Zombieland review

"Zombieland" is big, bloody, funny and done with a lot of style. And with that I want people to stop making zom-coms (zombie comedies). I'm not saying it out of anything beyond the fact that I feel like it's old now and in a lot of way "Zombieland" proved that. For one they (and this was a great decision) focused primarily on the group of survivors interaction with one another more than anything else. Each character named for the places that they're either from or want to go.

All this rather than dwelling on the zombie violence, which there is a good deal of as well. The reason I'm tired of it is because it's gotten too easy. "Shaun of the Dead" I would still give the highest watermark to in zombie humor, but that's because there was a lot more creativity working behind it. "Zombieland" is mindless yet fairly witty, gory yet subdued in it's violence and a big scale movie that feels angled much smaller. This is helped by it's first person narration by Columbus played by Jesse Eisenberg ('A History of Violence' and 'Adventureland'). He's shy, compulsive, nerdy and has survived as long as he has due to those skills. We're meant to love this kid. Woody Harrelson plays Tallahassee, a master zombie killer whose pretty much as over the top movie badass as they come.

They meet up and have a long standing relationship with Wichita played by Emma Stone (who we all love) and her sister Little Rock played by Abigail Breslin of 'Little Miss Sunshine' (smart career move by the way). The chemistry with this group is a great love hate thing and seeing them come together and fall apart takes up the vast majority of the film. In fact in many ways you could see the whole picture as a violent sub-version of 'Dodgeball' as far as tone goes. Oh and the Bill Murray cameo was probably the best part of the whole picture hands down, but that's something that's better seen then told about. For the most part it's a character piece.

But the issue I have with it all, is it's still too easy of a movie. The laughs are good, but foreseeable. The gore is nice, but we've all seen better. Really it's just a character comedy that happens to have zombies and that's how they all feel now. It's rare to see a horror movie that's funny because of it's horror. Maybe that's why I hold Raim's 'Drag Me to Hell' in such high esteem because it was a horror movie that was funny; not a comedy with horror movie stuff in it. Perhaps it's because execs know teens and what not will watch anything for a laugh, but only things for a scream with a number at the end of the title. Who knows, but for all the things that went into by mind before, during and after 'Zombieland', I can't deny it's a fun flick. It's not great on any level, but it's good and it'll make money. Perhaps when I see more diversity in theaters when it comes to horror... and comedy I'll feel a bit less bitter towards it.

"Zombieland" *** out of ****