Tuesday, 17 July 2012

Zombieland

"Zombieland" (2009, Relativity Media, Ruben Fleischer) is an action-packed, zombie-apocalypse gore comedy!

The zombie apocalypse is upon us, thanks to mad cow disease, and nerdy student, "Columbus" (Jesse Eisenberg) *everyone's named after where they come from rather than their actual names. It's the apocalypse, who cares about names?!* has had to come to terms with his need for survival. He has devised some simple rules to live (and keep living) by:

  1. Cardio
  2. Double Tap
  3. Beware of bathrooms (good one, it's always when you're busy!)
  4. Seatbelts
  5. Cast iron skillet
  6. Travel light
  7. Get a kickass partner
  8. Bounty paper towels
  9. Bowling ball
  10. Don't/Be a hero (depending on whether you're trying to impress a girl or not)
  11. Limber up
  12. Avoid stip joints
  13. Know your way out
  14. buddy system
  15. Always check the back seat
  16. Enjoy the small things
  17. Swiss army knives are your friends
  18. clean socks are everyone's friends
  19. Hygiene
  20. Backup
**(the numbers don't correlate, I wasn't that dedicated to taking notes)**

The list begins much smaller, but as he travels (on his way to his home of Columbus to find his parents), the list increases in size.

He meets "Tallahassee" (Woody Harrelson), a tough guy in a cowboy hat who lets Columbus tag along...grudgingly. Tallahassee loves Twinkies. Being Scottish, I've never experienced a Twinkie so I'm not sure how funny this craving is. But I like to imagine it's like craving Irn Bru; sugary awesomeness that I can live without until I get told that I can't have any. Then I NEED it!

The boys run into scheming sisters, "Wichita" (Emma Stone) and "Little Rock" (Abigail Breslin) and all four begin making their way instead to a themepark called "Pacific Playland" where the girls are convinced is zombie free. Of course!

A very fun comedy horror film with good long-running jokes, plenty of gore and an excellent cameo from the great Bill Murray! (I love Bill Murray). I really do hope that is his house ;) But somehow, I doubt it.

The characters are likable and there's even one or two real scares in there! It's the kind of zombie flick that both horror-geeks and normals can enjoy; not relying too much on you having seen any iconic zombie movies to get the jokes.

It's very American in the way that "Shaun of the Dead" is very English, which I enjoy. And the make up and effects are excellent (like I'd expect anything less from Tony Gardner, who was involved in Michael Jackson's masterpiece video, "Thriller"?!).

I just recently got this DVD back from a colleague who:

a) watched it and didn't even LIKE it!!! (He said it was too funny to be a zombie movie... What a weirdo! He clearly hasn't seen "Fido", "Wasting Away" or "Shaun of the Dead"!)

and b) kept it for about 3 months! So naturally, the first thing I did was rewatch it :)

An excellent film!

[Picture: Relativity Media]


Hani

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