Zombieland

Zombieland is a good Dawn of the Dead to Shaun of the Dead's Night of the Living Dead. It's not about the outbreak and early rise of the zombie hordes, it's about a few people scraping to survive in a world already torn apart by their menace. I wasn't sure about the movie before I saw it, because it almost seemed like it was trying too hard to get me specifically to like it. But it ended up being a pretty enjoyable film with plenty of likable characters to keep you interested in what was happening. It lack's Shaun's British subtlety and completely spot-on satire, but makes up for it with a real sense of fun and extremely over the top violence. I've rarely seen zombies die as well as they do in this movie, and the gore isn't even the goal. Since the movie is based on what was initially planned to be a televised series, the purpose of the characters is to grow and connect with each other, not die horribly every once in a while.

And the cast is strong. Jesse Eisenberg has drawn comparisons to Michael Cera, but it's clear he's more than just a copy. He's done a lot more legitimate acting, and does a solid job here as Columbus of explaining the world to the audience through narration while taking the lead as a lovable loser. Woody Harrelson is enjoyable in whatever sort of movie you care to stick him in, and plays one of cinema's greatest ever pure zombie killers in Tallahassee. Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin are recognizable from Superbad and Little Miss Sunshine respectively, and play a couple of con artist sisters who you like despite their actions for a lot of the film. Emma's good because she can consistently pull off the part of the stone cold fox that you can still somehow buy being possibly attracted to a dork like Columbus, and Abigail is surprisingly good for her age. And the secret celebrity cameo is one for the ages. It's hard to mind the slight halt in forward momentum when they get so much humor out of just a few minutes. The climax at an amusement park is probably the most purely enjoyable sequence I've seen in a horror-related context, and I would love to see the creators continue the story of four strangers with towns for names.