Zombieland: Movie Review

Zombieland is a zombie-themed comedy (in fact these are not zombies, but infected like those of 28 days later by Danny Boyle, 2002) directed by Ruben Fleischer, practically the US version of Shaun Of The Dead by Edgar Wright (2004). It’s a comedy that takes place in the US devastated by an epidemic in which few healthy human beings survive. And as Wright played with the typical London stereotypes between pubs and awkward social relationships, so does Fleischer with the American ones: a road trip, big cars, firearms, and theme parks (Hollywood fits into the latter category). The result?

The result is a funny comedy that doesn’t forget to be a zombie film, with the scary infected vomiting blood and guts but at the same time easily get killed by our heroes using any type of weapon: banjos, shotguns, pistols and baseball bats. There are four protagonists that I think had a lot of fun making the movie (at least judging by the interviews contained in the excellent Bluray edition): Woody Harrelson (recently seen in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Jesse Eisenberg (who in the film he mentions Facebook and interpreted his founder in The social network, 2010), Emma Stone (I’m sure you know who she is), and Abigail Breslin (the little girl of Little Miss Sunshine). And I would say that the film works thanks to them, along with its good rhythm and a wonderful cameo by Bill Murray. The (many) jokes are never forced: sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, but they always serve the purpose of shaping and developing the protagonists’ characters.

As in any movie, not everything works so well. The (mainly rock) soundtrack accompanies the action well, but perhaps in a few years it will feel dated. The special effects are unfortunately mostly digital, something that has already aged badly since the movie was shot ten years ago. And the narrator’s voice provided by Eisenberg, after a funny start explaining some survival rules, is a bit boring and too present. In any case, it seems that more or less the same people are now working on a sequel, which I fear it will be crap as it usually happens with comedy sequels. I was wondering: is there a GOOD comedy sequel? And I leave you with this existential question, ciao!

PS: no, I will leave you with this anecdote instead: since Harrelson is vegan, the production prepared a 100% vegetable Twinky for the scene in which his character finally finds one (and that’s a reference to the 1984 Ghostbusters starring, of course, Bill Murray)!

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