The preview for Zombieland gives the audience a taste for the family-friendly film. For those who haven't seen it, a groom is devoured by his brain-hungry wife and a soccer mom barrels through a wall of undead toddler ballerinas in a minivan. Is this too good to be true? What really happens when you combine the slow motion effects from "300" with the genre concepts of "Shaun of the Dead"?
Great, great things. Here's the breakdown:
For their amusing portrayal of a world devastated by the zombie apocalypse, director Ruben Fleischer and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick receive an entertainment value of eight out of 10 decapitated zombie heads.
A Michael Cera-ish protagonist, who is only known as Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), narrates the movie. Columbus has survived for so long because he has absolutely no friends, who could potentially infect him. Through his isolation he develops a list of fairly clever rules to stay alive, which reappear in several ridiculous situations. Like running away from zombies to staying fit and never, under any circumstances, using public bathrooms.
In his paranoid travels, Columbus encounters Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson). This hack-and-slash maniac embodies the crowd pleaser of any good zombie flick. Tallahassee consistently puts himself into dangerous situations - all because he's desperate to find the last Twinkie on earth.
In the travels of these unlikely companions, Columbus and Tallahassee encounter two sisters named Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) - also known as the chick from "Superbad" and the girl from "Little Miss Sunshine." Can they fire shotguns? Oh, why of course.
From here, the mental shock of surviving the apocalypse forces the characters to be untrustworthy of each other. The fight to stay alive drives them apart, yet at the same time unites them under a common goal. Just be prepared to watch a few uncomfortable scenes of horrific gore and corny-yet-lovable punch lines.
In terms of entertainment value, Zombieland provides a great hour and 21 minutes of undead annihilation with a variety of fun and unexpected weapons. But the believability of Zombieland brings down the value of film. A Michael Cera look-alike would never survive the zombie apocalypse, the chances of only finding attractive people are fairly slim and, when caught in a bad zombie situation, nobody magically knows how to jumpstart a car in a dire situation. Most importantly, going to an amusement park of any sort during a zombie apocalypse leads to death.
Despite that, I feel confident in declaring Zombieland as the "feel good zombie movie of the year."
Enjoy Zombieland, just don't get any bright ideas.
ppdepasq@syr.edu
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