Hey folks. Capone in Austin, Texas here, with another great film-going experience from Fantastic Fest, the Zomedy extravaganza known as ZOMBIELAND.


There are two things you need to do before seeing ZOMBIELAND for the first of what will inevitably be many times. The first thing is to erase the memory of SHAUN OF THE DEAD, if only for the 90-minute durations of this film. Despite both works being very funny, bloody, and full of zombies, there are two very different creatures. ZOMBIELAND is not the American version of SHAUN; it's certainly not trying to be. And any comparisons between the two are foolish and lazy. The second thing you need to do is stay as far away from any cast list you might have access to for this film. If you've already seen a reference to a certain extended cameo in this film, they you've ruined one of the truly great sequences in any film of 2009 for yourself. Maybe you stumbled upon it by accident, who knows. But going in not knowing was one of the true joys of going to a movie for me this year. And here's the thing, somebody actually told me about the appearance, and I just plain forgot. Thank Jesus for that. My point is, go into ZOMBIELAND pure and with a head just empty enough to truly appreciate what director Ruben Fleischer and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have carefully constructed--a film that appears to be all about the fun-filled world of the zombie Apocalypse but has a little something for your mind and soul as well. You will laugh, without a doubt, but you're also going to feel something for these characters and their individual situations.

Our unlikely hero is named Columbus, played by Jesse Eisenberg (THE SQUID AND THE WHALE and ADVANTURELAND), an actor who is growing on my by leaps and bounds as the years go on almost as much for his film choices as for his range. People have joked that he's the guy filmmakers get when Michael Cera is unavailable, and while they have a similar understated, under-the-breath delivery, Eisenberg has been gutsier in his choices of roles. After the screening of ZOMBIELAND at Fantastic Fest last week, someone said that the film felt like Woody Allen vs. the zombies, and that's a great way to look at it. Columbus (all of the characters' names are taken from where they hail from) is neurotic and perhaps in possession of a little OCD on top of that. He keeps an expansive list of zombie rules that have kept him alive despite his less-than-heroic or -aggressive demeanor. He's stayed alive this long because he's an intelligent, quick-on-his-feet scaredy cat. We get a little back story on Columbus, including how he killed his first zombie, but really director Fleischer isn't concerned with how this all began. He just drops us on the middle of the action, and it's our job to keep up.

Columbus meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson cut loose from a comet), the closest thing this world apparently has to an expert zombie killer. Every object in a room is a potential killing implement to him, and every kill deserves a punchline and is a possible entry in his ongoing "Zombie Kill of the Week" list. His truck is loaded with weapons, and his only real mission is find his favorite snack cake, the elusive Twinkie. It's a running joke that I thought I'd get sick up in about five minutes, but the Twinkie-related humor is genius. Tallahassee is also loaded with attitude, something Harrelson has played before but never quite with this level of shit-kickery. He may come across as a fairly one-dimensional character at first, but that never bothered me because he was so much fun. But as we get inside his mind a bit, we realize the bravado is masking some pretty substantial pain.

The boys pair up, and between Columbus' rules and Tallahassee's guts, they make a terrific team that will clearly ride out this bit of awfulness that has taken over the planet. They nearly meet their match in the form of young women, Wichita (Emma Stone from HOUSE BUNNY) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin in her best role since LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE), who manage to con the boys out of their weapons and transportation. Eventually the four decide that sticking together makes more sense, and they decide to head west where legend has it there's a place that is zombie free. But Wichita has slightly different plans about holding to her promise to take Little Rock to an amusement park on the coast just to remember what it's like to have a little fun.

One of things I admire most about ZOMBIELAND (and there are many to choose from) is that it makes it clear from the start that it's going to be a hardcore, blood-and-guts, hard-R zombie flick (for those keeping score, the film features fast-moving zombies). As any film about the walking dead ought to, it comes up with some great creative kills. The movie keeps the laughs coming but never forgets that this is a story concerning a world overrun by death and the threat of dying. The zombies here are not comic relief; they are a real threat for which humor is a release valve for an unbelievable amount of tension. I don't mean to make the film sound existential and deep--at its core, ZOMBIELAND is a total blast--but it's not a vapid exercise in splatter and gore effects. I grew to really care and worry about these characters, and this will be one of the rare opportunities that I'd be willing to sign a petition to make a sequel happen. I'm desperate to know what happens to these folks after the movie ends.

ZOMBIELAND works as a comedy because it delivers characters and terrifying situations that make us feel we have a stake in the survival of these four individuals. They are a perfect cross section of the human race (or maybe more like the American race), and them getting through this means we probably could too. But more than anything else, the film made my heart race as an action-horror-comedy that delivers on all three fronts. If you were as worried as I was that the pitch for ZOMBIELAND seemed too good to be true, consider this your official reason to stop fretting and enjoy the insanity and savor that Twinkie, because you never know when you might eat your last.

-- Capone
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