Worth A Look: Zombieland (2009)

Zombieland

Three stars

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin.

Rated: R 

Running time: 1:20

Examine the individual parts to “Zombieland” and frankly, the sum of those parts really shouldn't add up to much.

Can the zombie subgenre of horror movies really thrive anymore? Okay, so "The Walking Dead" may be an exception. Beyond that, how is anyone going to pull off a film with stereotypes instead of real, fleshed out characters (yes, pun fully intended)? A tough guy, a neurotic geek, a con artist and her kid sidekick don’t seem to be the stuff of inspired efforts.

Yet, director Ruben Fleischer manages to prove naysayers in waiting wrong despite the limitations he was working with.

It’s the present day and a virus has turned practically the entire world into flesh eating zombies, save for a few fortunate folks who are immune.

The four main characters that eventually converge here don’t want to get too attached, so they refer to each other by their hometowns instead of their first names.

Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is trying to get from his college town in Texas back home to see if his parents have survived. For the two months he’s been in survival mode, he’s developed this list of rules to survival. His top three: Cardio (you have to be able to out run the zombies); wear the seatbelt (never know when you need to make a sudden stop and avoid going through the windshield); use the double tap (don’t be stingy with your bullets. Make sure they’re dead with an extra blast of your 12-gauge to a zombie’s head).

Columbus is the geek to Tallahassee’s (Woody Harrelson) tough guy. Tallahassee picks up Columbus on a road and offers to take him east.

If you’re going to use a pretty stock character like Tallahassee, at least make him a little quirky. And Tallahassee has a few, such as absolutely reveling in slaughtering zombies while searching for one last Twinkie (contrary to popular opinion, they do have an expiration date, he tells us).

They run into Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), a couple of con-artists who have their own brand and style of survival. They are headed to a Los Angeles amusement park so Little Rock can still have some semblance of a childhood.

Now, Columbus’ search for the right girl in post-apocalypic Zombieland doesn’t seem to be a good fit, particularly since most anyone Columbus encounters wants to eat his face off. But the rather absurd juxtaposition works, particularly with Columbus’ voice over narration providing a few key points that may not be readily apparent. And how can you not laugh at the zombies, who look like they could just as easily been in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.

But I didn’t need to mention any of that for audiences to know this isn’t a serious horror flick. They can tell just from the title. It’s a parody, satirizing the film industry itself and a few other targets. Bill Murray even puts in a hysterical cameo as himself.

With clever dialogue and more laugh-out-loud moments than your average comedy, apparently there is life to be breathed into the moribund class of flesh eater flicks. This is pretty good entertainment for the value.