Zombieland

If you plan to survive Zombieland then you're going to have to learn some of the rules of survival. The most important rule to lean is rule number 18: Limber Up, if you forget to do this then there's a good chance that you will leave the theatre with a sever case of sore jaw syndrome due in no small part to spending the last 80 minutes laughing your ass off.

A lot has been written regarding Zombieland's debt to Shaun of the Dead but being honest I really don't see it. Granted both films depict a Zombie pandemic utilising a mixture of horror and comedy but beyond this the films have very little in common. Shaun is a far more emotionally driven film where as Zombieland is more like The Walking Dead with added laughs. I should add that I don't buy the whole zomedy genre as I fell that horror films are entitled to contain a few laughs without instantly being categorised as comedies. No one remembers American Werewolf or Fright Night as comedies yet both have many laughs as they do scares.
Zombieland starts months after the outbreak and follows a rag tag group of survivors in their journey west. The films opens with Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) looking for a quiet place to use the bathroom. Given that most of the human population is now a member of the undead-kind this is difficult. The opening scene is fast paced and exhilarating with director Ruben Fleischer starting things with a bang and never once letting up.

From here we move into what has to be one of the greatest opening scenes in cinema history. A montage of everyday events being turned on their head by the inclusion of the undead. It's an absolutely fantastic 3 minutes and manages more laughs than most films can in 90 minutes.
Shortly after we are introduced to Tallahassee played by the ever dependable Woody Harrelson who gives one ethe years best performances. If the Oscars recognised all genres then he would certainly be a shoe in for a nom next January. Columbus and Tallahassee join forces on their journey west and are soon joined by two cone girl sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) who have heard rumours that there is a place untouched by virus.

The film was originally conceived as a pilot for a TV show and at times it shows. While the characters are all interesting they do at times fell like clichés. Columbus is the typical OCD afflicted nerd we've seen a million times before and it's a credit to Eisenberg that he makes the character so immensely likeable. In recent time comparison has been drawn between Eisenberg and Michael Cera with many labelling him Cera mark 2 but if anything it should be the other way round.
Harrelson is as mentioned earlier absolutely fantastic in this and manages to bring an unexpected vulnerability to Tallahassee. The revelation regarding his dog is genuinely heartfelt and the sits alongside the opening of Up as one of this years most moving scenes.

The females of the piece don't fare as good as the men and while both Stone and Breslin are impressive their characters are nowhere near as developed as that of Tallahassee. It's obvious that in the years that the film has been in development little has been done with their characters. The promise of sequels should hopefully redress this.
The one area where the film really doesn't skimp is in the violence department. Gore fans will relish in graphic scenes of zombie death including the truly fantastic kill of the week sequence. The sporadic nature of the violence in the film means that the film never suffers from a sense of overkill and the ever growing sense of threat pays off in the final all out fight to the death between our 4 heroes and a theme park of the undead.

The term cult classic is branded about a little too much these days but if ever a film was destined for cult status it's Zombieland. Do yourself a favour and see it asap. It's easily this years most enjoyable film and one which can be watched over and over again.