Zombieland
Review
When we think about films, a horror-comedy is the type
of picture that can go either one way or the other, and, surprisingly, Zombieland
has tipped the scales in its favour; just about. With its
strong mix of characters, and reckless, adventurous nature rubbing up against a
tale of romance and bout of comedy, it’s certainly a film that keeps the
audience intrigued. Yes, some of the gags fall dead here and there, leaving us with a few limp chuckles, and some moments are gut-wrenchingly cliché, but, all in all, for
what it is, it could have a been a disaster. Within the opening scene of the film, you are immediately
immersed into the post-apocalyptic world of the ‘Unites States of Zombieland’,
and what you get is an immediate and comical zombie-fest of slow motion shots of
undead vs. human fun. Unfortunately, the quality of the humour begins to plummet - it does, however, save itself by keeping you invested through the relationships forming between certain
characters, and the peppering of a good zombie punch up here and there; with
the blood gargling and rotten zombies being realistically nasty. Certain
scenes stand out in particular, such as an unusual rollercoaster ride
that would have you screaming in terror for all of the wrong reasons, and a gas
guzzling mum running from her sweet, little, flesh eating angels within the
first 5 minutes of the film. The characters are generally likeable, with tough guy Woody
Harrelson bringing the action, and Emma Stone’s fiery character adding onto
this, whilst also playing as part of the romance sub-genre with weak nerd Jesse
Eisenberg. Yet, although we’ve been given a colourful palette of characters to
feast upon (pun intended), the greatest moment of the film
lies in its much anticipated cameo. The cameo is introduced perfectly and their jokes hit you
right in the funny bone, coming as a much needed boost to its comedy genre.
Despite all of that, you can’t help but feel that the story sometimes
gets lost within itself, skipping back onto the recurring ‘twinkie’ joke, and
slipping in clichéd moments towards the predictable ‘finale’ which doesn’t go
off with much of a heart shaking bang as it perhaps could have done. Don’t feel discouraged, it certainly does take you on a good ride through this post-apocalyptic world, but just doesn’t seem to bring anything new to its hybrid
genre; making it, really, a throwaway film. So, if you’re are looking for a cheap thrill movie that has a
strong set up of characters and a good promise of laugh out loud fun, then
Zombieland should be next on your list. It certainly doesn’t bring anything new
to the Horror-Comedy table, but does enough to keep you entertained and fairly
satisfied. My advice? Stick to Shaun of the Dead.