Media Consumes Me

I really don’t think there was anyone more skeptical than I when it came to the first glance at a trailer for Zombieland. ANOTHER zombie-apocalypse survival movie? When Zombieland was released, I was certain that, at best, it would be a shitty attempt at recreating Shaun of the Dead. However, at the insistence of a coworker and fellow Shaun addict, I hesitantly bought a movie ticket and sat through the flick.

Generally, I’d give a movie a few days to sink in before writing a review. But I was so blown away by Zombieland that I felt its awesomeness needed to be shared immediately before losing its luster.

Zombieland is unlike any movie I’ve seen in a long time. First of all, it’s more than a movie–it’s a flat-out experience in cinematic entertainment. Most zombie movies start out slow, pick up fairly quickly, drag a little while, and finally end on typically philosophical sad note. But Zombieland starts off like a punch to the face (or, in this case, a shotgun blast to the head) and continues with an hour and a half of insanely funny (yet gory) chaos. Sounds odd, but Zombieland makes it work.

The movie excels in many areas. Plenty of gore for my fellow blood-chugging, zombie-loving brethren and chills aplenty. But where the movie really got me was the characters.  As in Shaun of the Dead, they come off as real people. All the characters have flaws and losses and deal with them in a terrestrial manner.

The flaws and losses are just about the only serious note Zombieland has to offer. The movie had more funny moments than I can actually remember because I was too busy laughing at what just happened to notice what was happening. The movie also sported the best cameo EVER (no spoilers here!).

What’s more, the acting shocked me. Woody Harrelson was abso-freaking-lutely brilliant. I’ve never seen him so perfectly cast–he comes pretty damn close to stealing the show. Jesse Eisenberg is fantastic in his lead role Columbus, and I can definitely see this film giving his career a well deserved kick.

I cannot remember the last time I had a movie experience like this. I laughed so hard I think I’m sore from it (literally). If I had to give this movie a rating, it’d be 5 out of 5 chewed-up zombie brains. It’s a hit on its way to cult classic status. Definitely worth seeing in theaters for the whole group experience… so stop reading this, and go (now!), “You spunky little spitfucks!”