When I was little, zombies were not like they are today. They were slow, LIVING DEAD people, shambling, moaning, rotting and losing body parts on the road. Basically, they were dead people with a tiny part of their brain controlling motor function and hunger still working. Nowadays being a zombie is a disease that transforms you into an homicidal, cannibalistic freak that oozes black goo out of its mouth. Contemporary zombies have been denatured. ZOMBIELAND is, to my knowledge, the 2nd zombie comedy to ever see the light of day, after the immortal SHAUN OF THE DEAD. It's not exacly a comedy ABOUT zombies, but more of a movie about what life in America would be like after a zombie apocalypse. Overall, ZOMBIELAND is more interesting and original than it is actually funny. It has a couple haymaker jokes, but its main calling card is that it's a movie with its own ideas about the genre.
Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is an awkward college kid from Ohio, going to college in Texas. After the zombie apocalypse, Columbus developed a set of 31 rules to stay alive in the American wasteland. Moved by the desire to see his family again, Columbus takes the road back to Ohio. On his way, he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) a violent redneck who quickly discovered himself a passion for slaughtering zombies after shit hit the fan. They also meet Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), sisters and con artists who take advantage of Columbus and Tallahassee's good nature more than once. In a world where they are seemingly the last four people alive, getting along would be nice, though. So everyone decides to make an effort and the group goes down to California to seek a moment off the end of the world.
ZOMBIELAND is goint to IN-EV-IT-A-BLY draw comparisons to SHAUN OF THE DEAD since they are the two only mainstream movie of their genre. Serious comparisons don't hold up, though. Aside from a similarly spastic, neurotic main character, the two movies deal with completely different themes. SHAUN OF THE DEAD is about an alienated, emasculated employee pulling out of mediocrity and becoming a hero when it matters and ZOMBIELAND is about about finding whatever's of what makes us human in a world where humans have been wiped off the map. Both movies are dealing in very classic themes. SHAUN OF THE DEAD though, it unequivocally funnier and more frantic. Simon Pegg has a gift for slapstick humour that few other actors of his generation have.
ZOMBIELAND was still very interesting to me for being kind of a zombieless zombie movie. The rule in zombie movies usually is to keep it quiet and indulge in a festival of blood and guts at the end and ZOMBIELAND kind of uses the foolproof method too, but it's not a panic movie of claustrophobic fears and cheap peak-a-booh scares. There are long scenes where zombies are just a mere afterthought and the humour comes from the characters inhabiting a deserted America where they are the only people responsible for their moral standards. There is also a Bill Murray scene. I'm not spoiling anything since he's listed in the cast and the movie sets it up as its big joke. The scene itself pried a few giggles out of me, but it's not THAT funny. It's an off-beat and whimsical scene that's worth being watched though. Fans of the legendary actor will appreciate its subtlety in a movie of about the most straighforward genre you can think of.
Comedies are extremely hard to make. Scratch that, they are as difficult as any other genre to make, but it's insanely difficult to make a succesful one. Part of the issue is having to decide whether or not the screenplay should go for easy laughs or attempt to craft a timeless, more intellectual brand of humour that might not be as well recieved at first, but who would have an immortal shelf life. ZOMBIELAND sits on the fence, between those two philosophies, which makes me wonder about its place in cinema history. Its timely arrival on the market (2009 was a great year for zombies) and the lack of zombie comedies makes me believe that ZOMBIELAND will be remembered, but can a movie that's not THAT funny become immortal? I don't know and I might not be the most dedicated audience for this question. It's a movie I enjoyed, though. Big productions don't usually come with their own set of ideas.