Carrying on the legacy of ‘Shaun of the Dead’

George A. Romero may have conceived the premise of flesh-eating zombie movies long before any of us were old enough to watch them, but I don’t think even the pioneer himself could’ve ever guessed that the idea would eventually turn into its own sub-genre with a comedic edge.

I can’t even remember the last time I went into a zombie movie expecting to be scared, but it never hurts to have a little mindless fun, and “Zombieland” is one movie that plays like there’s no tomorrow. It’s like watching the cast of MADtv survive a game of “Left 4 Dead.”

While it may be a shaky choice for his directorial debut, Ruben Fleischer constructs “Zombieland” in a very unique style that has never been done before. We already know that an uncountable number of undead characters will either be splattered or squashed, but in an opening prologue that sets the right tone of comedic suspense, the narrative of the film comes off more like a survivor’s guide to zombie invasions.

The main protagonist is played by Jesse Eisenberg, and in his first encounter with the undead, a beautiful neighbor comes over to his home, takes his virginity, and then wakes up the next morning as a hungry monster. I know, it sounds hilarious and scary all at once, but it isn’t until the lonely wuss gets picked up by a hunter named Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) that the film really takes off.

It is also at this point that Eisenberg’s character gets the name “Columbus,” from his savior. Evidently his parents are still alive in Ohio, and in order to avoid getting too attached to other survivors, Tallahassee would rather talk less and slaughter more. Maybe it’s because Harrelson has always been a fearless player, but at one point in the film, I actually wrote down in my notepad: “the Natural Born Killer is back!”

The unlikely combination of characters serves the typical odd couple scenario where the two men never agree on strategy, and viewers can practically mouth their words right out of the script as they argue about caution and toughness. Luckily for the script, Harrelson and Eisenberg are both gifted actors, and because they bring all the right qualities into every scene, it’s easy to just sit back and let them have fun while the script goes by the numbers.

Things get a little more interesting when they come across a pair of female sisters who are just as hell bent on surviving as they are. At first sight, the gung-ho dames actually take their car and weapons away from them, but as with any mix of sexes in a zombie flick, someone must fall in love before one of them needs to be “saved” from a growing infection.

The bigger story, however, is the presence of Abigail Breslin as the pre-teen Little Rock. If one had to guess two years ago, they might have laughed at the thought of “Little Miss Sunshine” acting in a zombie movie, but the young talent really pulls through in a few scenes where she and Tallahassee become like father and daughter. It’s hard to say whether or not the idea was meant to be serious, or if it was just to provide a balance to the teen romance, but it works nevertheless.

The biggest advantage to “Zombieland” is that it knows we don’t care about the “why” or “how” in its plot, so rather than waste time explaining it, the movie just throws the “what” right into our faces.

Some would say that is a recipe for idiocy, but in my humble opinion: if you’re not willing to cut off your brain and just let these zombies munch on it for 90 minutes … well then, you’re the idiot who bought a ticket in the first place.

There is also a special feature of “where” both in and out of the story as the players make their way across the country to a theme park believed to be zombie-free. The story tells us its a trip to Los Angeles, but Georgia natives will quickly recognize the backdrop of several local cities, and to cap it off with a big shootout at Wild Adventures is just icing on the cake!

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 2 2009. Filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry