Written by: Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Bill Murray
Rating: [4/5]
Even in situations where all hell breaks loose, living by a set of rules creates a sense of normalcy amidst a world devoid of it. A way of living that maintains a sense of being, which Zombieland attempts to espouse through its lead character and through its zombie apocalyptic premise bringing plenty of comedy to a genre generally devoid of it. A rapturously good time that lends itself to endless rewatchability.
With the world run amok by zombies following an outbreak, survivors decide to go by their city of origin as Columbus (Jessie Eisenberg) seeks to head to the Ohio city in order to find his parents. On his way, he runs into Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), who takes him on as a partner as they try to navigate this crazy world as Columbus continues to teach the audience his rules of essential survival.
Zany fun in its presentation and simply enjoyable as a whole, Zombieland brings an interesting twist to the zombie genre. It makes sense why the majority of these films carry this gloomy and hopeless feeling considering these are worlds where zombies overrun human beings and any day could be one’s last. In fact, it surprises me these individuals have this strength to continue to persevere within a truly frightful circumstance. With minimal survivors around it creates a sense of loneliness with the remaining survivors as they remain far apart, which only makes the connections made in this film all the more potent along with the comedy employed to drive home the entertainment.
Each of the characters we follow in this film comes with specified goals they hope to accomplish as they try to hold on to some type sort of glimmer of hope to keep going in their lives. For the two young ladies Columbus and Tallahassee meet, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), they hope to reach an amusement park rumored to have no zombies in the vicinity. An admittedly silly idea considering the entire country is full of zombies but reaching this amusement park mixes in a glimmer of hope with the idea of something fun remaining in their lives as what these parks used to represent. A little delusion goes a long way to maintain sanity. For Columbus, he seeks to connect with his parents while Tallahassee hopes to find something as innocuous as a Twinkie, which proves hard to come by evidently. They each have their goals but the connection they build together allows for those to shift just a bit as they find family amongst each other.
As the film begins, it goes over these rules Columbus lives by, with some being silly but when it comes from someone who has survived this long in the apocalypse, it becomes difficult to argue with him. His approach works for him even if it restricts what he can freely do. The visualization of these rules makes for some hilarious scenes as we see exactly why they work and the horror that will transpire should someone decide to not adhere to them. These scenes essentially serve as a strong advertisement of Columbus’s approach, which carries plenty of merit. This all gets upended when he meets others like Tallahassee who carries himself in a much freer way and the way he kills zombies evokes this feeling of an artist having his way with a canvas to display his wondrous talents. There’s a distinct glee the man takes in wiping out zombies and that makes for many comedic sequences that somewhat nullify the threat of these zombies to these characters. Their proficiency in taking them out displays why they have made it this far, but that does not mean the film will not present a reminder later in the film about what damage they can wreak, especially when in hordes.
With this quartet of actors leading this film, we have some fun performances. Eisenburg does his usual schtick of being the quirky guy who we root for to get the girl, but Woody Harrelson enters the fray and proves he’s the star of the show. Playing this renegade character that still has a soft middle allows him to have a complete blast. A character with plenty to enjoy, especially when you compare him to Columbus and the general nervousness he carries. They get helped along by Stone and Bresine, who each come in and do their part as near-foils to these two men in moments displaying exactly what makes their characters survivors as well.
A bundle of fun from beginning to end, Zombieland gives us some entertaining characters to follow and a circumstance where they show what they do best, which is to survive. Each of them carries something to keep them hopeful within a film completely devoid of it and it all culminates in an enjoyable ride through this post-apocalyptic world. Through it, we get some fun cameos from other actors and a very comedic interpretation of the way the world will go if it ever got run over by zombies.
Films with Josh 
