Zombieland has often been labeled on the Internet as "America's answer to Shaun of the Dead." That's an understandable statement, since Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead are comedies with zombies in them. We've even said it ourselves on occasion. But Zombieland is more than that. It's an opportunity to see if mainstream audiences will embrace a zombie movie. That's the challenge director Ruben Fleischer and company had before them. Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead made $100 million worldwide, could Zombieland be the first zombie movie to make that amount in the U.S. alone?
Yes. Yes, it could.
By now, any self-respecting zombie fan should know the basic plot of the movie. Zombies have taken over the world, leaving Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) to survive by following his "Rules for Surviving Zombieland." Columbus meets up with bad-ass zombie-stomper Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), and the two eventually come across two female companions Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). The four survivors trek across the U.S. in search of a zombie-less amusement park in California, and, in Harrelson's case at least, the last remaining twinkie.
The result is a film that can truly be appraised, without any condescending demerit, as a "fun movie." Zombieland is plain fun to watch. The characters are well played, it's funny, and there are zombies to boot. Zombieland also has one of the best cameo appearances ever, hinted at by the film's writers (Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese), but we'll leave it at that so as to not spoil it.
Zombieland also improves on the standard zombie formula. Eisenberg's "rules," reminiscent of Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide, are a hilarious addition to zombie cinema that zombie fans will relate to. The title sequence alone proves that it's possible to do a more imaginative explanation of the zombie outbreak than the usual news-report-that-explains-the-zombie-apocalypse opening that is so prevalent in zombie cinema.
The zombie clown is not the awesome cameo, but it's close.
Hardcore fans may be let down by an absence of gore, or at least at the tender way the gore is distributed. Really, this is no surprise considering Zombieland started it's undead life as a TV pilot. Still, there's just enough gore, enough to creep out a mainstream audience but not enough for them to shun Zombieland for it. There are plenty of gorefests out there to appease the gorehounds, anyway. Remember, Zombieland is for zombie fans, but ultimately it's trying to grab the big brass ring of major box office success.
Detractors may say "Why would I want to support some big, mainstream zombie movie?" Why wouldn't you? Think about it genius: big box office success for Zombieland means more zombie movies. Dozens of zombie movies could be greenlit instantly. It could fast track World War Z! And, to top it off, Zombieland is really fucking good. Don't kid yourself, if George Romero could make Zombieland, he would have (his own zombie comedy, Diary of the Dead, was not as good).
Zombieland is finally an American zombie movie that zombie fans and regular moviegoers can enjoy. Embrace it. OK, maybe it could have had more gore, maybe a few more jokes. At a brisk 82 minutes, Zombieland could have had way more. But why not prove to Columbia Pictures that audiences want more instead? More jokes and gore is what Zombieland 2 is for.
That is, if Zombieland can pull it off.