Although it’s clearly un-American, I hear there are people out there who just don’t like zombie movies. I know, I know: it’s hard to believe. But it’s true: they don’t like the over-the-top gore, the chain-sawed legs, or the split abdomens, spilling guts. And then, of course, the money shot — a zombie crouched over a dead victim, looks into the camera while gnawing on a bone.
That shot comes about fifteen minutes into Zombieland, as Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) are cruising down an abandoned interstate, dodging corpses and stalled cars in their SUV. They are heading for parts unknown, though Columbus wants to go to his hometown, to see if his parents are (a) still alive and (b) have not been zombie-fied.
Zombieland opens as Columbus describes, in voice-over, his rules for staying alive in post-zombie-apocalypse America; they are accompanied by examples of their application, or lack thereof. Rule #1: Cardio — an overweight mensch on a football field is easily run-down by a zombie. Rule #4: Double tap — a woman shoots a zombie in the head and, because she fails to do it again, he eats her leg. “Don’t be afraid to use your ammunition,” Columbus instructs. “That lady should of, would have, could have, saved herself.”
Columbus survives by being super-cautious, by not taking any chances. Tallahassee is just the opposite: he is reckless, intense, and he just loves to kill zombies. Thus is set up classic, tried and true (some would say, tired and true) dynamics — at its heart, Zombieland is a buddy comedy, with zombies substituting for rival bounty hunters (Midnight Run), ex-wives (The Odd Couple) and New York criminals (Starsky and Hutch).
The way it goes is this: the buddies join forces (at least one of them does it reluctantly), and as they confront the obstacles in their they squabble but also bond, and each learns from the other. In our case, Tallahassee (the reluctant one) kills zombies with orgiastic abandon, actually going looking for them, which makes Columbus very nervous. But as they go along, he loosens up and learns the value of having fun; for his part, Tallahassee learns to trust, and to have a heart.
Our heroes join up with Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), con artists who have not stopped plying their trade even after the zombie apocalypse. They steal the boys’ SUV and arsenal, they reconnect, and the four begin to bond as they head for the West Coast. Along the way, Wichita and Columbus develop feelings for each other, and Tallahassee becomes a father figure for Little Rock.
It is all played out at a ferocious pace, with non-stop jokes and ever-inventive zombie kills. This is a decidedly post-modern zombie flick, with ironic tongue placed firmly in cheek, a lá 2004’s Shaun of the Dead and 2006’s Fido. The symbols and tropes are so familiar to us that it is their juxtaposition with those of other genres, in unexpected ways, that provides the interest, and much of the underlying humor. The gore, so shocking forty years ago in Night of the Living Dead, is now so passé that it works as kind of an ironic commentary itself, expanding upon and playing off of what the characters might be saying or doing.
Director Ruben Fleischer keeps the action moving along; at 81 minutes, the film is just about right. Harrelson is very good, giving one of his patented maniacal — yet lovable — performances; without him, the film probably wouldn’t work. The rest of the cast is just all right: Eisenberg is a bland, Michael-Cera-knockoff, and Stone is lovely, yet doesn’t have a lot of range. But then again, range is the last thing required in a movie like this, where the pleasures are pretty basic: kill zombies, run from zombies, crack ironic verbal and visual jokes while doing so.
Other critics have carped about the movie’s logical inconsistencies (why is there still electricity after the zombie apocalypse?) and outrageous coincidences (everyone in America apparently owns SUVs stocked with heavy-duty weaponry). To that I say: “Ok, let me get this straight: you’re watching a movie about mythical creatures who spew blood and eat people, and can infect us all with one bite, and still want logical consistency? It’s a ZOMBIE movie, for God’s sake. Deal with it.
I suspect that the degree to which you will tolerate Zombieland is the degree to which you can overlook its clichéd underpinnings and enjoy its full-bore zombie trappings. It takes a willingness to go along, to let the inconsistencies slide by, and be carried along by its rollicking pace and cheeky good humor. Me? I had no problem doing that: I ended up liking it a lot. It’s wildly entertaining and, for my money, the best zombie flick since Shaun of the Dead.
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Other critics have carped about the movie’s logical inconsistencies (why is there still electricity after the zombie apocalypse?) and outrageous coincidences (everyone in America apparently owns SUVs stocked with heavy-duty weaponry). To that I say: “Ok, let me get this straight: you’re watching a movie about mythical creatures who spew blood and eat people, and can infect us all with one bite, and still want logical consistency? It’s a ZOMBIE movie, for God’s sake. Deal with it.
