Zombieland

Sony Pictures 2010

R4 DVD

Just when I thought I had seen more than enough of zombies, along comes this wonderful film and revives my interest. The film starts out well and just gets better, turning into a love story with lots of zombies. Zombies are shot, run over, beheaded with garden shears (“Just gonna take a little off the top”), and even bashed to death with a banjo. It’s a very satisfying movie for the blood-and-guts brigade.

“It’s amazing how quickly things can go from bad to total shitstorm”

As usual, a virus (or something) in an infected hamburger has turned the United States into a nation of rampant hungry flesh-eaters. There are few normal survivors but we follow the life of one of them, nicknamed Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg). He is a nerdy student type and is facing another weekend in his flat in front of the computer. His first experience of the zombie plague is when an attractive young female neighbour knocks at his door looking for refuge from a sick-looking man who tried to bite her. Columbus thinks his dreams are coming true but it all goes wrong. She has been bitten and soon turns into a zombie. “The first time I let a girl into my life and she tries to eat me”. He bashes her to death with the lid of his toilet cistern, as you do. From here his experiences lead him to formulate a set of rules to stay alive in zombie country.

“Rule No. 1 – Cardio. The first ones to go for obvious reasons were the fatties”

He learns the importance of always checking what may be lurking in the back seat of his car. Wear your seat belt. “Double-tap” a zombie – one shot may not be enough, so always kill them twice to avoid pronouncing them dead prematurely. Most importantly, “Don’t let them catch you with your pants down. Avoid bathrooms.”

As a tentative plan he decides to head home to Ohio where his parents may still be alive. Along the way he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) whose main aim in life is the find the last Twinkies in the U.S. that haven’t passed their use-by date. He is a skilled brawler who hates zombies and specializes in finding new savage ways to kill them. Such as the garden shears. The unlikely pair find themselves heading in the same direction. During their travels they come across Wichita and Little Rock, a teenage girl and her twelve year old sister. Wichita steals the mens’ car and guns. Their paths cross again and they finally join forces. The girls hope to get to an amusement park outside Los Angeles that is supposed to be free of zombies. It isn’t.

The four finally realize that they are as close as they are going to get to being a family – not exactly the traditional happy, god-fearing family unit of other apocalypse films, but a suitable family for survival in Zombieland.

There is even a guest appearance by Bill Murray, playing himself (briefly) and paying tribute to Ghostbusters.

This film will be compared with the British “Shaun of the Dead” and it acquits itself well. I wouldn’t say either film is the better – it is just two approaches to the same subject. Acting is great, the plot is tight and not just blood and gore, and the two lead actors particularly develop stereotyped but well-crafted characters. The comedy keeps popping up in the most unlikely places.

Zombieland 2 is rumoured to come out in 2011.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 3 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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