ZOMBIELAND (2009), dir. Ruben Fleischer
SITE ARCHIVE! (REGULARLY UPDATED)
This review was originally posted at Cinemaspy.com
Zombieland seems more interested in eliciting laughs than causing goose bumps. It’s quite good at the former, which results in a fun time at the movies overall, and almost makes up for how slight it feels compared to George Romero’s zombie granddaddies or even the more recent films which ushered in the fast-zombie era. To be sure, there are plenty of "zeds" (and to answer your first question, these are the fast models), but the camera only settles on them when they’re devouring a victim or drooling lots of blood and bile. Is it gross? You bet. Scary? Not really.
What’s really terrifying, in Zombieland at least, is the prospect of human attachment. For that reason, the film’s main character Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) was a shut-in long before a Mad Cow-related virus decimated mankind. The erstwhile college student-turned-last surviving remnant of humanity remains highly-neurotic, living by a set of rules advocating safety above all else (Shoot a zombie in the head twice, watch out in bathrooms, etc.), which simultaneously keeps anyone from getting too close. Of course, Columbus secretly longs for the very human contact he avoids; you’d be a contradiction too, he explains, if the first girl you ever let into your dorm room tried to eat you.
Things start to change when he hitches a ride with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), although it takes a while for their relationship to thaw. The pair are opposite numbers, evidenced when they see a zombie woman devouring a corpse: Columbus remarks that it’s a reminder of how far the world has fallen; his new companion, on the other hand, says it makes him hungry. Tallahassee lives in the now more than Columbus, and indeed, his rules for life include enjoying "the little things," such as Twinkies and bashing a zombie’s head in.
They eventually meet two more survivors: Wichita (Emma Stone) and her sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), who are headed for a California theme park located in a town supposedly free of the undead. After some initial conflict, the four characters decide to drive to the west coast together, and on the way, Columbus starts to feel some romantic stirrings. He also makes some predictable observations about his new friends and how his previous outlook on life might not have been the best.
In the classic zombie movies, the creatures are supposed to be reflections of ourselves, but screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick invert the formula. Their message appears to be, We’re as much walking dead as the zombies if we don’t try and live, and that means taking some risks, whether it’s our feelings or, in the case of the final 30 minutes, our very lives. Indeed, between where they initially meet and the theme park, the protagonists encounter numerous obstacles, but the undead are rarely the most imposing. Rather, it’s trust issues or past tragedies. The emphasis on the personal extends to set pieces: in one scene there is a surprise raid on a Native American souvenir shop, and zombies are definitely dispatched. But the real point is for the characters to achieve catharsis by subsequently trashing the shop, and to bond with one another while doing so.
Director Ruben Fleischer doesn’t get around to disclosing everybody’s problems, and that benefits the movie, which zips from one moment to the next with only one scene that drags (It features a certain A-list star and is, nevertheless, hilarious). The build-up to the final act promises to mix zombies and a theme park, and without giving too much away, I can say the filmmakers deliver the goods. Think of your favorite kiddie-land rides and amusement park features; for the most part, they’re here and integrated into some pretty satisfying action sequences.
The cast is uniformly terrific, especially Harrelson and Breslin. After a decade in which his career seemed to go comatose, the former has found his comeback role, the kind of potential scenery-chewer many veteran actors would line up for. But Harrelson wisely plays Tallahassee with utmost sincerity, which acts to ground some of the curious things he does and says. (When the character claims he hasn’t "cried this hard since he saw Titanic," we totally believe him.) Meanwhile, Breslin, barely recognizable from her Little Miss Sunshine days, steals quite a few scenes from the rest of the cast, including one in which she fires a shotgun into the air as a warning, then smilingly remarks on the improbability of it. "All those violent video games," she says.
Like Shaun of the Dead before it, Zombieland is an offbeat, unexpectedly sanguine entry to a niche genre. Some viewers may have problems with the last act: at the preview screening I attended, I overheard audience members questioning why anybody would choose to awaken a theme park at night, since the end result would be lots of lights and noises that would attract zombies. Their argument is totally valid, but I would point out the rumor of no zeds in that part of town, as well as the movie’s overall theme that fun often goes against self-preservation.
