MOVIE REVIEW: ZOMBIELAND

ENGLISH - (18PL) - 10 December 2009 - Adventure/Comedy/Horror

Distributor: Sony Pictures
Running Time: 89 minutes
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Producer: Gavin Polone
Writers: Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Amber Heard
Plot: This horror comedy focuses on two men who have found a way to survive a world overrun by zombies. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is a big wuss but when you're afraid of being eaten by zombies, fear can keep you alive. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) is an AK-toting, zombie-slaying bad ass whose single determination is to get the last Twinkie on earth. As they join forces with Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) who have also found unique ways to survive the zombie mayhem, they will have to determine which is worse: relying on each other or succumbing to the zombies.

The Verdict

Green Tea Bern Says:

Zombieland takes you to an adventure where you can forget all about aliens, vampires or werewolf. This time, the undeads are the zombie clan as well as the zombie killing quartet. As promised, the movie delivers a great deal of humor as well as horror. Zombieland is truly a phenomenon and no wonder why many people loves it.

Zombieland takes the audience to discover the post-apocalyptic America, where a zombie apocalypse has been triggered by mad cow disease (a contaminated beef burger). Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is on his way back to hometown to see if his parents are alive. Losing his car, he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) and they travel together to accompany the mad cowboy to search the probably last Twinkie in the world. Then they meet two sisters, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), and together after some bizzare moments, form a partnership to kill zombies.

The film possesses some uniqueness in it. First is the ability to tell the story of apocalypse through the witty dialogue and popular culture. Conventionally a horror film means seriousness in tone, but thank god that we do not need to go through the pain of attempting to kill the undead like Alice. Instead, the whole road trip and the zombie killing were made so much fun to do.

Second, Zombieland is able to stay in attention of what it tries to deliver. The comedy is able to stand alone with its focus goal on zombie. Third, the gore is timely and this by far to show that zombie can be an interesting subject matter. The whole zombie-theme is in fact an expansion of the highly creative and innovative experience that mash well with the plot.

Zombieland is a smart and high actionable flick that can be enjoyable at time. It has on itself able to create its own running gag, dialogue and popular culture that will stand alone for the next film installment (the sequel looks imminently will happened).

However, I have to assure you that Zombieland is not meant for kids. Gory and bloody - those are the elements you will see throughout the movie. Bloody mayhem rules the street along the road trip no doubt. The only down side is that the humour joke can be lame at time. Usually I don't find it laughable but luckily, this is a special case that should be spared from others.

Woody Harrelson, fresh from seeing him in another madhatter role in 2012, in undeniable for his natural comedic role. Jesse Eisenberg played well both as a lead role and as a narrator, been witty while maintaing his phobia for clown evenly. The four characters - including the two sisters as portrayed by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin form a likable team with conflicting personal influential on each other. Perhaps, the biggest surprise is indeed Bill Murray, which I believe his cameo role is outrageously funny.

In shorts, looking for a fantastic zombie killing spree that has some romantic curiosity sub-story, road trip that makes everyone happy and a real ass-kicking zombie directly on their head? Well you got one. Zombieland may perhaps be the best comedy of the year. I have to say the cinematography is very satisfying.

THE RATING...

STORY - 4.0 stars

CASTS - 4.5 stars

CINEMATOGRAPHY - 4.5 stars

EFFECTS - 4.0 stars

OVERALL - 4.0 stars

Green-Tea-O-Meter: 16.9