Zombieland Review

There are no spoilers in this review.

PLOT: Two men encounter two sisters who have found a way to survive a world overrun by zombies.


THE GOOD: Comedy. It's hard not to compare Zombieland to Shaun of the Dead. Both are horror romantic comedies, with the latter being the creator of the genre. Yet, they're unique to each other in their cleverness. In Shaun of the Dead, the main character wakes up not really realizing that most of the population have become zombies and nonchalantly walks through town. The characters in Zombieland are quite aware of the world they must now survive in. This leads to hilarious situations, discussions, and violence. While I don't think Zombieland is as funny as SotD overall, I do think it brings plenty of laughs to the table. The big cameo in the film (which you'll have to see for yourself) is priceless and memorable, and I have no doubt that it's my favorite part of the movie. There are also some really good lines in the film, most of them coming from Woody Harrelson.


Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese, and Ruben Fleischer. Director Ruben Fleischer did a wonderful job creating this world filled with zombies. This was Fleischer's first big directing gig having only directed a small indie film, a few episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live, and the first two episodes of the cannot-be-missed Between Two Ferns web videos. He had a lot to contend with and I think he did quite well. Same goes for writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese who really only have The Joe Schmo Show under their belt. The narrative is creative and funny.

Cinematography. J.J. Abrams' favorite TV DOP is brought in for Zombieland. Michael Bonvillain has worked on Felicity, Alias, Lost, and Fringe with Abrams, as well as the Abrams-produced Cloverfield. For Zombieland, Bonvillain uses vivid rich colors with his lively non-shaky hand-held camerawork. He and Fleischer chose the Panavision Genesis digital camera which shoots HD with a final output pixel resolution of 1920x1080. This gives you a clear, crisp picture and really made the super slo-mo intro scene really awesome.

Editing. Speaking of the slo-mo intro scene, the editing on it was really great, as well as the slow motion shots in the gift shop. You can tell that Alan Baumgarten and Peter Amundsen had a lot of fun on this one. They heightened the comedy and the action in the film with smooth transitions and not letting one scene get drawn out too long. I was constantly paranoid whenever the characters would drop their guard.

Makeup. The look of the zombies is pretty good. These zombies are not slow like the George A. Romero zombies, but rather fast like the 28 Days Later zombies. Tony Gardner was brought in to help with the zombie design. He worked on the zombies in Michael Jackson's "Thriller" music video. Gardner wanted to be really extreme with the look and that is certainly what you get in Zombieland.


THE BAD: CGI effects. There are a few instances towards the end of the movie that you can really tell are quite fake. Kind of disappointed me. Looked cheap and half-assed. Doesn't really take away from the whole film though. One CGI bit that I think they did do well was the pop-up text and how the characters or blood would interact with that text as if it was actually there.


THE END: I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Zombieland, especially with my love for Shaun of the Dead. I liked it so much that it made it to #8 on my Top Ten Movies of 2009 list. I highly recommend seeing it if you are fan of Shaun, or zombie movies, or the horror genre. Not for kids though. Check it out soon.


DISCUSS: Do you like Shaun of the Dead? How would you compare Shaun with Zombieland? What was your favorite part of the movie?