Holy Shit!
Am I ACTUALLY reviewing a movie I saw in the theater?
Did I actually CATCH a horror film IN the theater?!
This my friends...is a sign of the Apocalypse.
The hubby and I caught a showing of Zombieland last night. I've been chomping at the bit for this one since I saw the trailer online. and FINALLY we managed to get out and see it. I have to admit, this one is now in my top ten best zombie movies list.
A quick sum up: The movie follows a young man who goes by the nickname of Columbus. He explains to us his rules of staying alive. On his travels he meets up with the awesomely bad ass and wacky Tallahassee, the sexy and smart Wichita, and her scrappy little sister Little Rock. The team make their way across country to get to their destination, Pacific Playland in an attempt to recapture a time before the zombie Apocalypse. Great chases, an amazing cameo, and the search for Twinkies ensue.
As usual, there is SO much more to this movie than in my sum up.
The movie plays more as a character study film. The focus is mostly on Columbus, his growth as a character, and how he starts to open himself up to the other wacky people he is thrown together with. The real meat of the movie is the relationships these four start to build together. Its hilarious of course but Zombieland really surprised me with its depth, which made the comedy funnier and scares, scarier.
I've been noticing that many people compare Zombieland to Shaun of The Dead. I'm not sure why because other than the whole zombie factor, they are two completely different films. Shaun of the Dead has more in common with Romero films like Night of, Dawn of, and Land of. Its nihilistic in its comedy, has more of a beginning middle end sense of story, and of course, slow zombies. In that sense, Zombieland is closer related to 28 Days Later. It has a very optimistic message and the story concentrates more on the journey than the destination, and of course, zombies sprint like jack rabbits! This doesn't make it superior or worse than Shaun of the Dead but it certainly makes it different and it definitely stand on its own two legs.
Woody Harrelson stole the movie for me. He took what probably could have been an obnoxious scenery chewing character and played it straight. He gave Tallahassee a wonderful underlined humanity that would surface on occasion and even got me teary eyed at one point. This in turn made me love his bat shit crazy moments of zombie slaughter even more. I also want to give props to Abigail Breslin as Little Rock who never went into cute little kid or sassy tween actor territory in her performance. She was fantastic as a smart and resourceful twelve year old who was quickly aging beyond her years.
Zombieland has also one of the all time BEST cameos in a movie ever since Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder. Seriously....I am so not giving this away because the cameo is so out of left field for this movie yet it seems to work so wonderfully with the style of script. If the rest of Zombieland was crappy, it would have been worth it just for that cameo. But luckily it was a great film all the way around.
So my recommendation? DEFINITELY see this one. Its one of those great horror comedies that even non horror/zombie fans can really enjoy and is even more enjoyable if you are a fan. I am planning on buying this one on bluray as soon as its out!
