Zombieland is an offbeat comedy horror in which Jesse Eisenberg's character shares his wisdom in surviving a zombie apocalypse. Eisenberg is a geeky loner and his advice comes in a series of amusing, but scarily believable, rules that need to be obeyed if staying alive is to be achieved. These rules are highlighted by 'Fringesque' captions which appear to remind the audience (and for Zombies to surreally crash through)...mostly for comic effect.
This film is fantastic. Funny, irreverant, gory, well observed and occasionally touching. The script, better even the the mighty Drag Me To Hell, has an ensemble of memorable individuals (all named after where they're from, so as not to get too attached to each other), inventive set-pieces, sparky, pop culture laden dialogue and a realistic, down-to-earth quality to die for. It's all pulled off by director Ruban Fleisher with style as he uses CGI gore, post modern captions, ulta slow motion and stunning comic timing to deliver his rollercoater ride.
Michael Cera clone, Jesse Eisenberg is perfect as Columbus, our hero and narrator, Woody Harrelson, with his Twinkie obsession, hasn't been this good in anything for years and Emma Stone confirms her megastar-to-be status following on from a variety of great comic performances in The House Bunny and Superbad. Bill Murray's small participation demonstrates exactly how a star cameo can raise the quality of the whole movie.
Zomieland has everything; Three dimentional characters, a cleverness that raises the reputation of the comedy/horror genre single-handedly, a great soundtrack (any movie that starts with Metallica's For Whom The Bell Tolls is doing something right), an original zombie battleground location in the funfair and some of the best comedy moments of the year...aided by Eisenberg's droll delivery. Poor fat bastards, indeed.
1 comment:
This was wonderful stuff. An inspired, zany, inventive zombie comedy (zomcom?) with a great script and a great cast headed up by the never better Woody Harrelson as nutty zombie killer 'Tallahassee.' Opposite him Jessie Eisenberg as the nerdy, insecure college kid ‘Columbus’ is just as good. And the movie is filled with tons of very funny sequences and lines of dialogue all brilliantly played and delivered by the spot on cast.
This flick is a whole lot of crazy, clever fun that had me laughing hard while admiring the gruesome zombie mayhem, which wasn’t skimped on one bit with the blood and gore is still there, as you’d expect from this sub-genre. Zombieland might not be quite as awesome as Shaun of the Dead (its closest relative) but it isn’t that far behind.
"It's time to nut up or shut up!"
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