Zombieland (2009)

Zombieland (2009)

Director Ruben Fleischer (producer of Fantasy Factory, Rob and Big) has created the funniest, goriest, and most creative zombie film that I have seen ever! The comedic value surpasses Shaun of the Dead. The gore level is close to being on par with many of the zombie films of the last decade and caters to an audience with a sharp wit, good eye for humor, and a love of the zombie film genre with knowledge ability of all the rules for a zombie apocalyptic uprising. The film stars Woody Harrelson (Natural Born Killers) and Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland) and the chemistry between the two were wonderful, if not a perfect match of characters. Followed up with supporting actresses Emma Stone (Superbad) and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), this casting has created one hell of a knock-out punch for very likeable characters.

Zombieland starts out with one of the most epic intros to a film that I have ever seen. Beginning with a slow-mo montage of scenes of zombies attacking and devouring humans during the early stages of the outbreak, set to the tune of Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, it was pure genius. Early Metallica is some of my favorite metal and I was so happy that they played a good majority of the song, complimented by some of the best editing interlaced with the credits, almost giving it a 3-D look and feel to it. I sat there headbanging to the tune of Metallica with a twisted, evil grin on my face. I thought to myself, “even if this is the best part of the film, it was worth watching for that epic intro”. Thankfully, the introduction was only the beginning of the most enjoyable film that I have seen this year.

The story works well in telling the story of Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), who narrates throughout the film, and how he has survived up until this point by learning and making a numbered list of do’s and don’ts when dealing with the reanimated dead. The plot is sprinkled with so much humor and classic lines of humor through-out the dialogue I was literally laughing almost every 5 minutes, if not more. After Columbus meets up with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a no non-sense, ass-kicking, twinkie-obsessed, fearless, hard-ass, things really start to heat up. Tallahassee has outfitted a Cadillac Escalade with an iron wedge on the vehicles front grill that is used for plowing through anything that is in its way: cars, debris, living-dead zombies. You know- the usual!

So now Columbus and Tallahassee have formed a bond, driving around looking for Twinkies and any other survivors which is when they run into Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), their zombie destroying posses growing two members larger. The chemistry that each character has each other works out perfectly, complementing each other. Harrelson’s edgy bad-ass personality reminded me of bits and pieces of him from Natural Born Killers as Mickey Knox, although much nicer.

The film has some excellent scenes of gore and blood splattering, thrown in with dashes of gut-busting humor and wise-cracks, making it the most enjoyable zombie film that I have ever scene. Really making it easy to compare to Shaun of the Dead, which I really liked, Zombieland takes the action-humor-horror mixed genre to the next level. The relentless pace of the comedic zombie kill-fest was relentless and never let up. But, the biggest surprise of it was having a delightful cameo by one of my favorite actors of all time, Bill Murray (Caddyshack, What About Bob?, Stripes). Bill Murray comes into the picture when our crew of four head out to California, stopping at Hollywood on their way, to do a little house-crashing to relax and load up supplies and what not. They go to Bill Murray’s lavish crib, stopping to get a map of the stars on their way. Without spoiling anything for my Australian readers who have yet to see the film until its December release and keeping my American readers spoiler-free until its national wide-release, let me just say there are surprises aplenty. After our trio finally gets to the amusement park which has been the ultimate goal for Wichita and Little Rock, we see where the title truly comes into play. I believe that slaughtering the undead at an amusement park filled with roller coasters, gravity defying drops and dip rides, and freak-filled haunted house attractions is the way to go to keep the audience interested at all times. Thrown into the mix is a killer Rock soundtrack that adds some adrenaline to every scene it is thrown into.

Zombieland is an explosion of blood, guts, gore, violence, and comedy that will have one reeling in laughter and filled with a euphoric buzz of blissful epic zombie triumph! See this film once it comes out for it will be the best zombie-comedy to come out for a long time.