Wednesday, 14 October 2009

Zombieland

In a nutshell, it's an American take on the Shaun of the Dead concept - take
a zombie movie, and make a comedy out of it. In Shaun of the Dead, the zombie
movie was Dawn of the Dead, and the comedy was Spaced. In this, the zombie
movie is 28 Days Later, and the comedy is, probably, Scrubs (or the like).

In that your main character, Jesse Eisenberg, narrates much in the way JD does
in Scrubs, there's frequent illustrative sequences like JD's fantasies, and he
is, like JD, an awkward boy-man trying to make his way in the world. Along the
way, he teams up with Woody Harrelson who is a pretty awesome zombie-asskicking
redneck. And the pair of them encounter a pair of sisters also trying to make
their way in the world, and an awkward group relationship slowly blossoms.

It's actually quite a sweet little comedy about how the people around you are
your family, just like Scrubs is, only with the medicine taken out, and
sick-as-you-like zombie violence substituted.

Rating wise, it's difficult to score, in that while objectively, it's not that
brilliant, and you should probably score it something like 7.5, I hugely,
hugely enjoyed it. So my personal rating is something like a 9/10. I don't
think it's one of those films that transcends its genre - like say, Reservoir
Dogs is a great film even if you don't like gangster movies. But I would say
that if you think that you might enjoy this film, given the description, then
you probably really will.