Review: Zombieland (2009)

[Tim Skirvin]

  While society as a whole has been going through a Zombie
Renaissance over the last few years, I seem to have become somewhat jaded,
at least with the theatrical side of things.  The problem is two-fold: I've
caught up with the *good* zombie movies that the genre has produced, and
I've read a succession of increasingly well-thought-out zombie books and
comics.  Knowing where the zombie genre has been and where it is going, it's
hard to watch movies that are either caught in the past (the re-make of
_Dawn of the Dead_) or heading off in the entirely different direction of
Fast Zombies (_28 Days Later_).  And yet, I remain fascinated enough to go
to see the movies as they come out, and I doubt that will change any time
soon.

  _Zombieland_ is an interesting stop on this road: a zombie movie
that barely relies on the zombies for more than laughs.  Oh, it's certainly
not the first zombie-based comedy; Troma has been making them for years,
and _Shaun of the Dead_ is likely to remain the pinnacle of that particular
genre for decades to come.  And just about any zombie movie of any value
whatsoever has delved into zombies being a dark reflection of society.  But
in this case, the zombies become not just props, but victims of prop
comedy; and most of the time, they aren't even present except as the unseen
trigger of our characters' neuroses.

  That's not to say that there aren't zombies and gore and all of the
standard stuff.  They're all there, mostly in the opening credits sequence
and the first and last 20 minutes of the film; but really, the only thing
that they do is force reactions.  The "rules" of surviving a zombie
apocalypse (zombocalypse?) are laid out in a slap-stick and visual manner,
with the deaths of humans and zombies are alike played for laughs as well
as emphasis; that done, they only come out every now and then to drive the
plot.  

  What's interesting about this is that it works.  This movie is
*trying to be an average movie*.  Yes, there are zombies and gore and death;
but the heart of this movie is two post-teenagers trying to make their way
in the world and falling in love (or at least realizing that they like each
other).  This is a coming-of-age comedy, but instead of controlling parents
and career angst, there are hunts for supplies and the ever-present threat
of an attacker behind a closed door.  This doesn't always work - there are
simply too many survivors out of the seven-member cast for that - but there
were definitely moments of brilliance mixed in there, and I never really
felt bored.

  I suspect that we're going to see more of this direction over the
next few years, both the horror-comedy aspect and life-in-post-apocalyptia.
I kindof hope it works out, but I'm dubious; this movie would have suffered
from heading much further in either direction, and it wasn't that great in
the first place.

  It seems necessary to drag out the two-part movie scale for a movie
like this.  It set out to be a pretty-good-but-silly movie; and on that
front it did an adequate job.  I came out of the movie feeling not offended
and not impressed, but at least satisfied.  Its goals were not lofty, but
they were interesting.  I can respect that.

  ** 1/2 / **

  Oh, and if for some reason you need to see some of the reading
material that has made me jaded: "World War Z", by Max Brooks, is a quite
excellent novel.  "Walking Dead" is an ongoing comic book series that
explores the longer-term path of survival (and is due to have a TV series
based on it out next year).  And if you're looking for something that's not
going to make it to the big or small screen, I highly recommend "Zombie
Night at the Gotham Aquarium" in Hitman 13-14.  Zombie sharks!  Yay!

                           - Tim Skirvin (tskirvin at killfile.org)
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