Lawrence.com

Posted by Eric Melin October 1, 2009 at 8:50 a.m.

Review: “Zombieland”

[three stars]
It’s been five years since zombie movies became mainstream again, thanks to “Shaun of the Dead” and the “Dawn of the Dead” remake. We were overdue for another.

“Zombieland” isn’t as clever as “Shaun” or as scary as “Dawn.” Instead, this new horror comedy successfully uses a zombie apocalypse as the setting for a twisted kind of romantic comedy/family picture.

The movie’s stylistic touches immediately make “Zombieland” accessible. The super slo-mo opening sequence pinpoints specific moments where the irony of becoming a zombie is simply too funny not to laugh at — like a zombie bride tackling her new husband moments after the nuptials and a zombie stripper wearing pasties and chasing businessmen out of a strip club.

“Zombieland” director Ruben Fleischer sets the playful tone with such scenes, and by the time he starts inserting 3D graphic titles onscreen (a la TV’s “Fringe”) to illustrate the “rules” of how to survive in a zombie-infested world, he has the audience in his pocket.

What propels the plot forward is the central conceit that it’s not the big macho types who survive in this overrun non-society. It’s the smart ones — like Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), a nerdy videogamer whose neurotic nature now actually works in his favor. He remembers and learns from each dangerous zombie encounter he has and creates a massive list of rules to live by.

When he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), he’s happy to latch on to a seemingly insane cowboy with a gung-ho attitude and large supply of weapons. A pair of young grifter sisters (Emma Stone and Abagail Breslin) that the new allies meet in a supermarket present another set of challenges.

It turns out there’s more to the characters of “Zombieland” than one might expect from a zombie flick. The casual attitude they all have towards the worldwide plague of flesh-eating monsters masks their common insecurities, but several small in-crisis moments define these people.  This may seem incongruous in a movie where a creative zombie kill earns bragging rights, but it’s essential to why the movie works so well.

Throughout the movie, the survivors search for any nostalgic connection to the past. Screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese mine this idea for unexpected poignancy and laughs. They get a big assist in the form of a hilarious cameo from a big Hollywood star who’s not afraid to lampoon his old movies.

In the end, what makes “Zombieland” work better than it should is that it taps into a sort of common loneliness and the innate desire to feel like you are connected with people — be they family, friends, or fellow survivors of a zombie holocaust.

Zombieland starts midnight tonight at these Kansas City theatres:
Cinemark Palace At The Plaza, 526 Nichols Rd.
AMC Mainstreet 6, 1400 Main St.
Cinemark 20, 5500 Antioch
AMC Independence 20, 19200 E. 39th St.

Opens Friday in Lawrence — showtimes here.