Zombieland

I heard it said the makers of this movie were inspired by the success of SHAWN OF THE DEAD.

Uhhmmmm ....... well......... they should have looked for more inspiration

While SHAWN OF THE DEAD is excellent and sets the 5 Star Standard for a Zombie Spoof movie, this movie (Zombieland) shows glimpses of potential but falters and instead relies on too much simple stupidity to try and be funny.

It fails to have the kind of creative wit and dark humor that made SHAWN OF THE DEAD so good.

If you like people breaking things, cursing as much as possible and simply acting stupid you might like Zombieland ...... but if you only have enough time in life to see one Zombie-spoof movie, then watch SHAWN OF THE DEAD instead.

The plot is good and it's pretty funny, not as gory as it could have been, but I'm not a big fan of gore.

Very bad acting with no plot and lots of repetition. Watch this at a friends house, preferably while having sex or a good time doing something else. Do not....repeat do not buy this flick. Dumb and embarrassing for actors that should know what movies to turn-down.
Don't be fooled by the trailer which is better, by far, than the movie.

I'm not a big fan of splatter in general, but here it works. The blood and guts are always somehow ironic and goofy, befitting the tone of this spoof. Woody is good, Jesse does his best Michael Cera impression as always (seaparted at birth, those two?), and it's nice and short, moving quickly and never getting dull.

Bill Murray's bit is quite funny if not hilarious, but make sure to watch past the credits at the end to see a very funny bit with him reprising his Caddyshack Carl in zombie makeup.

Looks good in blu-ray; all things considered, Zombieland is a bright send-up of the zombie/thriller genre, and worth seeing if you feel like some bloody laughter.

Zombieland is not as much fun as Sean of the Dead (which in turn is not as much fun as it could have been) in part because the characters do things that seem designed by the screenwriters rather than sensible actions of people whose lives are threatened. The best section of the film, because it is surprising and funny, is when the survivors stumble upon Bill Murray's house and meet Bill Murray. However, once holed up in a comfortable mansion well protected from the walking dead, there is no reason for them to leave. As a result, a contrived reason is invented that makes the characters look stupid. The two females must visit an amusement park. Let's forget that there would really be no electricity available because no one would be around to make it happen. When the two females arrive at the amusement park, they turn on all of the electricity. Gee, do you think that amount of light, noise, and movement might attract zombies? Of course. But there is some lame personal need they are fulfilling that causes them to endanger everyone's lives. The men show up and must rescue the women, which teaches the protagonist that sometimes one must forsake personal rules to be a hero. Sound familiar? That's because much of what happens in this flick is familiar.

Therein lies the major weakness of the film. One thing that separates Romero films, or more serious zombie films, from this sort of consumer product is that Zombieland resorts to transforming the zombie film into a teen romance. In addition, there is repetitive and blatantly obnoxious product placement--so much so that these internal advertisements are made integral to the plot. Repetitively, Woody Harrelson forsakes all credibility by prostituting himself for Hostess Twinkies. In addition, I look forward to the end of the popularity of current crop of charmless leading teens like Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Cera, and Shia LaBeouf, who are supposed to represent some fake alternative sort of maleness, but in reality are just interchangeable zeroes with a limited range of mannerisms.

Overall a cute film that will probably have more influence than it should on people without imaginations who mistake its stitching together of old film tropes to be novelty and originality.