First, Zombieland is a comedy, but it contains plenty of gore and bloodshed to satisfy any hardcore zombie fan as well. It has everything and I mean everything related to zombies like Zombie brides, a weird football player episode and of course, the surprise zombies in the bathroom scene, plus the zombie chick in the yellow bikini, as well. I especially like the scene, where a zombie gets up-close and personal, with a piano!
It’s rather apparent, that the major frontrunner in this fun/ bloodshed genre, Shaun of the Dead, has inspired the team behind Zombieland. However, I think that they have managed to create a movie that is able to make you laugh and jump with fright at the same time, in a slightly cooler way than its predecessor did.
The story in Zombieland is set in a post apocalyptic world, where almost the entire human race has turned into Zombies and the few remaining ones struggle to make it through life, dodging the zombies, who wants to eat them alive.
Our hero is the geeky loner Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), who has managed to live through the apocalypse, simply because he has no friends. Columbus has already had a large set of rules to prevent interaction with real humans. However, as the humans’ disappears, he writes a new one, the AVOID ZOMBIE rulebook, which consists of 30 rules, on how to avoid zombies and staying alive, which is quite hilarious.
On entry deals with the Fatties, which tells us that the fat people where the first ones to be killed, just because they were too slow, so they didn’t manage to escape. The movie let us enjoy plenty of Columbus rules, in various funny and gruesome situations.
The geeky loner hooks up with the badass redneck Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) who simply lives to hunt and kill zombies. He rides in a fearsome van with armaments, which can literally slay a whole slew of weirdo zombies. The amount of slash and gore that Tallahassee leaves in his trail is immense, to say the least. Tallahassee is also dying to find stashes of Twinkies in local stores and groceries for which he has a secret addiction.
Of course or two heroes need heroines, and we find them in Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). Both Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin shine in their performances as the strong and suspicious women who teams up with the weird twosome, but can just as well rip them into pieces as well.
The group picks up a “Map of the Star’s Homes” which they use to find a nice luxury home, to hide out for a few days, before continuing their slayer activities. However, a very famous movie star already occupies the house that they choose. I‘m not going to tell you by whom, but I can tell that it’s well worth watching, though.
On their way, the women decide to visit a local amusement park and that detour on the way causes problems for both the women and the men, which calls for some memorable and juicy zombie slaying moments.
The zombies in Zombieland do not fit the usual cliché of slow and dumb zombies. No, in Zombieland they are fast, vicious and lethal predators, which enhance the horror factor of the movie, quite a bit.
The only thing that bugged me about the movie was the ending. I feel that they drag it out, a tad too long for my taste. However, it doesn’t bother me that much, since it also contains a whole lot of twisted humor, as well.
Nevertheless, I think that Zombieland is an awesome and cool zombie flick, filled with memorable and iconic zombie moments, wrapped together with a lot of sick twisted humor, as well as an interesting cameo appearance, on top of that.
There’s no doubt that Zombieland is worthy of your money, so if you enjoy sick humor, zombies and gore, I promise that you’ll love it and recommend that you find the time to go and enjoy it!
Photo: © 2009 Columbia Pictures
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