Day 9: Zombieland

This film is what I consider to be the cinematic equivalent of lightning in a bottle. While other films before this made zombies cool and interesting, Zombieland was the first film to bring that coolness to the masses. While it is still not my favorite zombie film (that title belongs to the epic Shaun of the Dead), Zombieland was able to capture the popcorn fun of what a zombie outbreak could be.    


The best decision made, like most zombie stories, it to focus on how the remaining human characters interract and deal with their surroundings.  The casting department really hit a homerun with this one.  Abigail Breslin (as Little Rock) brings a naive sensability to the group, which allows for some nice contrast to the remaining survivors.  Emma Stone (as Wichita), is amazing as always.  Her star power is constantly rising, and this film really played to her strengths.  Jessie Eisenberg (as Colombus) is perfect at playing erratic characters (hello, Social Network), but he really does a great job at balancing both the fear that comes with such a situation, and the desire to impress the beautiful girl that he happens to be surviving with.


The gem of the film is easily one of the greatest characters written in recent years who, without even much effort, completely steals the entire film.  Woody Harrelson's Tallahassee is easily one of the most fun characters to watch, and imagining another actor pulling off the role so seamlessly is hard to imagine.  What could have been an extremely cheesy one-note role was given incredible range with the writing, and with the superb portrayal that Harrelson delivers, and the character is given the best fully-realized arc out of all the characters in the film.  While there's no way the Academy Awards would ever allow themselves to do such a thing, it was an incredible shame that Harrelson wasn't at least nominated for a Golden Globe.

Jessie Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, and Woody Harrelson in Zombieland

The film manages to keep things fresh throughout the story, and keeps the pace steady.  Even when the films slows down for a little exposition, the scenes are still interesting enough to keep those ADD-riddled viewers paying attention.  And while I'm sure many of you have already seen or heard by now, as nobody was able to keep it much of a secret for long, the film has quite possibly the best celebrity cameo in film history.  While I won't spoil it here for those who might still be out of the loop, the cameo is EPIC.

Also of note is the incredible art design of the film.  One of the greatest running gags are the rules of survival offered up by Colombus, and how the visual presentation of the rule interacts with the scene in which it is featured.  The film's scenes interacting with text onscreen is started with the opening credits, and continued through the film, and is one of the most fun aspects of the film.

All-in-all, if you haven't seen this film, please give it a chance, even if zombies aren't your thing.  Sure, there's a little blood and guts every now and then, but the real prize of this film is the story itself and the characters.  It's no surprise, given how strong both were, that the film was a hit with both the critics, and audiences alike, which tends to be a rarity these days, unless your a blue fluorescent alien or a teenage wizard.  As always, feel free to use the following links to purchase your own copy on DVD or BluRay (although watch out for the rare "Nut Up or Shut Up" editions, as they get pretty pricey), or add the film to your Netflix list.  For viewing pleasure, you can watch the trailer below.