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Review of Zombieland
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© Columbia Pictures
The horror genre is ripe for spoofing with its many inadequacies in the areas of acting, story and predictability. But as Shaun of the Dead made clear, you don't have to directly spoof the horror genre in order to make a movie funny or incisive. In that same vein is the new flick Zombieland, which will offer you the most fun you'll have in a theater this year.
Welcome to America, now referred to as Zombieland after a virulent strain of mad cow disease began infecting humans. There are only a few survivors left and we follow four of them: Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Witchita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). They refer to themselves as the places they want to get to or are from in an effort to not form attachments to one another. As the film progresses however, they realize that all they have is each other. Sappy, yes, but it works here.
Simply put, Zombieland just works on every level as it is fun to watch and never takes itself seriously. It shows up to have fun and that's exactly what it does from the opening minute on. At the top of the list of what makes this film work is the casting; each of the four lead actors brings something to Zombieland that the other three don't. They all play well off of each other and their chemistry is undeniable. Woody Harrelson deserves special recognition as Tallahassee; his performance brought this film to another level and every minute he was on-screen was a treat. An out-of-nowhere cameo happens in this flick as well, which is arguably the highlight of Zombieland and his willingness to make fun of himself is pleasantly surprising.
Also working in Zombieland's favor is its running time: at 81 minutes, this flick is lean and wastes no time getting to the action and having fun. At the same time, it doesn't feel rushed, too short or like something was skipped over in favor of getting to the point; the film is exactly as long as it needs to be. Zombieland is essentially a road trip movie that happens to feature a wasteland overrun with zombies, much like Shaun of the Dead was a romantic comedy that happened to be rife with zombies. It's bloody, it's disgusting, has just the right amount of stupidity and is flat out fun to watch. This flick is definitely worth seeing in theaters.
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