Movie review: 'Zombieland'

By Abby Olcese

Thursday, October 22, 2009

 Zombies are great. Self-aware parodies, too, are great. Movies involving long journeys, solid action sequences and at least one badass character who is always ready with quips? Yeah, they’re pretty awesome, too. One might think a movie that included all of these elements would be just grand, right? Well, yes and no.

 The movie that puts all of these bits into the blender and whirs it up in a bloody, gory mass is Zombieland. Parts of it work really well, such as Woody Harrelson’s battle-scarred butt-kicker Tallahassee. He’s funny, tough, quirky and just a teensy bit vulnerable. Jesse Eisenberg does pretty much what he does best as Columbus, the movie’s nervous, germaphobic, rules-conscious narrator.

 Other parts ... well, let’s just say Zombieland isn’t a perfectly blended smoothie. There are chunks. Big ones.

 The writing is really clumsy at times. The characters aren’t very strongly established, so pre-existing relationships seem weak, and developing relationships just don’t make much sense. Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, as con-artist sisters, put in good efforts but, in the end, they just aren’t very convincing. Little to no background is given on any of the movie’s characters, which makes it even harder to care about them.

 This movie is super-stylish. It looks sharp and flashy, which was probably the goal. But it just feels like the writers had a great idea, thought it would make a neat movie, and churned out a script without much actual consideration for what happened beyond basic plot points or funny vignettes. Zombieland has its moments, but for the most part it just feels — pardon the pun — dead.

Verdict: 2 stars

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