If you have an aversion to seeing bile-spewing zombies chase, catch, and eat people alive, maybe you should skip this one. But if you can handle it, you will laugh long and hard at its cartoonish computer-enhanced violence, and the personality quirks of its heroes. Jack & I have dubbed it a road-trip-coming-of-age-buddy-horror movie: a whole new genre! Jesse Eisenberg (Roger Dodger (2002), The Squid and the Whale (2005), Adventureland) is still doing the neurotic, awkward virginal thing, but smart. So smart in this one that he becomes a survivor instead of a victim. His character, who doesn't get a name until late in the first half hour of this short (1:21) movie, narrates, and lists his rules for survival in a post-apocalyptic world where almost everyone has become a zombie due to a virus, and very few uninfected humans have avoided becoming lunch. Said rules materialize on various parts of the screen in metal letters, and then clank as they fall down, among the many clever visuals in this hack-fest.
Eisenberg teams up with Woody Harrelson (some of his best post-Cheers work: Natural Born Killers (1994), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), Edtv (1999), North County (2005), No Country for Old Men (2007), and Battle in Seattle), whose character supplies everyone's names, and later they meet Emma Stone (I found a still of her in Superbad, but didn't remember her) and the now-teenaged child actress Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and Definitely, Maybe (2008)); and travel across the country. There is a hilarious celebrity cameo that I will not spoil for you (and I don't mean Mike White, who is uncredited as "Victim in the Bathroom"). TV writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (The Joe Schmo Show) apparently pitched Zombieland as a series. When it failed they got to write and produce it for the big screen with some veteran producers, including Curb Your Enthusiasm's Gavin Polone, hiring first-time movie director Ruben Fleischer, and the results are first rate. The "Zombie Kill of the Week" is clearly a residual of the TV idea. The soundtrack listing (I was pleased that imdb put them all in for a change) belies the fact that kick-ass (can I say that?) rock and roll seems to dominate: Metallica, Van Halen, etc. (you can listen to clips on this site). On a personal note, although I laughed at the sport-killing, the high body count, and the wanton destruction of property, I was unhappy about musical instruments used as weapons--couldn't quite let go of that one. Here are two links you might like after you see it: this interview with Reese and Wernick, and imdb's trivia (both contain spoilers).
Believe it or not, Jack and I saw a double feature Wednesday. The testosterone-fueled Zombieland ended at 6:15 and we walked across the cineplex (with valid tickets, of course!) into a 6:20 show of Where the Wild Things Are, where the hormones were younger, but still pumping.
I FORGOT THESE BITS:
1. There is a bonus at the end. Don't be like the people from the flyover states and leave before the credits are finished. You will be rewarded.
2. I saw an ad today that said Zombieland is "As funny as The Hangover." Way funnier, in my humble opinion.
3. I plan to write that we liked Where the Wild Things Are. But we liked this one better.
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