playing himself, and was a pleasant  surprise. I have to wonder if he could have had a bigger role had he not been  shot because he was trying to play a prank on Little Rock and Columbus.
Columbus’ rules are a good addition and moving plot point, but it would have  been nice if they would have popped up a list in the screen with all of them on  there, even if it was after the credits or something.
The thing that bothers me the most about this flick is they never really say  what caused the apocalypse. Apparently, it just happened. Columbus even says so  in his opening narration. If this is true, one would think they’d have found  some way to reverse the effects or find out what happened. Also, I find it hard  to belive that these are the only 4 people (5 if you count Bill Murray) left in  the country that aren’t zombies. Someone else has to be out there. I guess  that’s going to be addressed in the sequel.
I all but knew I was going to love this flick. I probably could have loved it  been more, had Jesse Eisenberg not been in it, but that’s just me. He really  kills the film for me. Everything else clicks on all cylinders. The zombies look  about as real as zombies can look. While this picture is bloody, there isn’t  much gore. Still it isn’t for everyone. Die hard horror fans aren’t ging to like  it because it isn’t serious enough, for instance, but they can go watch an  actual horror film for that. I highly recommend this picture to you all, and  hope that if it is you cup of tea, you’ll give it a shot.
4 1/2 out of 5 stars
http://thankyounetflix.wordpress.com

Zombieland (2009)

Directed by: Ruben Fleischer~ ("Jimmy Kimmel Live" [T.V.] (3 episodes 2003-2006))
Writers: Rhett Reese~ (Monsters, Inc. (Additional Screenplay Material)
Paul Wernick
Stars: Woody Harrelson~ (White Men Can’t Jump, The Thin Red Line, North Country, No Country For Old Men, Semi-Pro, Seven Pounds, and 2012)(7)
- Jesse Eisenberg~ (The Hunting Party)
- Emma Stone~ ("Malcolm in the Middle" [T.V.(2006)], Superbad, and The Rocker)(3)
- Abigail Breslin~ (Signs, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" [T.V.(2004)], and The Santa Claus 3: The Escape Clause)(3)
- Bill Murray~ (Stripes, Ghost Busters, Ghostbusters II, Groundhog Day, Rushmore, Osmosis Jones, The Royal Tenenbaums, Get Smart, and Fantastic Mr. Fox)(9)
- Amber Heard~ (North Country, and Pineapple Express)(2)
- Mike White~ (Orange County and The School of Rock)(2)
Best Quote: Columbus~ "You see? You just can’t trust anyone. The first girl I let into my life and she tries to eat me"
Tallahasse~ "I’m not great at farewells, so uh... that’ll do, pig"
Soundtrack Listing: ~ "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Metallica
~ "Gold Guns Girls" by Metric
~ "Ghost Busters" by Ray Parker Jr.
~ "Don’t Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult
~ "Salute Your Solution" by The Raconteurs
Film Locations: Georgia and California, USA
Review:
I went to see Zombieland in theaters with a friend when it came out. This movie is quite awesome with its mix of comedy and horror. This movie to me seemed like a character development piece. At various points in the movie we learn something new about each of the characters. These characters include Tallahasse (Woody Harrelson at his funniest) a tough guy with a sweet tooth for a certain cake snack, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) the loser according to himself, Witchita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Beslin) the con artists. Each character is given the nickname of their previous residency. So what is Zombieland? It is a look at the survival of these four people in a world overrun with Zombies and between each other. This movie is filled with hilarious scenarios and they keep building up throughout the movie. Even some of the deaths are even comical including the character that Mike White played. Columbus is the cautious one of the group and he lives by a list of rules to surviving in Zombieland, which we are constantly reminded of throughout the movie. He is also the one who has never been good with girls. Jesse Eisenberg is a great young actor and is responsible for the majority of the laughs. Zombieland is like a narration of this characters experience in this world with these diseased people. You have to see Jesse Eisenberg in The Hunting Party it is such a great movie with Richard Gere and Terrence Howard. I think the funniest moments in this movie were with Bill Murray as himself and one of the very few to survive in Zombieland. Tallahasse, Columbus, Witchita, and Little Rock take refuge in his home and we see Tallahasse gushing to Bill Murray about what a big fan he is. This movie is extremely funny, but it is also extremely gory. It was only the first quarter of the movie that was really gory, but that quarter made up for the rest of the movie. It is definitely not a movie for everyone. The opening scenes to Zombieland were quite awesome. They show as people get attacked by Zombies, while "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Metallica is played over it. This is the end of the world and we see clearly in the way cars were abandoned along highways and streets. The zombies look really good with the dead look in their eyes and the raggedly condition their bodies seem to be in. It is rare to have an actor who is both extremely good in dramas and comedies and Woody Harrelson is the exception. Woody Harrelson is an incredible actor and to see him in such a role is just awesome. The weakest link in this movie was definitely Abigail Breslin. The lines she was saying were good, but the delivery seemed really weak. I would say this was the movie that made me laugh the most of the year, but The Hangover came out the same year and that made me laugh a lot more. My siblings got me Zombieland for my birthday and now I can watch it whenever I want. That is another good thing about this movie you can watch it on the small screen and get the same experience if you saw it in theaters. For this one reason of many this is a good one to own on DVD. The soundtrack to this movie is also pretty awesome. The best song on the soundtrack is "Don’t Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult. I already mentioned "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Metallica the perfect song for an end of the world movie. If you listen closely you can hear Canadian band Metric and their song "Gold Guns Girls" being played on a car radio. If you like a gore and comedy mix check this movie out.
Special Features:
1. In Search of Zombieland (behind the scenes)
2. Zombieland is you land (making of)
3. Deleted Scenes
4. Visual effects progression scenes
5. Woke Up Dead episode "Up and At Em" starring: Jon Heder and Josh Gad.
Rated: R (horror violence/gore and language)
4.5/5

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Zombieland (2009)

Killing zombies has never looked so much fun!
Zombieland stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and  Abigail Breslin as survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Together they take  an extended road trip in an attempt to find a sanctuary free from  zombies, following a set of “rules” designed to keep them alive where  others have failed, all the while trying to “enjoy the little things”,  killing zombies in a variety of creative ways.

