(Courtesy of Relativity Media)
When audiences go to the movies today, it’s hard not to see a trailer for some film about the end of the world.
“2012” and “The Road” are coming soon and there’s a long history of end of the world movies that involve zombies. The list includes movies such as “Night of the Living Dead”, “Dawn of the Dead” and “28 Days Later”. All these films follow the same plot: How does one survive the apocalypse?
Unfortunately, they’re becoming increasingly sad, boring and formulaic. The cure? A dose of laughter, which is exactly what “Zombieland” offers.
Following in the footsteps of “Shaun of the Dead,” “Zombieland” asks, “The world as we know it ended, so how could that be funny?”
That is just where the film picks up, with the main character and personal narrator Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) filling his gas tank and being ever-vigilant in case a zombie comes running around the corner.
It’s at this point when Eisenberg explains to the audience what happened to the world and how he has managed to survive against all odds. He keeps an obsessively compulsive list of how he’s done this on hand at all times.
Following Eisenberg’s intro, viewers are promptly introduced to the lone wolf Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) who takes satisfaction in only two things: Killing zombies and Twinkies. Eisenberg asks Harrelson for a ride when they are both heading east.
The adventure continues from there as the characters are constantly interrupted by Harrelson’s need for a Twinkie, which he just can’t seem to find. That leads them to a supermarket where they meet two con artists, Wichita (Emma Stone) and her younger sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), who waste no time with stealing Tallahassee and Columbus’ guns and car.
It seems that at the end of the world, the living still can’t be trusted, even when they’re all surrounded by zombies. After the guys are conned a second time, Stone and Breslin (with guns pointed) have them turn the car around and head for an amusement park in L.A. The group bonds during their zombie killing and property-destroying pit stops. This leads to a misadventure that lands them face-to-face with one of the few movie stars still alive, whose house the foursome crash in for a couple of nights.
It’s probably best to see the movie to find out what happens from there.
This film paints the same world as the many “zombie apocalypse” films before it as a desolate wasteland with more cars then people. Where “Zombieland” draws its strength from is bringing what people have seen so many times before in other movies to absurd levels. This includes the unique methods of killing a zombie, an international creative zombie-killing contest and so many other things make the inner horror fan in you just laugh out loud.
Grade: B+
Contact CU Independent Multimedia Editor Greg O’Brien at Gregory.l.obrien@colorado.edu.
