You might remember april's "Adventureland," a touching coming-of-age story in which Jesse Eisenberg moved toward manhood in an amusement park. "Zombieland" is that too, with an important difference: Zombies. First-time director Ruben Fleischer's horror comedy shows us that the undead are the bloody jolt that we didn't know the indie coming-of-age story needed. Think of the movie as "Shaun of the Dead" steeped in Americana - junk food, NASCAR and fumbling teens trying to lose their virginity all play a big part here.
"Zombieland" focuses on Eisenberg's character, Columbus, a survivor of an apocalyptic virus that has turned most of humanity into bloodthirsty flesh-eating maniacs. During his travels, he meets a more personable bloodthirsty maniac in the form of Woody Harrelson's redneck Tallahassee, a zombie-killing aficionado who would brave certain death to get his hands on a Twinkie. As the two travel, slaying the undead in a variety of hilarious ways (car door, garden shears, banjo), they meet a pair of sisters (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin), and the film turns into a surprisingly amiable romp about a makeshift family bonding by carving up zombie guts. The gags flow freely here with a very high hit-to-miss ratio. The undeniable highlight, though, comes when the gang reaches Hollywood and a famous actor makes a 10-minute cameo. I won't give away this great thespian's identity, but suffice to say that he bowls us over by revisiting his great comic chemistry with Harrelson.
The film does, however, have its fair share of problems. If you're sick of the same one-note performance that Eisenberg (who a viewing companion accurately dubbed "a poor man's Michael Cera") always delivers, don't expect to find any relief here. I was more aghast at Eisenberg's cloying "Wonder Years" voiceover here than I was at any actual display of blood and guts. It was also probably a miscalculation to make the movie as genial as it is: We could have used some of the actual scares and intensity that made the laughs in "Shaun of the Dead" so much more effective.
Harrelson alone, however, makes up for most of the film's deficiencies. The actor seems to be having the time of his life in his gleefully over-the-top performance, fully throwing himself into the film's ample physical comedy and delivering his character's agreeably stupid one-liners with his trademark bucktooth grin. In addition, Stone's sexy rasp will make men weak at the knees, and Breslin has the rare child actor talent of seeming like an actual human being and not just a simple device to elicit sympathy.
Fleischer, who cut his teeth directing iconic videos for M.I.A. and Dizzee Rascal, has an astonishing sureness of touch here with his debut film. The movie is well paced and, at 81 minutes, doesn't overstay its welcome. The gags are artfully constructed, and the cinematography is much better than you would expect for this sort of material. I'd still take "Shaun of the Dead" over "Zombieland" (though I might be in the minority on that), but Fleischer is in the same league as those "Hot Fuzz" geniuses, and that is no small feat.
Pros: Hilarious zombie fun, terrific cameo
Cons: Irritating voiceover, too nice
4 paws
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