Zombieland: Review By AnnoyingFilmCritic

Why is the little kid next door constantly beating on a trash can with a stick? Good, now he's stopped...

I'm not much of a zombie movie fan...great, now he's throwing rocks at something! Why does he keep doing that stupid shyt?

Anway, like I said, I'm not much of a zombie movie fan. For the most part, they're tired, recycled hokum that exist/languish because they're cheap and easy to make, with decent profit margins, so...the studios keep churning them out to fill in their production slate. If you're a newbie studio executive, these formulaic detritus are no brainers to greenlight like the indestructible Saw franchise. I'd say by Saw VII, that Jigsaw will have jumped the proverbial shark (steer off course to bad kitsch) in a way that would embarrass Fonzie, the guy who actually jumped the shark while skiing on the Happy Days TV show, hence the phrase...I digress.

The trailers for ZombieLand had me pretty convinced that this zombie movie was a shyt kicking good time, as Woody Harrelson's Tallahasse character would say. Man, this horror comedy did not disappoint. In the vein of Shaun from the Dead, ZombieLand plays the genre for over the top laughs and ultraviolence...hell, like Inglourious Basterds too. Like both of those movies, it works like a Mexican sending money back home to keep his family safe from the drug cartels. Veteran everyman actor, Woody Harrelson, is roaring back from his spotty past decade's filmography in prime form, ala' Natural Born Killers - smug - ass kicker role with relish. He plays Tallahasse, a funny quote laden zombie hunter/survivor. He's a one man killing, lopping Inglourious Basterd that delights in offing the roving undead with such aplomb and fun menace that you'll laugh out loud at his carnage and perfect comic timing. This is the Woody Harrelson that moviegoers loved in "White Men Can't Jump" and "Kingpin," which, incidentally, hints at a surprise co-star that turns up in the movie halfway that delivered some of the movie's biggest, 'busting'-hint again - laughs.

**Make sure to stay until the end of the credits to see him and Woody in an extra hilarious scene!**

Woody is teamed up with his odd couple ridealong zombie survivin' friend, Columbus, played by Michael Cera clone, Jesse Eisenberg (AdventureLand). Their 48 hours dynamic plays off each other with great comedic chemistry in this mad cow-spawned, zombified, desolate landscape...the badass & the geek boy wanting to be a badass after falling for Wichita/Emma Stone (the characters refer to themselves by the cities they're from because nobody trusts anyone in their undead ravaged, paranoid world). Emma Stone (Superbad, Ghosts from Girlfriends Past)is partnered with Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine)as fellow survivors on the run to an amusement park in California that promises refuge and delight for the little girl with a missing childhood. They collude to con Tallahasse & Columbus repeatedly, offering a female empowerment message that balances the choking machismo and nods to Resident Evil's Alice.

The character development of Harrelson & Eisenburg isn't like Mickey Rourke in the Wrestler, but, pleasantly more so than you'd expect from an oozing, bone crunching zombie movie. You can actually empathize and invest in their characters as they volley from all of the batting/shooting practice. Their development isn't treacle, it's well proportioned for this trite genre.

Ok, but, what about the pacts of decaying flesh eaters you might ask? Are they portrayed as hams on the lam or dancing fools like in Michael Jackson's Thriller video? The slow motion title sequence at the beginning of the movie should allay any concerns that this kind of movie might be skimping on the graphic gore for purists. It's an artful, fetish-ized splatterfest that sets up the apocalyptic world the movie is set in via a ballet of bowel disgorging dread. This is the most fun movie this year, alongside the rebooted Star Trek.

Damn, that little kid next door is throwing rocks again! I'm so phuckin' sick of all these little... monsters...hell, I'm gonna go throw rocks with him. Fun is fun.