Okay, so over the weekend I saw Sony Pictures'
Zombieland and it was simply amazing. I have never laughed so hard during a wannabe horror flick. It definitely surpassed it's under-performing competitors such as
Jennifer's Body, Pandorum and
Sorority Row. Here I was expecting the movie to be another cheesy zombie movie and it surprised me when I found myself laughing at every one liner, at almost every scene, happy to see the sheer brilliance of the characters actually not being completely ignorant in a scary situation or when being chased. I was also amazed with Woody Harrelson's performance in this film. For once I didn't want to hold my hands over my ears when he talked.
Usually comedy horrors tank due to the overwhelming desire to still "freak out" the audience. Ahem.... Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2...Leprechuan... Bride of Chucky...
If you haven't heard of this film, or just don't know what the hell I'm talking about then heres a brief synopsis of the whole shabang...
Colombus (Jesse Eisenberg) is a collge kid/loner wandering around trying to get home to Ohio, hence the his dubbed nickname "Colombus". He adapts to his new life where he's stuck in survival mode every minute of every day due to the mass number of zombies in the world after an epidemic struck. Colombus narrates explaining every one of his survival rules and he gets by fairly well. He then stumbles across a man dubbed Tallahasse (Woody Harrleson) who is just a badass who has a strong reverence for twinkies... After deciding to stick with each other, Colombus and Tallahasse become aquainted with two young ladies by the name of Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). After numerous cons and grand theft autos... the girls decide to let their guard down and travel along with our two main characters. After many zombie killings and uninhibited behavior due to the non existance of cops or laws, the crew faces one of their toughest battles with the zombies and trust issues. The main questions are: Will they come out strong? Or crack under pressure and falter at the hands of some blood-spitting, hungry zombies?
This film was right up there with the Shaun of the Dead humor. Our main character, Colombus teaches us the survival skills it takes to last in Zombieland without being the undead's main course. For once, the skills and rules he sets forth are just no brainers that so many characters in horror flicks always seemed to forget and then get killed off in the first five minutes of the film. In one scene, there is a chase and he drops his keys when trying to get in his car... and he DOESN'T try to pick them up as the zombies near him.. he simply runs around in a circle so they follow and then retrieves his keys later. BRILLIANT! Yeah... also there was no walking around in dark creepy houses and checking on noises in closets and all that... there was guns and no room for stupidity... FINALLY!
Which leads me to believe why this film did so well... the acting is perhaps the way ANY SMART PERSON would act in a certain situation where the undead are walking around looking for some food, which happens to be you...
There was maybe one moment in the flick where I though, DUH! IDIOTS... but other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Thank you Sony Pictures for not disappointing me!!! :)
