Horror movies. It’s one of the few genres I really don’t watch. I just don’t like to voluntarily be uncomfortable for an hour and a half watching gruesome stuff. It’s something I just don’t need and go out of my way to find. So it’s a genre which I just am not interested in.
So Zombieland was a movie I never planned on watching as the title was enough reason to stay clear from it. This change when a colleague told me that this really wasn’t a “scary” movie, but a comedy. Reluctantly I decide to give this film a chance.
The movie starts with a few horrible things to watch (for example a mother flying through the windscreen of her car and landing on the pavement) and I immediately thought I made a wrong decision in watching it. I decided to give it a few more minutes before turning it off. I’m glad I did as the movie is hilariously funny when you make the switch to laughing about the things that occur.
Because of a virus almost the whole population has been turned into zombies. Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Netwerk) is Columbus, a student who has not been infected yet. He’s very careful and because of this has a lot of rules which help him survive the zombie onslaught. Examples of these rules are to always wear a seatbelt, always be aware at restrooms and always be in top shape. It’s shown that these rules actually work in various funny ways.
Columbus is travelling to Columbus, Ohio to find out if his parents are still normal. On his way he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a fanatic who hates zombies and also happens to be searching for twinkies. Because of his taste for twinkies they stop at every supermarket to see if they can find some. It means having to fight of zombies, but also meeting two sisters (played by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) who are also making their own journey. A lot happens to the four of them on their journey.
The movie is funny from the beginning till the end and has one unforgettable cameo (you’ll have to see it yourself to find out who it is). It really is more of a comedy then it is a horror film, although it does have some gruesome bits. I laughed a lot and enjoyed this movie, so if you are not sure if you should see it, give this movie at least 15 minutes of your time before judging.
Score: 9
Abigail, why would you do that? I don’t normally watch horror flicks either, but maybe I’ll check this one out because the already awesome actress Abigail Breslin is in it and surely I would like to get acquainted with films Eisenberg had done before TSN.
Be prepared for the gruesome bits, but it’s good to give this film a chance.
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I thought Zombieland was relatively bland and unfunny. Sure, the cameo by Bill Murray was nice but it was sort of pointless and even with it, the movie barely made it to an acceptable feature length. Not a bad comedy but I thought it was wildly overrated when it came out.
For me it was a movie out of my comfort zone, which just adds to my appreciation of it as I experienced emotions I usually don’t have with other movies I watch. I guess it’s also the reason I like Black Swan as well with it’s horror elements. As for the humour in this film, comedy is something which is hit or miss for different people.
I must confess horror is one of my favourite genres, pretty much for the reasons you list. It’s the one genre that I find most regularly pushes me out of my comfort zone and challenges me in some interesting and thought-provoking ways, which is possibly one of the things I enjoy most about cinema in general. But each to their own!
I’m pleased you stuck with this and ended up enjoying it. It’s not quite as good as Shaun of the Dead for me, and it has its problems, but I found it pretty watchable. I always seem to struggle with horror-comedies though, because I find it very rare for a film to successfully straddle both genres. While the two genres do work on a similar ‘release’ principle, I find horror-comedies too often rely on the comedy element, eleminating the horror.
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