"Zombieland"
by: Paolo Sardinas

Remember that time when zombies were the pinnacle of horror. They were the number one thing to be scared of. These mind less ex humans who are hungry for blood were just plain scary. And that is what they're always perceived as being. Usually it's do to the fact of how realistic the circumstances are. Wide spread epidemic is the most popular and it's also the most widely used. The truth of the matter is this..Zombies are and have always been overrated. There's nothing really ingenious about them and they stopped being scary after George A Romero's original Dawn of the Dead. If you want dumb witted, mind-less drones just walk out into the street. In fact horror in general has become a laughing matter. it's no longer a truly respectable movie genre but rather just an excuse for adolescent hormonal kids to "get some" at te movie theater. There is no pride and no respect with doing a horror movie in the 21st century. So hey why not make a comedy with a tad of horror. Ingenious.

"Zombieland" attempts to re-invent the zombie image in this newly released horror comedy. Directed by Ruben Fleischer this raving mad zombie comedy is an absolute bast. Balancing together the "iconic" zombie image along with some pure 100% original comedy. Along with it's superb cast, this is a film which manages to not only poke fun at all the other zombie films that have been released, but just horror in general. It's both fun and entertaining and always manages to never take itself to seriously while still giving us characters which are both entertaining, engrossing, and just plain real.

The film features Jesse Eisenberg, who delivers a very well crafted performance in this leading role. He plays Columbus a survivor of this post-apocalyptic world in which everyone is a zombie. He eventually meets another survivor named Tallahassee(Harrelson) and they go cross country killing zombies. They later run into Little Rock(Breslin) and Wichita(Stone), two sisters who have their own plans for our two leading men. These two "sistas" are actually able to convince Tallahassee the supposed zombie killing bad ass and Twinkie loving Columbus to take them to a suppose zombie free amusement theme park. Along the way they basically scour the land killing zombies, create some love, and deliver plenty of laughs.

The cast is to die for(no punt intended). Eisenberg really is able to give us this teenage protagonist which isn't annoying or just plain unnecessary. He's even entertaining when he attempts to belittle his growing affection towards Emma Stone. Both of our leading ladies, including the very entertaining Breslin, add a nice touch to this supposed guy flick which turns out to be great just about any gender.

Woody Harrelson though is the absolute scene stealer. Having a bit of a hiatus from the leading man roles, he's able to create another outstanding comedic character which is and always reminding of why he is one of the best at what he does. His lone warrior type character actually turns out to be more likable than what you would think and he even adds more to the surprise of how good this movie is.

The script, story line, and directing are as well very very good indeed. Director Ruben Fleischer is able to create an interesting world. Despite how we've seen it used time and time again, the world of "Zombieland" never gets old, it's never bores you down with some hidden religious or political reasoning as to why people are zombies. It just simply is a fun and exciting movie. Which also is able to combine some pitch perfect elements of both the horror and comedy genres to of which feel like they're just as dead as the film's main antagonists.

Zombie comedies aren't anything new to the world of movies. We've had "Shaun of the Dead" the supposed greatest horror comedy of all time. While it does manage to be pretty damn funny it doesn't come close to being as original or creative as Zombieland is. Even though they both have the same concepts and one has a killer clown.

Overall, "Zombieland" is a very fun and enjoyable comedy. A nice little refresher to a very bland and moody year. While it isn't always so perfect it's still better than what we had expected. Brings a whole new life(so to speak) to the zombie image, and really renewed some popularity in it's leading star Woody Harrelson. It's one big ball of fun that is able to entertain and excite you into seeing it again and again. It's also one of the first zombie movies which actually manages to have some heart. Grade: A-