Zombieland (2009)

[DAN!]

Director:
Ruben Fleischer

Cast:
Jesse Eisenberg
Woody Harrelson
Emma Stone
Abigail Breslin

Well, I loved this movie. The first third of it started off slow. The begining mostly featured Jesse Eisenberg. He is an ok character, but the best part of the movie is Woody Harrelson. So when he gets more screen time is when the movie gets exciting.

So the Begining drags a little bit, and has a lot from the trailer. There are two scenes I REALLY liked.

The 1st one is with Bill Murray. And he actually has a bigger role than I expected and they use him really well. They run into his character by actually breaking into his house as they make their way into hollywood.

The other great scene is when they are at an amusement park at the end. It features so pretty exciting zombie killing action with a nice touch of comedy that I don't think I have seen before. It includes woody harrelson riding various rides while shooting large amounts of zombies. It is a pretty exciting scene.

And for some reason, the opening credits reminded me of an R rated disneyland ride. Most of the kills are not too clever and banging in the head. One thing that added to the comedy of the kills was repeating these "rules." When a character followed on of the rules, such as "double tapping," there would be a graphic with the text of that rule place somewhere. It just added to the humor.

So, I might like this movie too much just because there are not many movies that came out recently that I was interested in. But This is one of the few I was really looking forward to and I wasn't let down.

[halo7]

Some people might consider your second paragraph a spoiler.

[DAN!]

I thought about that, but then again I thought it was talked about a lot here that he was in the movie so it would be common knowledge. But I blacked it out just in case though.

[Fanible]

Ridiculously good movie. And yes, there's one scene I can't talk about that I laughed the hardest I have at a movie in a very long time.

This film is currently competing, for me, with Inglorious Bastards as the best movie of the year thus far.

p.s.
Stay after the credits.

[DVDAVE]

Can't wait! Seeing this tomorrow.

[Birdy]

This movie is just simply AWESOME! The cameo kept me laughing long past his introduction. The rules were so cool and all made sense if there ever was a zombie apocalypse! LOL! The one I kept looking out for was the double tap! Awesome movie, worth a second viewing if possible.

[sshuttari]

I'm watching this tonight. I hope it's as good as everyone is making it out to be.

[DAN!]

Originally Posted by Fanible

Ridiculously good movie. And yes, there's one scene I can't talk about that I laughed the hardest I have at a movie in a very long time.

This film is currently competing, for me, with Inglorious Bastards as the best movie of the year thus far.

p.s.
Stay after the credits.

yes!

[Birdy]

A scene after the credits? I knew I shouldn't have left.

[halo7]

Zombieland

What I Liked:

- The visual style is very cool. Lots of cool slow motion effects that make something as simple as knocking over a shelf look completely epic and exciting. I also enjoyed the creative way they conveyed the rules of surviving the zombie apocalypse, their presence in the middle felt kind of useless but they brought out a lot of laughs towards the end.

- The film works best when there is gratuitous zombie violence set to fast and blaring rock music. The soundtrack here is pretty good and fits really well with the fast paced action.

- Woody Harrelson is the standout here but that isn't really a surprise. The rest of the cast is pretty good as well.

- Yes, there is a big cameo and it is the funniest part of the film for a variety of reasons. I am tempted to say you should go see the movie for this part alone.

- There is a sort of emotional twist to Woody Harrelson's character that surprised me and is actually very well done for a movie that otherwise doesn't take itself very seriously.

What I Didn't Like:

- I am all for lowbrow humor but there is a limit. The film crosses the stupidity line a few times causing some cringe-worthy jokes. Slow-motion blood spewing zombie boobs = funny. Random burping zombie = not funny.

- Jesse Eisenberg is a good actor. I thought he was really good in Adventureland and can assume he was very good in The Squid and the Whale. Unfortunately his delivery doesn't translate very well into narration and the largest problem with the movie is that his inner-monologue is kind of boring and monotonous feeling very "out of the moment".

- The finale of the film is action packed and pretty cool but it is clear that the idea of "zombies at a theme park" came before they wrote a complete script. It seems the characters will do anything, no matter how stupid (I mean, we know the zombies are attracted to sound and light, why would you turn all of the theme park rides on?) to get to that big finale. The finale should come naturally but here it felt like the characters had to actively make stupid decisions to put themselves in danger and it wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been.

Overall:
We have a zombie comedy here that is pretty much harmless, stupid fun. It isn't an amazing zombie movie or a great road comedy but I am pretty happy with a decent combination of the two. From the trailers I was worried that this was just an Americanized and more marketable version of Shaun of the Dead. I was relieved when the film started to get good reviews and I went in with high expectations. Unfortunately it appears that my first impressions of Zombieland weren't completely incorrect. There is more heart in the production than I expected but it can pander to fans of what I would define as "stupid" or "easy" humor. Still, there are enough decent jokes here and one great cameo that makes this a pretty easy recommendation to make.

7.9/10

[Daniel]

Very entertaining and lot of gratuitous zombie action, though I feel the previews really gave up most of the good parts, unfortunately.


Woody Harrelson was brilliant, and Michael Cera's clone did a good job not making me hate him as much as I hate Michael Cera.

I would see it in theaters again.

8/10.

[krushgroove19]

see Squid and the Whale. you might not hate him so much.

overall, i really liked it. the cameo blew my mind. the only thing that really bothered me was everyone referring to America as Zombieland throughout the movie. never really liked the title.

9/10

[DVDAVE]

Loved this movie. It kicked ass on so many levels. Definitly up there with my fav's of the year so far.

9/10

[George 3222]

One of the best damn movies of this year, it beats most everything of this year at least

[IanTheCool]

Zombieland is a really funny movie with some very funny moments, but as a movie itself its not that hot. First off, I hated the opening credits. Mind you, I have never been one for gross-out humour, and that is all the opening was. And throughout the film, there was some pretty gratuitous gag moments as well.

Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson made this movie. They both have great comedic timing and work well together for an unlikely pair. The girls of the movie did not really stand out much, bu these two certainly did. Also, I loved the rules for surviving popping up all over the place. It gave a sense of familiarity for the audience and made us feel connected to the movie. That was a good move on the directors part.

The Bill Murray cameo was very unexpected. And it was very funny, however it did seem tangental and out of place with the flow of the film.

There were also some flaws with the storyline, such as how they end up at the amusement park. Doesn't take much brains (juicy, juicy brains) to realize that turning on an amusement park at night in a city full of zombies is probably not the best of ideas. They really forced the ending there. The romance plot was also bungled and was way too straight-forward and unintersting.

Overall, this is a 6/10 movie which gets bumped up to a 7 because he comedy in it really is quite good with many downright hilarious moments.
7/10

[FilmJerk]

awesome movie! Seriously blew my expectations away. Totally entertaining. Not a single drag moment and

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

Bill Murrays cameo

is priceless even though you know how its gonna end up. I really cant think of a movie this year Ive liked this much. and **** I missed the credits what happened? 9/10

[FilmJerk]

oh and it really bugged me but Anaconda is rated PG-13 not R

[krushgroove19]

that actually bugged me too, but not enough that i remembered it once i left the theater.

[drzarius]

I found this way way over-rated. I thought Shaun of the Dead was *alot* funnier and more enjoyable/original. This seems 'half-hearted' at best.

ZL starts out interesting with the listing of rules (It doesn't even fully give an accounting of them), but then just dies in the middle with no zombie action whatsoever. It picks up in the end, but it doesn't really go anywhere unfortunately.

This is probably a good date movie, but not even a passable zombie movie IMO. The cameo (The result thereof could be seen coming from a mile away so had no laugh value at all for me) wasn't surprising at all, nor did it make me feel better about the movie.

I gave this a 6/10. Woody Harrelson was okay in this, but even he couldn't save it. Save your money and pay a visit to RedBox or just grab the screener when it surfaces.
:-P

[Nick1988]

I ****ing loved this movie IMO the best movie of the year

Just pure entertainment and i dont TRansformers 2 entertainment iam taking solid film making entertainment.

THe characters were all awsome.

Man 2009 has really shocked me with the quality of great films we have seen this year(Ths,District 9, Hangover and Inglorious Basterds)

[daniel9]

wheeee i luved it. rated 9

[Tornado]

I thought it was awesome.

[Nick1988]

Originally Posted by halo7

Zombieland

What I Liked:

- The visual style is very cool. Lots of cool slow motion effects that make something as simple as knocking over a shelf look completely epic and exciting. I also enjoyed the creative way they conveyed the rules of surviving the zombie apocalypse, their presence in the middle felt kind of useless but they brought out a lot of laughs towards the end.

- The film works best when there is gratuitous zombie violence set to fast and blaring rock music. The soundtrack here is pretty good and fits really well with the fast paced action.

- Woody Harrelson is the standout here but that isn't really a surprise. The rest of the cast is pretty good as well.

- Yes, there is a big cameo and it is the funniest part of the film for a variety of reasons. I am tempted to say you should go see the movie for this part alone.

- There is a sort of emotional twist to Woody Harrelson's character that surprised me and is actually very well done for a movie that otherwise doesn't take itself very seriously.

What I Didn't Like:

- I am all for lowbrow humor but there is a limit. The film crosses the stupidity line a few times causing some cringe-worthy jokes. Slow-motion blood spewing zombie boobs = funny. Random burping zombie = not funny.

- Jesse Eisenberg is a good actor. I thought he was really good in Adventureland and can assume he was very good in The Squid and the Whale. Unfortunately his delivery doesn't translate very well into narration and the largest problem with the movie is that his inner-monologue is kind of boring and monotonous feeling very "out of the moment".

- The finale of the film is action packed and pretty cool but it is clear that the idea of "zombies at a theme park" came before they wrote a complete script. It seems the characters will do anything, no matter how stupid (I mean, we know the zombies are attracted to sound and light, why would you turn all of the theme park rides on?) to get to that big finale. The finale should come naturally but here it felt like the characters had to actively make stupid decisions to put themselves in danger and it wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been.

Overall:
We have a zombie comedy here that is pretty much harmless, stupid fun. It isn't an amazing zombie movie or a great road comedy but I am pretty happy with a decent combination of the two. From the trailers I was worried that this was just an Americanized and more marketable version of Shaun of the Dead. I was relieved when the film started to get good reviews and I went in with high expectations. Unfortunately it appears that my first impressions of Zombieland weren't completely incorrect. There is more heart in the production than I expected but it can pander to fans of what I would define as "stupid" or "easy" humor. Still, there are enough decent jokes here and one great cameo that makes this a pretty easy recommendation to make.

7.9/10

Jesse Eisenbergs character was supposed to be that....And what do you when your talking about the finale? Wood Harrelson turned on the rids so he could distract the zombies while the two girls turned on the ride to get away from the zombies.

I hate people who just nitpick on movies just to be "different".

[halo7]

I am aware Jesse Eisenberg's character is supposed to be kind of weird and awkward, that doesn't make the choice to use him as a narrator a good one. Also, the girls turn on the power in the theme park (the lights, noises, etc.) despite the fact that movie makes it very clear that the zombies are attracted to light and noise, that is what I meant to say. The rides all have to be all turned on separately, you're right about that. I could go on about how stupid it is to think you could "escape" in a ride that is largely stationary but I don't want to seem too "different" now do I? I liked the movie dude, get off my back.

[Fanible]

No, halo. You didn't like it enough!