Review - Zombieland

What would you do if the world was overrun by zombies?... Anything you wanted to, that's what.

As a result of a virus, in "Zombieland", humans are an endangered species. The zombies outnumber humans and the few survivors have developed their own skillsets in order for them to survive the new world. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is a geek who has survived as long as he has by abiding by his own set of rules and wielding his double-barrelled shotgun. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) is a twinkie-loving zombie killer, who doesn't like company, plain and simple. He survives Zombieland taking great pleasure in finding new and innovative ways to kill zombies, in pursuit of his goal of finding an edible Twinkie, before they all go out of date.

On their travels they cross paths with Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), two rather untrustworthy sisters who don't make Columbus and Tallahassee's lives any easier. Their journey is filled with gore, one-liners, and ridonkulous zombie deaths. Despite their differences, eventually the group have to decide whether working together is preferable to succumbing to the zombies.

Zombieland is what I see in my head when I imagine how great it will be when zombies finally do take over. Obviously, being in the UK I'd be limited in the amount of firearms I could get hold of, but even Tallahassee takes a while to advance from run-of-the-mill garden tools to shooty things! I've already scouted out my nearest shopping centre, that's where I'm going. The Marks & Spencer food should keep me going for ages.

Anyway, this movie is such a blast! It turns zombie movies on their head and shows the fun side of the last days of humanity! There's no point in comparing it to Shaun of the Dead because SOTD is a classic of British Comedy. Zombieland is the American Zom-Com and has a completely different approach to SOTD. Where as SOTD had a subtle, underlying humour, Zombieland is an in your face, laugh a minute gorefest. The satisfaction of watching Woody Harrelson almost decapitate a fat zombie with a banjo is indescribable.

Woody is fantastic but he isn't the only star. There is something very likeable about Columbus and the performance of Jesse Eisenberg. Before Zombieland he was a lonely, single, World of Warcraft player and now he's a lonely, single zombie killer, who is hot in pursuit of the world's sexiest con-artist played by Emma Stone. On top of those wonderful characters is the all too easy to trust, young partner in crime of Stone, played by Abigail Breslin who is as ruthless as she is adorable. As if that isn't enough, as well as the delightful performances of all of these, Zombieland throws possibly the world's greatest cameo into the mix, a cameo so brilliant it would be a crime to reveal it.

Zombie deaths in Zombieland are works of art. All manner of weapons are used to dispose of the undead and the gore really does go flying. I would say it is praise indeed when a cinema full of people burst out laughing at the sight of a woman flying through a windscreen and slo-mo faceplanting into the tarmac. In high definition, the deaths would be incredible, I can't wait for the DVD and I want a massive screenshot for my desktop.

The movie is like my favourite movies and video games all rolled into one; Dead Rising, Shaun of the Dead, a bit of Gears of War, From Dusk Till Dawn, they all feel like part of the movie for me, the gore, the humour, it's all there. To treat this movie as anything more than a barrel of laughs is silly. Believe it or not it does take itself seriously. It knows what it is, it's not a spoof of any other zombie film, it's new, original and brilliant.

I give it 4 Twinkies out of 5