Zombieland

Release Year: 2009

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Review: 'Zombieland' is a whole lot of zombie bashing fun.  That's all that its trying to be.  Don't go searching for a meaningful, substantial plot.  That's not what this film is about.  It's about exploitation, violence and just having fun killing things.  Basically the entire plot is the earth has been taken over by a disease that turns people into zombies.  Our heroes are some of the last bunch of survivors.  It's them versus everyone, and they want to survive.  Never taking itself too seriously, they take every opportunity to get a laugh.  The entire film is ridiculous, but in a way that works.  I had a good time suspending any thought and just watch some inventive ways to slaughter zombies.  If you can think of a way to kill a zombie, it's probably done here and better than you imagined.  As I was walking out of the theater I heard someone whining that they wish they could go play the video game version of this.  A video game is exactly what the movie felt like.  Mindless, emotionless and oh-so satisfying slaughter of a seemingly never ending supply of repulsive zombies.

When you are talking about zombie killing, the most important element is the look.  We've seen a zombie die a million times before.  Director Ruben Fleisher saturates his zombie flick in style.  Utilizing a gritty, gruesome and gory approach he doesn't shy away from showing the unpleasantries of the zombie killings.  The chunky mud-like blood that oozes from the zombies mouths and the bare bones sticking out of freshly broken legs are all part of the fantastic use of visuals to enhance this dystopia into a heightened realism making the killings all the more vivid.  Ruben also liberally uses slow motion, letting us savor each frame of gore.  He isn't afraid to blur the line of cinema either, frequently throwing in text into the action which interacts with the actors for added humor.  Style is key for this type of film, and Fleisher makes it all his own.

Hats off are in order for the chief giver of gore, Woody Harrelson, who just seems to be having so much fun doing what he does best; zombie killing.  Jesse Eisenberg does his usual nervous guy routine, and is fine in the performance, and gets the award for most unlikely zombie killer.  It works only because everything in the movie is so absurd anyway, why not have a twitchy nerd be one of the few humans capable of surviving a zombie attack.  Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin didn't work so well as the feminine strong arms.  Their characters came off very cold and rubbed the wrong way with the two male leads.  I found every time they were on screen I was pining for the far more enjoyable Harrelson to come back.  Augmenting Harrelson's gleeful performance is one the greatest cameos in recent memory, which while completely random adds to what this film is all about: putting a smile on the audience's face.  This isn't height of intellectual cinema, it's just a good time.
Rating: 4/5