If there is a movie subgenre that has been beaten to death over the last five years, it would have to be the zombie flick.  Still, every few years it seems like a movie comes along to make zombies, well, fresh again.  A few years ago the Dawn of the Dead remake and the comedy Shaun of the Dead brought the genre back to life, if you will, and the latter in turn served as the inspiration for first-time director Ruben Fleischer to make Zombieland, the latest zombie flick to revitalize the undead genre.

Once again, a virus has spread throughout the country leaving the few survivors to fend for themselves against the ravenous undead in the United States of Zombieland.  The film opens with a young man explaining just a few of his rules for surviving Zombieland: rules such as avoiding bathrooms, always shooting a zombie twice to ensure death, and always wear your seatbelt.  Before the outbreak, Columbus—so named because that’s his destination—was content to be a loner, but now he finds himself in want of some human companionship.

Like a warning to be careful what you wish for, Columbus shortly meets up with Tallahassee, a macho guy in a snakeskin jacket with a talent for destruction and a craving for Twinkies.  He’s a mismatched companion for the neurotic Columbus, but nevertheless they form a partnership.  It’s partly out of necessity as they are duped into surrendering their firearms by a pair of con-artist sisters that go by the monikers of Wichita and Little Rock.  Their hope to find a zombie-free zone takes them from Texas to a celebrity’s mansion in Beverly Hills and eventually to a theme park where new methods of disposing of zombies are just waiting to be discovered.

Although it is loaded with the undead, Zombieland is far from a horror film.  There are a couple of moments that may have you leaping out of your seat, but that’s about it.  Director Fleischer is hardly at all concerned with building suspense and terror, instead amping up the frivolity.  Killing zombies can be fun too, and no one gets to have more fun than Tallahassee.  Played by Woody Harrelson, Tallahassee will dispose of a zombie with a baseball bat and then discard the perfectly good bat because, well, that’s been done.  Instead, how about we try and get this next one with a pair of pruning shears?  It’s always a joy to see Harrelson having fun on screen and Zombieland is easily his best comedic role since 1996’s Kingpin.

While Harrelson may steal the show, Jesse Eisenberg anchors it as Columbus.  He reminds me of a young Woody Allen, using his neuroses to point out some quirky human—or in this case, non-human—behaviors.  His narration weaves through the entire film and it sets the tone right from the beginning. There is also a perfectly cast cameo in the middle of the film, but I don’t dare spoil that surprise here.

Although Zombieland certainly has enough creative zombie bashing, funny one-liners, and helpful zombie survival tips, the plot development scenes really seem to drag, probably because there is not much plot to develop.  That might keep the film from becoming a comedy classic after the initial pleasure in the humor and creativity wears off, but it does little to diminish the fact that watching this film for the first time is nothing short of a blast.  Per rule number four, I’m sure a double tap wouldn’t be too bad of an idea either.

Zombieland is rated R for “horror violence/gore and language.”  It’s a zombie movie, so the R rating is almost a given.  Vile spewing monsters getting their heads blown off at every turn here.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Zombieland.