This review was originally posted at Cinemaspy.com
Zombieland seems more interested in eliciting laughs than causing goose bumps. It’s quite good at the former, which results in a fun time at the movies overall, and almost makes up for how slight it feels compared to George Romero’s zombie granddaddies or even the more recent films which ushered in the fast-zombie era. To be sure, there are plenty of "zeds" (and to answer your first question, these are the fast models), but the camera only settles on them when they’re devouring a victim or drooling lots of blood and bile. Is it gross? You bet. Scary? Not really.
What’s really terrifying, in Zombieland at least, is the prospect of human attachment. For that reason, the film’s main character Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) was a shut-in long before a Mad Cow-related virus decimated mankind. The erstwhile college student-turned-last surviving remnant of humanity remains highly-neurotic, living by a set of rules advocating safety above all else (Shoot a zombie in the head twice, watch out in bathrooms, etc.), which simultaneously keeps anyone from getting too close. Of course, Columbus secretly longs for the very human contact he avoids; you’d be a contradiction too, he explains, if the first girl you ever let into your dorm room tried to eat you.
Things start to change when he hitches a ride with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), although it takes a while for their relationship to thaw. The pair are opposite numbers, evidenced when they see a zombie woman devouring a corpse: Columbus remarks that it’s a reminder of how far the world has fallen; his new companion, on the other hand, says it makes him hungry. Tallahassee lives in the now more than Columbus, and indeed, his rules for life include enjoying "the little things," such as Twinkies and bashing a zombie’s head in.
They eventually meet two more survivors: Wichita (Emma Stone) and her sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), who are headed for a California theme park located in a town supposedly free of the undead. After some initial conflict, the four characters decide to drive to the west coast together, and on the way, Columbus starts to feel some romantic stirrings. He also makes some predictable observations about his new friends and how his previous outlook on life might not have been the best.
In the classic zombie movies, the creatures are supposed to be reflections of ourselves, but screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick invert the formula. Their message appears to be, We’re as much walking dead as the zombies if we don’t try and live, and that means taking some risks, whether it’s our feelings or, in the case of the final 30 minutes, our very lives. Indeed, between where they initially meet and the theme park, the protagonists encounter numerous obstacles, but the undead are rarely the most imposing. Rather, it’s trust issues or past tragedies. The emphasis on the personal extends to set pieces: in one scene there is a surprise raid on a Native American souvenir shop, and zombies are definitely dispatched. But the real point is for the characters to achieve catharsis by subsequently trashing the shop, and to bond with one another while doing so.
Director Ruben Fleischer doesn’t get around to disclosing everybody’s problems, and that benefits the movie, which zips from one moment to the next with only one scene that drags (It features a certain A-list star and is, nevertheless, hilarious). The build-up to the final act promises to mix zombies and a theme park, and without giving too much away, I can say the filmmakers deliver the goods. Think of your favorite kiddie-land rides and amusement park features; for the most part, they’re here and integrated into some pretty satisfying action sequences.
The cast is uniformly terrific, especially Harrelson and Breslin. After a decade in which his career seemed to go comatose, the former has found his comeback role, the kind of potential scenery-chewer many veteran actors would line up for. But Harrelson wisely plays Tallahassee with utmost sincerity, which acts to ground some of the curious things he does and says. (When the character claims he hasn’t "cried this hard since he saw Titanic," we totally believe him.) Meanwhile, Breslin, barely recognizable from her Little Miss Sunshine days, steals quite a few scenes from the rest of the cast, including one in which she fires a shotgun into the air as a warning, then smilingly remarks on the improbability of it. "All those violent video games," she says.
Like Shaun of the Dead before it, Zombieland is an offbeat, unexpectedly sanguine entry to a niche genre. Some viewers may have problems with the last act: at the preview screening I attended, I overheard audience members questioning why anybody would choose to awaken a theme park at night, since the end result would be lots of lights and noises that would attract zombies. Their argument is totally valid, but I would point out the rumor of no zeds in that part of town, as well as the movie’s overall theme that fun often goes against self-preservation.
Labels: ***, 2009, Abigail Breslin, Jesse Eisenberg, Ruben Fleischer, Woody Harrelson
posted by Phil | 7:00 PM
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