I haven’t seen this but I’d probably make that complaint myself. The presence of the zombies is an accepted mythology going in. It’s the same idea of going to see a movie about knights hunting a dragon and one of the knights does something/anything a knight wouldn’t do: shoot lasers from his eyes, carry a cellphone, whatever… doesn’t matter. Point is if someone said, “But it’s about a fire-breathing dragon for God’s sake…” Yeah, well, the dragon is the internal story I suspend my disbelief for. The cellphone is just continuity laziness.
I find it’s an easy way to let some movies off the hook. I encountered the same problems with 28 Weeks Later. When a threat of exposure to the virus is revealed ( a rogue zombie in their midst), the military’s plan is to lock everyone in the basement and turn off all the lights. Now, when anyone complained about that (and I was one who rightly complained about this insanely stupid and lazy plotpoint) all we heard was, “Oh come on! So the military doesn’t do dumb things?” Uh… no… not that dumb – EVER! “Oh come on! It’s about the zombie dad pursuing the kids, cut it some slack…” No, I won’t cut it slack. There were any number of ways to spread the virus logically and consistently and achieve the exact same meaning and story arcs. But the writers were too lazy to come up with them so they rounded everyone up in the basement, turned off the lights and let the zombie in. I won’t forgive that kind of stupidity in writing and laziness but it’s hard to take that stand because people equate a fanciful subject with being allowed to eschew all logical consistency whatsoever.
So anyway, that’s my gripe. Like I said I haven’t seen it but logical inconsistencies are not acceptable just because the subject matter is fanciful.
Yeah, yeah … you’re right. I guess I’m just more willing to forgive logical inconsistencies in a movie that I otherwise like.
Given the length of my comment I feel you should have inserted a couple of paragraphs of filler into your response out of respect. Just go to a random article on Wikipedia, copy and paste a paragraph in the middle of your response to make it look longer and you’re good to go. For instance, you could have done it like this:
Yeah, yeah… you’re right. In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance which sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word “cement” traces to the Romans, who used the term “opus caementicium” to describe masonry which resembled concrete and was made from crushed rock with burnt lime as binder. The volcanic ash and pulverized brick additives which were added to the burnt lime to obtain a hydraulic binder were later referred to as cementum, cimentum, cäment and cement. Cements used in construction are characterized as hydraulic or non-hydraulic. I guess I’m just more willing to forgive logical inconsistencies in a movie that I otherwise like.
See, that would’ve been much better.
Oh, forgive me, oh great bundle of thin nylon filaments or a plastic (teflon or polyethylene) ribbon used to remove food and dental plaque from teeth. The floss is gently inserted between the teeth and scraped along the teeth sides, especially close to the gums. Dental floss may be flavored or unflavored, and waxed or unwaxed. Levi Spear Parmly, a dentist from New Orleans, is credited with inventing the first form of dental floss. He recommended that people should clean their teeth with silk floss in 1815.[1] Dental floss was still unavailable to the consumer until the Codman and Shurtleft company started producing human-usable unwaxed silk floss in 1882. In 1898, the Johnson & Johnson Corporation received the first patent for dental floss. Other early brands included Red Cross, Salter Sill Co. and Brunswick.
A character is depicted using dental floss in James Joyce’s famous novel Ulysses (serialised 1918-1920) – an early mention of the practice, given the greatness and completeness of your wise comment. No offense intended.
None taken. But I said use filler. That floss thing was downright fascinating!
Some of us are spending way too much time on wikipedia– besides everyone knows that dental floss grows on bushes in Montana
Good reference, Pam…..I’m a Frank Zappa fan.
As to zombie films…..there are those of us that don’t particularly object, but are just not interested. I’d like to see a zombie movie with one walking smartly toward the intended victim. When asked why he isn’t stumbling and lurching, he would explain that physical therapy cured his various ailments
Geez, you just can’t offend anyone. Here I call you, Greg, a “big bundle of thin nylon filaments” and you find it fascinating.
If you like that one, I’ve got a great article on “Deep Wound Ablation and the Treatment of Third Degree Burns” that you’ll just go crazy over it.
Pam (and Ed): “Movin’ to Montana soon, gonna be a dental floss tycoon”
Ed: good to “see: you!
Or a Republican attack ad captioned “Impact of the Obama health care reforms on the public health”