Zombieland

Here is a quote from Wikipedia: "it grossed more than $60.8 million in 17 days, surpassing the Dawn of the Dead remake to become the top-grossing zombie film in history". Nuff said? Maybe not.

I went to see Zombieland, honestly expecting a dull Shaun of the Dead rip-off, considering the blurb for the movie itself says the writers, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, were inspired to write the movie by Shaun of the Dead itself. What I got was a hilarious and frankly original zombie movie, which comfortably contends for my film of the year.

Zombieland stars Woody Harrelson and Jesse "I'm not Andy Samburg or Michael Cera, honest" Eisenberg, and tells the story of a road trip across America, aiming for Columbus' (Eisenberg) hometown. Along the way, Columbus and Talahassee (Harrelson) meet Wichita and Little Rock (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) in several locations, usually ending in the gentlemen being mugged. If you're wondering about the names, all characters are named after their home towns, they don't share first names in order to not care about each other.

The film has some fantastic ideas to put forward, my favourite being Talahassee's enjoyment in killing zombies, and also (as seen in the trailer) 'Zombie Kill of the Week'. It is a fantastic zombie movie, containing some incredible gore. Columbus' use of rules for surviving the zombie apocalypse are not overused, and you often forget them until the typical indie 'freezeframe with writing on the screen' is used.

Also, the amazing uncredited cameo doesn't quite make the movie, but it certainly adds interest to the slowest segment of film. There are also a lot of remarkabley guessable twists, and the ending is predictable. But on the other, larger, hand, there are plenty laughs, more than your average comedy at the moment.