Zombieland

Zombieland was just fun. The script was decent, the acting was average (except I felt that Abigail Breslin tried too hard), the special effects were nothing special. But the jokes were funny enough (I laughed out loud twice, which is rare for me to do once), the actors were likable enough (I do like watching Jesse Eisenberg do his thing), and the movie pulled it somehow together so that I found myself enjoying this film.

This was only my second zombie film to date, the first Danny Boyle's zombie masterpiece "28 Days Later" (both films involve fast moving zombies), so I don't claim to be the genre expert. However, this film seemed to revel in mocking itself. Killing zombies becomes a game, something to be enjoyed, complete with a list of humorous rules and guns galore. And what this movie was ultimately trying to say (if we discard the "shoot-stuff-for-fun" allure) is that people need others. In this film, the four main characters needed each other not only to stay alive, but to thrive as humans. Which doesn't seem like a thing one would worry about in a zombie world. If you only exist to survive the zombies and it requires daily slayings of past people, why would you want to live? Is life worth it then? And that's my soap box on the philosophy of zombie movies.

Again, Jesse Eisenberg plays the nerdy twerp that becomes the beloved main character, a role that I have yet to tire of. He has that guy nailed down--but eventually (depending on how he did in "Holy Rollers" and "The Social Network") he will be forever considered the older brother of Michael Cera, but only because "Juno" was way bigger than "The Squid and the Whale."

This film does have some poignant moments, and at least one of these I didn't see coming. The first and most surprising was that Florida (Woody Harrelson) was trying to move on from his son's death, not his dog's. The filmmakers created a very surprising montage of memories Florida had had with his son, which were proceeded by one's of the same nature but with his dog. I didn't expect to be shocked, but I was. Secondly, I found it touching when Wichita tells Columbus her real name, even though that reveal has been vastly overdone. Nevertheless, it was nice here.

Ultimately, this film is about audiences enjoying watching people kill zombies. As that as it's goal, I'd say it does a pretty good job (I mean come on, it's hard to hate a film with a White Stripes song in it. Just sayin').