Zombieland: Death by Laughter Doesn’t Sound so Bad

Tallahassee and Columbus enter a convenience store, Tallahassee wielding a banjo. The banjo strings begin to play as Tallahassee summons zombies to his side ready to kill each and every one of them. His main goal in killing zombies: to find the last Twinkie on earth. Obese zombies attack him throughout the convenience store, but Tallahassee is too determined. The taste of a Twinkie is just too tempting to his taste buds. “Zombieland” continues with zombie action and great comedic relief going hand in hand.

“Zombieland” takes place in an apocalyptic zombie filled world. The protagonists of the story—Columbus and Tallahassee—are in search of the one place on earth that they can be free from any zombies. Along their journey for this mythical place they encounter two shifty sisters who join them on their journey. As the gang travels they learn to love each other and become a family, and they search together for this magical place free from zombies, encountering some interesting cameos along the way. In the end, it comes down to the whole group to decide if home is a destination or the people that are beside you.

The movie is great for almost anyone to see as it combines many types of movie genres. Everyone will be sure to laugh at the ridiculous antics as the zombie kills just rack up. That is one of the best parts of the movie, with kills becoming more interesting and fun throughout the story. It is not your typical zombie movie, which makes it great to see with that special someone who might be opposed to the genre. There is some gore, but that is to be expected from any zombie movie, so you shouldn’t let that stop you from seeing this film.

Woody Harrelson, who plays Tallahassee, is one of the most enjoyable parts of the movie with his great zombie kills. I found him well suited for the role and I never really got bored of his fantastic insults to Columbus. Jesse Eisenberg as Columbus plays the stereotypical Michael Cera role, but actually does not over-do it to a point where it is annoying. There are just the brief moments where you feel you have seen this same scene before in another movie, but most of the time he is in an acting category of his own. Both Emma Stone as Wichita and Abigail Breslin as Little Rock escape the scared female role, which I thought was refreshing. They do quite a bit of zombie killing on their own and find a way to be consistently awesome. It is fun to see Abigail Breslin all grown up with a rifle blowing the heads of zombies.

The movie has a lot of great qualities and it is the perfect length for the story. It doesn’t feel like sitting through an agonizingly long movie that has reached its potential half an hour ago, so plan on being entertained the whole time. The only problem I would say is it is more oriented toward the male gender, but that doesn’t stop it from being great for everyone. It’s not a life-changing movie, but I think that is one of its better features. One can just go in and enjoy the story with a group of friends and take pleasure in the zombie kills, without having to worry about looking for the deeper meaning in “Zombieland.”

In the end I would have to say that I enjoyed spending time with my friends at “Zombieland” and just laughing most of the time. I could not help but feel good leaving the theatre talking to them about all the ways zombies died epic deaths.

4.0 out of 5