Zombieland

Following a time honored strategy of insuring that no one is actually reading your reviews before continuing, I feel sufficiently confident that no one is still reading. And with that in mind I finally get around to writing another review. Here we go!

1) I own and love the first three Romero films about zombies.
2) I have on multiple occasions discussed strategies for surviving a zombocalypse with friends.

Thus I feel well qualified to tell you if Zombieland is any good. And I assure you non-existent reader that it is...kind of. In medias res, we meet Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) a young man who having survived the initial outbreak has devised a series of rules to live by. These include cardio, the double tap and wearing seat belts. These rules appear on screen more than once in an attempt to enhance a joke. Columbus quickly meets up with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) a man who might be a bit crazy and truly enjoys killing zombies.

The two travel together and soon run into a sister duo Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). After some initial hesitation on both sides all four end up traveling to LA, where Wichita has promised to take Little Rock to an amusement park. The plot is of course a bit gimmicky, the land is a bit scarce on zombies it seems and there are more than a few failed attempts at humor. But there are basically two types of zombie films: those with a message (which seem to be mainly restricted to Romero's attempts) and those that intend to show lots of zombies getting killed in many different ways.

This film is obviously in the latter category. Whatever message it might have about enjoying the little things is mainly for laughs as Tallahassee seeks out a much desired Twinkie. So the question then becomes does the film at least deliver in a satisfying way? Well enough I suppose. There aren't any particularly exciting and new ways of killing zombies but there are certainly some highly entertaining moments with Woody Harrelson.

Truth be told I'd have rated this a mediocre just slight failure of a zombie film except for one saving grace. Bill Murray. I'll say no more save that I was laughing quite a bit when Bill Murray was in the film. So in the end it had its moments but not nearly enough to rescue it from a pan except for the saving light of Mr. Murray. I'd also give praise for Woody Harrelson who is the only character who seems to be actually having fun of the four main characters.