damajuki
Gopher
Hey all. Here's a Zombieland review I wrote up as a writing exercise. Let me know what you think, if you feel like it, or share your thoughts if you saw it.
Juki
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It may not come as a surprise to see a human heart in a zombie movie, but it is surprising for a zombie movie to actually have a heart.
Zombieland shows a lot of heart both ways. It is bloody and violent but also hilariously original, thanks to its depiction of believably human characters who are more than just the usual cast of characters meant to be zombie food.
“Zombieland” is what the narrator Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) calls what’s left of the U.S. after the usual zombie movie virus has turned the populace into zombies. Surviving the plague thanks to his own paranoid rules (such as Rule #2: Wear A Seatbelt, even though there aren’t any other drivers around) and loner personality, Columbus decides to leave the safety of his dorm room in Texas and travel to his hometown of Columbus, Ohio in search of his parents, killing zombies only when they get in his way.
On the way to Ohio, Columbus hitches a ride from Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a redneck zombie killer who approaches zombie killing like that guy at the all-you-can eat buffet approaches the buffet for the fourth time: he just can’t get enough, and he likes it a little more than is probably healthy.
When Columbus and Tallahassee stop to search for what could be the world’s last Twinnkie ( Tallahassee inspires Columbus to create Rule #32: Enjoy the Little Things) they run into two sisters, 12-year old Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and her big sister Wichita (Emma Stone). The two girls are experienced survivors not used to trusting anyone but each other, even before the zombie virus came along, so despite a rocky start involving firearms, the guys and the girls decide to team up and head west towards Pacific Playland, a favorite childhood vacation spot of the girls that they believe to be the last zombie-free place in the country.
So the foursome head west and from there, the movie gets a little more predictable though no less enjoyable, with the group taking a hilarious detour through post-apocalyptic L.A. (featuring a not-to-be-missed cameo by comedy icon Bill Murray), before making it to Pacific Playland. There’s no way to describe the finale without potentially ruining some of the fun, so I will just say that it touches hearts both human and zombie in the appropriate way. First time film writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese and first time director Ruben Fleischer wade deep into the cliché-filled waters of the zombie movie genre and somehow manage to mock, destroy, or avoid every cliché on their way to injecting a real humanity into their characters.
Any movie that can combine graphic zombie killing with such wit and humor and still impart a real sense of the emotional toll that the characters are suffering as they come to grips with their worlds ending can only be described as impressively original. It becomes clearer as the film goes on that for Tallahassee, for example, killing zombies on his way to finding one more Twinnkie is as much about holding on to the past as it is about surviving the present.
This sense of loss resonates so strongly primarily because of the remarkable acting by the cast. Each of the actors manages to take character type that easily could have been as fake as a Twinnkie (the scary redneck, the anxious nerd, the hot chick, the cute girl) and make them truly sympathetic characters. I found myself actually enjoying these characters and – unlike most zombie movies I’ve seen– I didn’t want them to get munched because they were so annoying.
Eisenberg makes the painfully nerdy Columbus more than just the guy you laugh at. He becomes the real hero of the movie, and it’s a testament to his acting ability that he manages to take that role from the old pro Harrelson, who seemingly effortlessly imparts a surprising amount of warmth and charm into a character that’s pretty rough around the edges. Breslin doesn’t get a whole lot to do, unfortunately, but there may not be a bigger compliment to an actor than to say she made something out of nothing and that’s what she does here. Stone also doesn’t get enough to do but also manages to find the humanity in the stereotype she was given. All four actors elevate their characters beyond the usual role of humans in zombie movies: that of moving targets.
I’m not sure what recommends Zombieland more highly: the fact that it is so good that I would pay to see it again or the fact that it makes me want to eat a Twinnkie in its honor. Either way, if you like your films like zombies like their meals – with a real, live human heart and an actual working brain – then Zombieland is the only zombie movie you will ever have to see.
Juki
--
It may not come as a surprise to see a human heart in a zombie movie, but it is surprising for a zombie movie to actually have a heart.
Zombieland shows a lot of heart both ways. It is bloody and violent but also hilariously original, thanks to its depiction of believably human characters who are more than just the usual cast of characters meant to be zombie food.
“Zombieland” is what the narrator Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) calls what’s left of the U.S. after the usual zombie movie virus has turned the populace into zombies. Surviving the plague thanks to his own paranoid rules (such as Rule #2: Wear A Seatbelt, even though there aren’t any other drivers around) and loner personality, Columbus decides to leave the safety of his dorm room in Texas and travel to his hometown of Columbus, Ohio in search of his parents, killing zombies only when they get in his way.
On the way to Ohio, Columbus hitches a ride from Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a redneck zombie killer who approaches zombie killing like that guy at the all-you-can eat buffet approaches the buffet for the fourth time: he just can’t get enough, and he likes it a little more than is probably healthy.
When Columbus and Tallahassee stop to search for what could be the world’s last Twinnkie ( Tallahassee inspires Columbus to create Rule #32: Enjoy the Little Things) they run into two sisters, 12-year old Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and her big sister Wichita (Emma Stone). The two girls are experienced survivors not used to trusting anyone but each other, even before the zombie virus came along, so despite a rocky start involving firearms, the guys and the girls decide to team up and head west towards Pacific Playland, a favorite childhood vacation spot of the girls that they believe to be the last zombie-free place in the country.
So the foursome head west and from there, the movie gets a little more predictable though no less enjoyable, with the group taking a hilarious detour through post-apocalyptic L.A. (featuring a not-to-be-missed cameo by comedy icon Bill Murray), before making it to Pacific Playland. There’s no way to describe the finale without potentially ruining some of the fun, so I will just say that it touches hearts both human and zombie in the appropriate way. First time film writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese and first time director Ruben Fleischer wade deep into the cliché-filled waters of the zombie movie genre and somehow manage to mock, destroy, or avoid every cliché on their way to injecting a real humanity into their characters.
Any movie that can combine graphic zombie killing with such wit and humor and still impart a real sense of the emotional toll that the characters are suffering as they come to grips with their worlds ending can only be described as impressively original. It becomes clearer as the film goes on that for Tallahassee, for example, killing zombies on his way to finding one more Twinnkie is as much about holding on to the past as it is about surviving the present.
This sense of loss resonates so strongly primarily because of the remarkable acting by the cast. Each of the actors manages to take character type that easily could have been as fake as a Twinnkie (the scary redneck, the anxious nerd, the hot chick, the cute girl) and make them truly sympathetic characters. I found myself actually enjoying these characters and – unlike most zombie movies I’ve seen– I didn’t want them to get munched because they were so annoying.
Eisenberg makes the painfully nerdy Columbus more than just the guy you laugh at. He becomes the real hero of the movie, and it’s a testament to his acting ability that he manages to take that role from the old pro Harrelson, who seemingly effortlessly imparts a surprising amount of warmth and charm into a character that’s pretty rough around the edges. Breslin doesn’t get a whole lot to do, unfortunately, but there may not be a bigger compliment to an actor than to say she made something out of nothing and that’s what she does here. Stone also doesn’t get enough to do but also manages to find the humanity in the stereotype she was given. All four actors elevate their characters beyond the usual role of humans in zombie movies: that of moving targets.
I’m not sure what recommends Zombieland more highly: the fact that it is so good that I would pay to see it again or the fact that it makes me want to eat a Twinnkie in its honor. Either way, if you like your films like zombies like their meals – with a real, live human heart and an actual working brain – then Zombieland is the only zombie movie you will ever have to see.
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