Review: Zombieland (Blu-ray)

Author: Tigervamp | Date: March 23, 2010

A comedy set in contemporary times featuring a plague of bloodthirsty zombies. My first thought was that this would be little more than a Shaun of the Dead clone. Then again, as a big fan of zombies movies and especially that Edgar Wright gem, that was fine by me. This was a huge opportunity for Ruben Fleischer who went into Zombieland with a Directing career pretty much limited to Jimmy Kimmel Live! Ruben must have been happy with a cast which included Abigail Breslin of Little Miss Sunshine, Emma Stone of Superbad, Jesse Eisenberg who has recently jump-started his career, and the veteran Woody Harrelson.

The big question was whether or not such an eclectic cast could gel together but they passed that test with flying colours. Eisenberg and Harrelson proved to be a great double act while Breslin and Stone looked as though they’ve worked together for many years. Harrelson is no stranger to comedy having held down the role of bartender Woody in Cheers for many years alongside his performance in Kingpin which is for me one of the best in his career. He is on top form once again as the unhinged loner Tallahassee who hates zombies almost as much as he loves Twinkies. Stone does a good job as the untrusting Wichita and, playing a very different role to the one she had in The House Bunny, shows some versatility. Breslin, who plays Little Rock, was fantastic in Little Miss Sunshine and she does well here in a role which is a good step in her fledgling career. Eisenberg, as lead character and narrator Columbus, puts in a great performance and coupled with the success of Adventureland, which I personally didn’t like, it seems his career is very much on the up.

I found the script, from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick who are in line to write Deadpool, to be very sharp. The introduction, with Columbus going over some rules which helps him avoid being eaten by zombies, is particularly well-written and leads us perfectly into the meat of the film. The main characters make for an unlikely team, and this could pose a problem, but the rollercoaster journey is always kept on the edge of believability. I look forward to following the work of Reese and Wernick and if they make the right decisions they should be rewarded with successful careers. To those who have already seen this gem, the response to “do you have any regrets?” cracks me up, as does that entire scene. Those who have yet to see Zombieland should do so as it’s one of the most entertaining and refreshing films I’ve seen in quite some time.

8.5/10

2 Comments »

Comment by Anonymous

2010-03-23 15:32:36

I liked it but thought it was a 7/10 just on the fact that although everything was tight and it had nice moments there wasn’t enough zombie killing and the film wasn’t long enough with not much really happening. I longed for Bill Murrays short cameo to be longer because I thought he was really funny, not that Woody wasn’t. It was fine, but for me there was a better film waiting to get out. I guess in order to try to flesh out the characters the zombie killing had to be cut back in a short film but this to me was to it’s detrement, I also think the middle section considering it was a short film was a bit slow and strangely enough I wasn’t that interested in the female parts and would have preferred just the two male leads and Murray’s cameo to have been longer with maybe him tagging along with the two guys for a while because he wasn’t such a bad zombie. The first half hour was great and if it had followed along like that I would have been real happy.

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Comment by Tigervamp

2010-03-23 16:23:36

Yeah, I agree on seeing more of the cameo. Would have been nice if he joined them for a while and pretended to be a zombie to confuse the real zombies. Then again, that would be similar to what happened in Shaun of the Dead and I think they tried to avoid comparisons as much as possible.

Can’t really argue with a score of 7/10 but I just feel that since I’ve seen this twice and I’d happily sit down and watch it again that it deserved a higher score. Also agree with your comment on the slow section midway through the film. It was nice because it let us get to know the characters a little better but I don’t the film really needed that. I’d have been happy if it was almost non-stop action and I wonder if they’ll make a sequel and focus more on that side of things.

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