In a world where many people long for an apocalypse simply to break up the confusing scenarios we live in as a global culture, it’s no surprise that a zombie apocalypse makes for a fascinating subject that a mass audience can enjoy. The idea of reverting back to an ancestral state and having to survive by our wits and using whatever is left over appeals to many of us because it’s genuinely fun to imagine. Fortunately, Zombieland takes advantage of the fun factor and ramps it up to the max, offering us a cast of survivors who don’t take the idea of roaming across a nation of wandering undead unduly serious. It’s a definite joyride that’s going to recall Shaun of the Dead in spirit, if not in setting. It’s the type of movie that you can either go see in the theater with friends or rent for a good time at home because it’s not insistent about taking itself too seriously, but it will make you jump or cringe a few times to remind you it’s not your standard run of the mill funny movie.
The main character is known to us as “Columbus”, a college student from Texas who is on his way to find out whether or not his family survived the hordes of zombies milling about across the country. He meets up with Tallahassee (the ever entertaining Woody Harrelson) who is himself on a quest to locate all of the remaining Twinkies on the planet. Everyone has to live for something, right? The pair heads off into the unknown and eventually encounter two girls whom they come to know as Witchita and Little Rock. Shenanigans ensue and the girls leave the guys stranded so the guys take up hot pursuit to try and reclaim both their vehicle and their weapons. After finding out that Ohio has , unsurprisingly, been all but destroyed, Columbus decides to stay on with the group and they journey forth as a quartet.
The majority of the film is the group battling various kinds of zombies with plenty of wisecracks to go with the skull cracks. Lots of bludgeoning and gunfire go with the jokes and the creative means by which the group dispenses of the endless sea of staggering corpses really does keep things entertaining the whole way through. You’ve got a nice balance here and that’s what grants Zombieland such a wide appeal to a diverse audience. It really is the what its name suggests, a post apocalyptic amusement park gone horribly, well, funny!
There’s plenty of action in this flick to get you through, but beyond all the action and the laughs there’s enough of a real story of humans bonding together after traumatic events in order to save themselves against a world that doesn’t understand or perhaps more accurately in this case, can’t understand. There’s even a romance that make sense given the setting. The humor level is very high and during a season when there will be so many deadly serious horror flicks it can be quite entertaining to enjoy one that’s going to provide laughs among friends for quite a while to come.
Zombieland turns out to be well worth the price of admission.
Loading ...
