D: Ruben FleischerW: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick
C: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Amber Heard, etc.
There's always a market for these sort of films and surprisingly enough, there haven't been that many humorous zombie films, at least not that many good ones. You can consider Zombieland the answer to Edgar Wright's and Simon Pegg's "Shaun of the Dead", although it doesn't try to mimic or steal from it. Actually there's not many parallels you can draw between the two, aside from both being comedies set in a zombie apocalypse. But obviously people will compare them nonetheless. Zombieland is good old fashion fun, American-style. The idea isn't original, but it does enough to set itself apart from what we've seen before. Whether those are zombie films with a humorous feel to them or straightforward comedies built around that theme. Either way, you can't really take a zombie/infected movie seriously, because of the theme alone. It becomes a problem when the movie takes itself seriously, which gave us the lovely Resident Evil franchise, helmed by a talentless waste filling out a director's chair. Paul W.S.T.D. Anderson isn't obviously the only one to fail at his job, when it comes to this particular theme. There have been successful projects, thankfully, one of them being 28 Days Later (although featuring infected, instead of zombies).
What surprised me was Zombieland's approach to this theme. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much, looking at the writers/director, but I was definitely sold on the trailer, as I'm sure most people were. Zombieland isn't a parody per se, but it does take a stab at general horror movie cliches in a very inventive kind of way. These are presented as rules that the main character has written down for himself and he isn't hesitant in sharing them through narration and dialogue. The visual queues have an aesthetic value to them, which are part of the credits theme (I'll get to that later) or possibly included to help out our generally attention-impaired generation. This brings me to the term "entertainment". How much you will enjoy this film depends on what you consider to be entertaining. If it's the desire to see zombies getting killed in many delightful ways accompanied by a slick soundtrack, slow-motion sequences and a barrel of laughs, you're certainly in luck. If it's story and character development, not so much. The latter one is pretty nonexistent, but I wasn't bothered by that very much, since that's not what I expected from Zombieland in the first place. In fact, that's the last thing I expect from a movie like this, but then again I don't want it to come off as a mindless shooting gallery either. Obviously you have to have an outline of a story and some character background, progression for it to constitute as a movie.
Zombieland's strongest point is it's presentation, which is a surprisingly polished and visually detailed package. You can definitely notice the production value here, although having a rather low budget by Hollywood standards ($23,600,000). The writing, as I said I didn't have much hope for with this particular team, is also surprisingly well done when it comes to the actual jokes and situational comedy. This is a dream project for anyone who loves situational comedy, it's literally a playground for your imagination. The director has managed to realize these moments surprisingly well, this being Ruben Fleischer's first feature film. The audience draws almost sick pleasure from seeing these poor souls being offed in various ways. In fact, a man in his 50s sitting on my right almost exclusively laughed at those parts. It's a chance to live out some of our fantasies, having a stress release kind of effect. To be fair to him, the writing is aimed more at a younger (American) crowd, although there are some older pop culture references here and there. The most notable being Ghostbusters, which was the most satisfying part in the entire film. Without a doubt, the majority of the audience will appreciate those little things about Zombieland. I haven't played Dead Rising, but this is more or less what I imagine the adaptation would've turned out like. Don't watch it with an overly critical mindset, in other words, expecting something that wasn't intended to be there in the first place.
No reason to shut off your brain either, which is also why I tend to keep away from popcorn and soda when watching a movie in the cinema, because it definitely has it's flaws. I usually just buy a Mentos, cos there's no need to take a piss and you maintain a certain level of awareness. Like I said earlier, the story and character development are pretty nonexistent. For example, this can be seen by the two gals ditching the guys not once, but twice. This is story repetition, plain and simple, makes it easier to stretch it out. I'd forgive this if it weren't for the girls and their asinine move of going to an amusement park, lighting the place up with anything still working, thus attracting every zombie in the vicinity. Yes, an amusement park is an excellent setting for a zombie shootout, but there are other ways of reaching that setting. The silliness of the whole situation was topped off by the girls driving their car into a lake and then strapping into the worst possible ride in the whole fucking park. The inconsistency lies within them being presented as clever beforehand, when they stole the first ride and pulled a con at a gas station. Taking that into account, why would these two clever girls go and do some stupid shit like that ? The film offers background information on all 4 main characters, being superficial at that, but it serves it's purpose. Zombieland is all about killing zombies and having a laugh. That's what you should expect from it and that's it.
What I didn't expect though, was one of the most inventive opening credits I've seen in years. This was a slow-motion sequence accompanied by Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls", while the credits were included into the action. This also tops Old School off the throne as the best use of a Metallica song in a feature film. You can find the opening sequence on Youtube, if you need to refresh your memory. If you haven't seen the film, then don't ruin it for yourself, cos this is meant for the big screen. I love when people make use of the opening and/or end credits, some of the examples being David Fincher's "Panic Room" or "Fight Club", the end credits of "Rachel Getting Married" or the opening of the "Dawn of the Dead" remake. I love it when people use that restricted time to offer something cool or informative. It's smart to take advantage of every minute you can get, so why waste something you have to do anyway ?! Another thing that took me by surprise, was the Ghostbusters portion, but I won't go into that, otherwise I'll spoil it. The use of licensed music is pretty darn good all around. Also a couple of classical pieces can be found here and there, which are perfect for conveying mayhem or sadistic fun. Mozart and Strauss would be proud, no doubt. Now if only people used Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, Montagues and Capulets" a little more. The cast is excellent, with the exception of Jesse Eisenberg, who plays the same fucking guy no matter what movie he's in. Not saying it doesn't fit in here, but I'm getting slightly sick of his acting to be honest. He's like the young less neurotic version of Woody Allen, although I love Woody Allen. The narration starts too suddenly at the beginning of the film, I usually prefer to settle into a film before someone throws his monologue at me, especially in a comedy, where narration is risky, but this is purely nitpicking on my part. In a nutshell, Zombieland is a lot of fun, a roller coaster ride with guns. A solid comedy, with a slim story, entertainment in the mainstream sense of the word. Don't expect to be scared or moved in any meaningful way though, unless you're a 12-year-old little girl.
7.5/10
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