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Imagine a world demolished after an outbreak of a disease. This disease turns humans into blood-thirsty, mindless, disgusting cannibals. Many writers have sought to create movies to depict such an event that truly instills a sense of bone chilling fear. Few, however, seek to create a zombie movie that makes people laugh. Zombieland, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, does just that. After hearing such great reviews, I had to watch it for myself. Once sitting down, I was immediately assaulted with blood, gore, and zombie attacks. Very nice. Before the title sequence was even over I had seen handfuls of surprise attacks, all of them were fascinating, horrifying, and somehow comical. We are immediately introduced to, who I would call the main character, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) as he introduces us to the rules of how to survive a zombie epidemic. He seems to have a list of 32 rules that keep him from succumbing to the disease and throughout the movie most of them seem to hold true. Comedy is deeply seeded in this movie. In fact, I find it genius that Reese and Wernick could incorporate two totally polar opposite genres in such a beautiful mesh of blood, adventure and comedy. I felt a close connection with Columbus almost immediately after he divulged his biggest fear: clowns. In fact, a scene shows a clown and this was one of the few moments that this movie actually made me jump. (Being a horror movie “buff” I pride myself on having a high tolerance for fear.)
This movie has many fine points in it. First of all being the star studded cast including: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, and Bill Murray. Seeing so many big names in this movie was somewhat of a surprise to me. The appearance of Bill Murray absolutely blew my mind. Such a big name seems like almost a waste of money paying him to appear for such a short time. Yet, this incorporation was not lost on me. I appreciated the appearance and thought it added such a great element of comedy. I thought it was odd, however, that Jesse Eisenberg followed up his debut in Adventureland with this movie. He seems to have a niche that includes losers and theme parks. Emma Stone appeared in The Rocker, Ghost of Girlfriends Past, Superbad, and House Bunny. Woody Harrelson was in Seven Pounds, No Country for Old Men, A Scanner Darkly, and Anger Management just to name a few. Abigail Breslin showed up in My Sisters Keeper, Kit Kittredge, Nim’s Island, The Santa Clause 3, Little Miss Sunshine, and Air Buddies. Bill Murray, of course, appeared in Ghostbusters, Garfield, Hamlet, Ground Hog Day, Caddy Shack, and Saturday Night Live.
Another thing I really liked about this particular movie was its structure. Zombieland starts out by showing us Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and explaining why he is the perfect candidate for zombie survival. He is a social outcast, stays home alone, minimal interaction with anyone, no family or friends. It would be very hard for a disease to spread to him. He also shares his list of rules. These rules keep him from running into vulnerable situations and have undoubtedly saved his life countless times. Also, throughout the movie it shows the all the characters with some sort of deficiency and it seems as though by the end of the movie that they all grow in some way and depend on each other to compensate for that weakness.
Zombieland has a great quality to it: complex characters. Case and Point: No character is what they first appear to be. Columbus seems as though he is too meager to be able to defend himself but, in fact, his lifestyle is ideal. Tallahassee seems very shallow and cold at first but upon realizing who Buck actually is, we realize that Tallahassee is very warm-hearted and loving. Little Rock appears at first to be a zombie (this is the most blatant example of not being what she appears to be) and is actually just a brilliant accessory to a plot thought up by her sister, Wichita. And Wichita’s tough outer appearance is actually just a front she puts up in order to take care of her little sister. Other aspects of these complex characters include drive: each person is searching for some place, hence the names. Also Tallahassee is driven by the need to find Twinkies and funny enough, they are near impossible to find. Another example of the complexity is metamorphosis. The main point of metamorphosis for Columbus is when he is confronted by the worst combination of his fears: a zombie clown. This is when he decides to become a hero to save the girl. And the final element of complexity is the fact that they all fit like pieces to a puzzle into their make-shift family. All of their characteristics offset those of someone else and they fulfill each others needs.
There are also slight hints of literary elements in this movie. It is ironic that in Columbus’s search for his family, who were virtually non-existent in his life, he found his new, better family that actually seemed to support him. This was not something I expected at all. But it made me leave the theater with that special little warm feeling in my stomach. And while on the subject of subtle additions to the movie: I didn’t realize it while watching it but after looking back, Tallahassee paints the number three on the side of his cars as a reference to Dale Earnhardt.
There were only a few goofs and inconsistencies in this movie. There were some continuity problems such as, mug handles switching sides, wine bottles switch which way they are facing, the girls jumped out of the hummer with nothing in their hands and then had guns in their hands the next minute, candle lengths vary, and other background changes. There are also some audio and visual discrepancies such as a shotgun shell hitting the ground without the sound of reloading. There are plot holes like the scene where the girls are on the pendulum ride, it is impossible for them to ride without someone manning the controls. And when they flipped the breakers, all the lights in the park turned on, in reality this would not be the case. Also, Tallahassee says that there are six people alive when, in reality, there are only five and when Wichita says that her first rated-R movie was Anaconda this is untrue because that movie is rated PG-13. But if you suspend disbelief as many movies expect you to, this was a very good movie.
The movie ends with Columbus realizing that he is with his family as they drive away into the horizon. I would recommend Zombieland to anyone who likes zombie movies, awkward love stories, or lower end comedy. Of course they would need to be above the age of 17 however because this movie is appropriately rated R for language and gore. I would give this movie 4.5 out of 5, for personifying the scarce genre of Horror-Comedy
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