Zombieland

Director: Ruben Fleischer
Writers: Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone
Release Date: October 2, 2009
Length: 1 hour 21 minutes

Be prepared to hear this. Somewhere in the near future, a virus breaks out, in which innocent civilians, like us, become disgusting looking, blood drinking zombies. As a movie premise, that may sound idiotic and ridiculous. But in fact, it is actually quite hilarious. As surprising as this may sound, Zombieland is one of the most enjoyable movies I have seen in quite a long time. The story is well thought out, it’s not too long, the characters are well developed, and the jokes are written with intelligent humor. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland) as a young man trying to travel across the U.S, to Ohio, where his folks might still be alive. Along the way he meets a tough, southern muscle-builder (Woody Harrelson), whose favourite activity is killing Zombies.  They team up together and on their way, they come across two money-stealing, game-playing sisters (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) on their way to California. The four of them embark on a journey together, that is not your typical road trip. Zombieland is a breath of fresh air, compared to some of the comedies/ sci-fi movies that have come out recently. Unknown director Ruben Fleischer somehow manages to create a perfect balance of clever comedy and exciting action sequences for this movie. I was worried the whole movie would be blood and guts and intestines and I would sit there closing my eyes, having gag reflexes for an hour and a half. But, I was pleasantly surprised to find out Zombieland was more character driven, then action driven. Although I did, weirdly enough, find myself laughing when the zombies would be shot multiple times, there was a good amount of interesting storyline for the characters as well. When I first saw the trailer for this film, I thought the casting was a bit odd, but it might end up working, When I actually saw the film, I realized the cast couldn’t have been better chosen. Jesse Eisenberg may seem to some people like a copy version of Michael Cera, but I find him to have more of a personality then Mr. Cera and is certainly much more interesting to watch on screen. I’ve never been a fan or non-fan of Woody Harrelson, but he fits in perfectly with this role and he’s quite funny to watch. I’ve always found Emma Stone very funny with Superbad and The House Bunny, and Abigail Breslin isn’t half-bad either, when she has a machine gun in her hands. It may seem as though this film was fabricated for teenage boys/immature men that like seeing people (more specifically zombies) having their heads blown off, but there is more than gore when it comes to Zombieland, a satisfying comedy.