Zombieland

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Zombieland going into it – it seemed as though it could either be very funny or intensely dumb. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. It was not only very funny, but also actually pretty well-made.

Zombieland succeeds because it’s not just a movie about a couple of people trying to survive a zombie apocalypse, and oh-ah there are zombies popping up everywhere. Rather, it’s about PEOPLE; people just trying to live and be people, while also trying to survive. And no matter what the genre, when a movie is actually about people, it goes a long way towards being successful.

And what’s more, the characters are actually likeable and interesting. They give us glimpses into the character’s lives before the zombie virus spread. It really helps us to connect to the characters and make them endearing, though the loners finding each other dynamic is a cliché, it works well. Aside from that, the movie does well to avoid zombie movie clichés.

The filmmakers were also smart enough to know what type of movie they were making – comedy. They didn’t feel that just because it involves zombies that they must also try to make it scary. If they had taken that course, it most likely wouldn’t have succeeded at doing either, as films tend to do when they try that. It’s bloody and violent and a little gross, but it’s not really over the top and remarkably shows some restraint (Woody Harrelson’s character, Tallahassee, goes at a zombie with a pair of hedge clippers and they just show us a bloody pair of clippers being thrown to the floor). Again, they knew what they were going for and knew what would achieve that and what would distract from that. It really is smart filmmaking.

There’s not really much to say in regards to the acting, it’s not that type of movie. All of the actors pull off their characters very well. And they work well together. It’s wholly believable as the characters grow together, and to like each other, despite them all being the cliché (not that it’s a bad thing, it works in this case) virulent loners. It’d be very easy for Woody Harrelson to take Tallahassee way out there and just totally over the top, and that’d probably a rather attractive option, but he doesn’t; he keeps the character firmly grounded. Jesse Eisenberg is extremely likeable as Columbus. It wouldn’t be hard to play that type of character as a sort of whiny, annoying, loser; but Eisenberg doesn’t do that, he’s sweet and endearing.

So basically, this isn’t your average zombie movie, as it’s not really so much a zombie movie. It’s like the characters of some other, more character-driven, comedy got lost and wound up in a zombie movie. It works more as the setting than the plot. Good on the filmmakers.

3 ½ out of 5