When I first started following this film back in February I was  interested a little bit because I love zombie films and I love comedies  so you know when those two mash together I’m just gonna go crazy. Then I  saw the trailer and thought,”well I guess we’re looking at the American  Shaun Of The Dead”. However, now that I look at it, if people are  choosing whether to see this or Shaun Of The Dead, I say this one.

Zombieland has some amazingly nice touches on its comedy in this  film. It has a lot of comedy that you won’t get when its said, but  afterward you understand it and find it hilarious. The jokes were either  sarcastic, ironic, or plain and simply just obvious jokes but were  still very funny, much ado to Eisenberg’s hilarious narration.

The film also isn’t all about the comedy it actually does have some  “heartfelt” moments. I found this to be very odd since it is a zombie  comedy, but overall very effective with it’s highly witty screenplay.

Shall I not forget to mention that there is plenty of gore and  violence to keep any “gore-lover” happy. The way they kill the zombies  are very creative and that’s what really makes this film stand out. Not  just with your car, or with a piano, or with a shotgun, but at the end  there is this whole amusement park sequence where they use some to kill  zombies.

The whole cast does a great job at being really funny, witty, and  most of all likable. The characters are mostly 2 dimensional   stereotypes, but they actually turn out to be funnier than some would  expect. Eisenberg does once again at playing the same character he does  in every film so not much changes here. Harrelson plays a stereotypical  B-movie hard ass really well, and it seems like he’s the funniest and  shows us that this was the role he was born to play (other than Natural  Born Killers). But the best in the film that is definitely worth full  price of admission is the secret cameo star, that once you see it you  will not stop laughing.

I think my only problem with the film is that it seems very scary at  the start, and then slows way down for alot of character and jokes, with  barely any zombies at all, to the spectacular finale. I loved all  aspects of the film, but it would of much needed to mix all these  together better, to make it truly outstanding film, a shock indeed, plus  the gore was alittle on the short side for me. Also, so much more could  have been added to make this film even better.

Consensus: The makers of Zombieland aren’t really doing anything  different for the zombie comedy genre, but make a great collection of  gore, comedy, and violence with a little touch of heart to make this  whole film a great and fun experience.

9/10=Full Priceee!!!

life has its own ways of working out<br />
visit my movie review site at www.dtmmr.wordpress.com Feel Free to comment or request any movies at any time! :)

Zombieland

When I first saw the trailer for this flick, I initially thought it was just some sort of random horror film and had no intention on seeing it as I’m not really that into horror, but it turned out that this was more of a comedy than a tried and true horror film. After I found that out, my interest shot up 100 fold.
There was a time when zombies were as popular as vampires are today. Not sure what happened, but they lost that hold over pop culture. Hopefully Zombieland will be the start to them dethroning the vampires.
Of course, I say that as if the zombies are the major characters in this flick, but the fact is they mainly appear in the beginning and in the climactic final scene, with a few thrown in here and there. For a film about a zombie apocalypse, one would think there would be more.
3/4 of the cast is awesome. Emma Stone sheds a bit of her hotness for this role and comes off as a bit of a cold, focused, hard woman who only thinks of surviving and protection her sister. Speaking of her sister, Abigail Breslin is perfectly cast. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that these two were sisters. Although, I do think that she could have been used a bit more, but given the pacing o the film and whatnot, it was enough.
Woody Harrelson steals the show as Jacksonville. This guy lives to kill zombies and has some sort of obsession with Dale Earnhardt since he paints the #3 on every vehicle he obtains. He is also obsessed with Twinkies. Somewhere I heard that if ever there was any type of apocalypse, Twinkies and roaches would survive. I didn’t see any roaches in this picture, but there sure were a ton of those sno-ball things, but Twinkies were a little less abundant.
Jesse Eisenberg, who is supposed to be the “star” of the film is also the weak link. He just doesn’t sell me on his character. It was like he was trying to be Michael Cera-esque, but not making it look that way. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t work,
Bill Murray made a surprise appearance playing himself, and was a pleasant surprise. I have to wonder if he could have had a bigger role had he not been shot because he was trying to play a prank on Little Rock and Columbus.
Columbus’ rules are a good addition and moving plot point, but it would have been nice if they would have popped up a list in the screen with all of them on there, even if it was after the credits or something.
The thing that bothers me the most about this flick is they never really say what caused the apocalypse. Apparently, it just happened. Columbus even says so in his opening narration. If this is true, one would think they’d have found some way to reverse the effects or find out what happened. Also, I find it hard to belive that these are the only 4 people (5 if you count Bill Murray) left in the country that aren’t zombies. Someone else has to be out there. I guess that’s going to be addressed in the sequel.
I all but knew I was going to love this flick. I probably could have loved it been more, had Jesse Eisenberg not been in it, but that’s just me. He really kills the film for me. Everything else clicks on all cylinders. The zombies look about as real as zombies can look. While this picture is bloody, there isn’t much gore. Still it isn’t for everyone. Die hard horror fans aren’t ging to like it because it isn’t serious enough, for instance, but they can go watch an actual horror film for that. I highly recommend this picture to you all, and hope that if it is you cup of tea, you’ll give it a shot.

http://thankyounetflix.wordpress.com/

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