Zombieland (2009)
Zombieland was the definitive horror themed comedy of 2009 and not only was it surrounded by a LOT of hype on the release date it was able to live up to all expectations AND surpass them. The first real zombie themed comedy since Shaun of the Dead stole the spotlight on horror comedies and what we see in this one is able to surpass it. Directed by relative new director Ruben Fleischer anyone can tell you this is a director to keep your eyes on. It was written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick who have both worked in a few movies and television. They came together at one point to be a writing team and actually pitched Zombieland as a television show (which is convenient for us seeing a few follow up movies as they have a plot in place to follow through with a few.) With their success on Zombieland they of course are both signed up for a sequel, the Deadpool movie spinoff from Wolverine, and a sequel to the first G.I. Joe film. They are two writers who are going to be huge if they can keep up the momentum in these next three films!
We open the movie with an amazing cinematic showing off what has happened to the world being narrated by Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) as he explains how the world has come to an end. After that he quickly goes over the ‘rules’ he lives by (which is a comedic part that follows through the entire movie) and why he ends up on the move. Soon after beginning his journey to his parent’s house he stumbled across Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson.) Tallahassee is a very resourceful if high strung man and one of his quotes says it all, “My moma always told me, someday I'd be good at something. Who'd have guessed that something would be zombie killing?” This is a fact he has endless fun proving over and over again.
While on the search for supplies (and more importantly for Tallahassee, a Twinkie) they come across two other survivors. A pair of sisters who go by Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) who quickly prove to be much more devious and resourceful than our two leads as they steal Tallahassee’s pickup and gun. As they leave our two Tallahassee stumble across a redneck’s H2 full of weapons and are on their way again only to end up coming across the pickup now broken down. Clearly a trap they are once again tricked by the two girls but at this point are able to put together a truce because, let’s face it the world is covered in the undead and there are more important things to do than worry about each other.
The film can be taken as a horror (great gore), comedy (absolutely hilarious at every turn specifically with Harrelson stealing most of the scenes he’s in), a romance (Anyone who doesn’t see that Columbus and Wichita are going to get together is blind), an action flick (guns guns and guns), and a post apocalyptic film (seriously everything is destroyed) and even with mixing all of these genres together pulls it off. It’s one of the funniest and just plain fun films that were released in 2009 and well worth the watch. While the scare factor and suspense aren’t that high you still won’t regret putting this one on.
