Zombieland
follows the character called Columbus, played by Jesse Eisenberg, in his
travels across the post-apocalyptic nation of “Zombieland”. Early on the film
he teams up with Tallahassee, played by Woody Harrelson and they form a very
odd pair who also eventually pair up with Emma Stones character and her sister.
On a quick glance this is a zombie horror comedy, but upon reflecting back on
the film after seeing it, you realize it is not really about surviving the
zombie apocalypse, but is actually a very touching tale about overcoming your
fears and coming out of you shell. The film does a surprisingly good job at
handling themes that you wouldn’t at all associate with a horror comedy.
Columbus is
a very socially awkward guy, which he has been since before the zombie
outbreak, and the film is really about him getting past all his phobias and
becoming a person who actually functions socially. He says he never really had
friends or close family, but eventually he starts to realize that his travel
companions start to become his family. At the beginning of the film he has this
long list of rules that he follows to survive zombie attacks, but he starts to
learn that he cant live his life by all these rules as they are designed for
him and him alone to survive. Eisenberg does a very good job at portraying a
socially awkward character the way you might see Michael Cera do. Tallahassee
is a total badass, yet in this film they have managed to make him stand out
from your normal, hilarious badass. He actually has a surprisingly lot of
character depth and like Columbus he also has a good arc. Harrelson gives a
very good performance and has great comedic timing as well as some needed
emotion at certain points.
Tallahassee
has some of the funniest of the funniest lines in here and there are a lot. The
funniest parts of the movie are probably scenes showing contrast between the
pure manliness of Tallahassee and Columbus who is just a massive coward and
just seems nervous all the time. The humour is always as black as you’d expect
from the film, but rather it is often quite straightforward with some dark
humour at times. Though that’s not by ay means a problem, it does seem weird in
certain scenes as the film has a very dark mood, which doesn’t always fit and
make some of the jokes seem a bit silly. For the most part however, every joke
hits right on the mark and will have you laughing pretty hard at times.
The films
first act is probably the as it does such a good job of setting up the
characters and the world. What became a problem is that while the first act is
very hilarious and the third act is hilarious, exciting and touching, the second
act seems kind of out of place. For me the second act didn’t have that many
good laughs as all the best jokes were in the first act and there just wasn’t
that many jokes left to be told. This is probably my biggest issue with the
film, that the second act end up being kind of boring as it lacks laugh,
action, character and pretty much everything. There are some good moments here
as well, but it felt like it was missing something and there just wasn’t all
that much happening. Once they arrived in LA, the film picked up again and had
one of the best cameos I have seen for quite a while. The third act also
brought all character arcs so a satisfying conclusion and turned to be surprisingly
heart-warming. It also included a very exciting action scene with some
hilarious zombie killing by Harrelson.
The film
never reaches the heights of the cult classic zombie comedy Shaun Of The Dead, but it has a lot of excellent laughs as well as
surprisingly good characters and exploration of themes. I would enjoy this film
a lot more if it wasn’t for the kind of tame second act, but the overall
product is still a very fun ride for the most part.
3/5
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