Posted by Ace
4 bites [out of 5]
There is finally something worth watching this weekend… or rather something worth spending your $15 at the box office.
Rules for surviving the Zombie apocalypse:
Rule #1 – Cardio
Rule #2 - The Double Tap
Rule #3 - Seatbelts
Alright… so who hasn’t thought of what they would do if, in fact, the Zombie apocalypse broke out? (Personally, I’d probably hull up in a Wal-Mart or Costco or something… that is to say after I killed all the Zombie employees first) With all the strange infectious disease scares floating around, who’s to say that the Zombie apocalypse won’t happen? I’m just saying… It’s something to keep in mind…
But I digress…
When I first heard about “Zombieland,” I naturally wrote it off. I’m not big on horror, or gore, or zombies for that matter. Ever since I was a kid and watched Night of the Living Dead during a daytime matinee on TV, zombies have scared the bejeezus out of me (and yes, there’s still a small part of me, hidden deep inside, underneath this dastardly handsome exterior that still gets a little scared by the “Thriller” music video).
But like I was saying, I wrote this movie off almost the instant I first saw a poster for it, mainly because I didn’t know anything about it. But the first trailer I ever saw for Zombieland was actually at San Diego Comic-Con this year, and it was probably the biggest surprise of the Con. Perhaps a lot more people shared my original sentiment about the movie, and just as likely, we were probably all pleasantly surprised by what the film had to offer. So, kudos to newcomer director, Ruben Fleischer, for breaking my preconceptions about this movie and dissuading me from not watching it.
The film stars Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland), Woody Harrelson (White Men Can’t Jump), Emma Stone (Superbad) and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) as the last remaining living human beings in Zombieland, formerly known as America.
The plot is pretty simple… Survival.
Eisenberg’s character, Columbus, named after the city in Ohio (a coping strategy for the characters -- referring to themselves as the names of the cities they were from, helps them stay emotionally detached, in the event that they would have to kill one another) narrates the film as he runs through a list of rules he’s compiled which are imperative to surviving in Z-land. Columbus is trying to get to, well, Columbus in hopes of finding his family, and along the way, he runs into Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), the expert in zombie killing, who’s also on a quest of his own — finding Twinkies. Somewhere along the way, Columbus and Tallahassee get hijacked by a sister duo, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). I don’t want to give too much away here, so I’ll just say this: they eventually all team up together.
And like I said earlier, the movie is pretty simple and straight-forward. There aren’t too many twists and turns, but it’s just pure, unadulterated fun at the expense of killing zombies. Drawing its inspiration from another great Zombie-comedy insta-classic, Shaun of the Dead, the film really isn’t a horror movie (and I still find it strange that Zombie movies have become their own sub-genre). Of course it has its moments that startle you, but I can’t really classify this as “HORROR” per se. It’s much too light-hearted for that. Unless you’re squeamish and you consider all movies that feature blood, guts, gore, and Zombies as horrific, then this movie’ll probably scare you.
But it’s not just about gore and guts and zombie smashing, it has a great amount of heart. As the characters try to stay emotionally detached from one another, they find themselves actually growing closer together. Columbus finds another kind of family in his endeavor to find his real family. But I guess being the sole surviving members of the human race will do that to people. Plus, someone makes a really GREAT cameo in the movie… arguably the greatest cameo of all time. Alright, I hyperbolized that just a tad, but it’s still awesome!
That being said, here are my rules for surviving Zombieland…
Rule #1 – Go watch this movie!
Rule #2 – If you’re squeamish… get over it and go watch this movie! (It’s time to Nut up or Shut up!)
Rule #3 – Refer back to Rules #1 and #2…
Images courtesy of Columbia Pictures
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