Ben Saw: Zombieland

Now that's more like it.....



Although I didn't intend it, this actually serves as a nice addendum to my 'Jennifer's Body' review of a couple weeks ago. This was the review where I used the word 'fun' approximately 837 times, which would have been excessive had that movie not needed an infusion of it so badly.

Enter 'Zombieland', another pop culture savvy, teen monster movie written by a (or, in this case, a pair of) Hollywood enfants terrible, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Unlike Diablo Cody, however, these two knew exactly what kind of movie they were making.

.....well, more or less exactly. So the plot's pretty simple: zombie apocalypse has occurred, Jesse Eisenberg's neurotic Columbus (all the characters get hometown-inspired noms de guerre) is a survivor who's trying to get home from college. He meets Woody Harrelson's bad-ass Tallahassee and they decide to travel together. These two meet con-artists sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and after some mistrust, the four head off to California because........because......look their motivation to do this is really stupid but it's the zombie apocalypse and what else were they going to do? So now it's road trip time and the movie gets curiously zombie-free as we get some half-baked character development, an amusing cameo that you've surely read about, manufactured tension and, finally, the action-packed climax. Everything gets wrapped up in a fairly neat bow and the movie ends (although clearly the creators see room for a sequel).

If my description above didn't make it abundantly clear, 'Zombieland' is insubstantial. Characters are always clean and presentable, gas is easy to come by, the narrator (Columbus) is weirdly omniscient at times, ammunition is usually plentiful, electricity still works, etc. Character development is trite and minimalist for the men; Eisenerg's the only one with something like an arc and it can be described as 'stop being such a wuss'. The women (or 'females' given Breslin's age) are basically there as plot devices and deliverers of punchlines. Outside of one or two key exceptions, the rest of your cast is a bunch of zombies. And that's great! The best 'character' is the goofy world 'Zombieland' creates and the movie's creators are clearly aware of this; delivering everything I've mentioned with a wink.

Look, this movie isn't art and it's not trying to be. What it wants to be is ...wait for it....FUN and it's largely successful at that. In this context, fun is: inappropriate Deliverance jokes, zombies killed with gardening shears, self-aware pop culture references, zombies killed with toilet seats, an obsession with Twinkies, zombies killed by nuns, mocking fatties, clown zombies killed with over-sized mallets. You get the picture. It begins with a burst of madcap energy and tons of comic ideas (sight gags, good lines and the rest) that are mostly funny, including a shot that, although played for comedy, actually made Henry jump which is something I haven't seen in years. Despite that, it's really not trying to be scary, just periodically startling in between the jokes and physical comedy.

The movie has plenty of flaws, but most of them are forgivable in light of the movie's lack of ambition. The direction has flashes of comedic inspiration but is mostly pretty staid and the acting is nothing to write home about: Stone borders on bad, but is saved by being so game for all the silliness; Breslin is fine, but she is given too little to do in the part; Eisenberg is better than I expected taking nothing away from the movie in most scenes, but I think of him as a slightly less irritating Michael Cera so I set a low bar. Woody Harrelson is the standout (such as it is), channeling a bit of Bruce Campbell in to a role that absolutely demanded it and so he's the real acting attraction in this movie (along with that cameo).

The script is well-written when it's hitting its stride, often settling for semi-sincere schmaltz in the other scenes but the big flaw is that the movie slows down dramatically for what seemed like 50% of its runtime as it tries to develop the characters and inexplicably denies us zombie madness for most of that period. After this limp middle section everything returns to form for the end: a climactic (and utterly contrived) battle at an amusement park. This is one of Harrelson's moments to shine and the movie has built up more than enough goodwill up to this point that I was happy to forgive the attempts at dramatic flourish.

'Happy to forgive' is what I'd say about most of 'Zombieland's' flaws actually and that's the key point. This movie knows it's an insubstantial niche movie and revels in it, having fun and making jokes where a movie like 'Jennifer's Body' tried to be scary and ham-handedly dodge classification. If you're willing to go in on the movie's own terms then see 'Zombieland', it's a good time at the movies.

Grade: B

Best Scene: Tallahassee gets to cut loose at the amusement park. Three words: zombie roller-coaster battle.