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Zombieland (2009)

Release Date:
Friday, October 2, 2009

MPAA Rating:
R

Rating Reason:
For zombie horror violence/gore and language

Genre:
Comedy, Horror

Starring:
Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin

Written By:
Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick

Director:
Ruben Fleischer

Official Site:

Synopsis:
Columbus has made a habit of running from what scares him. Tallahassee doesn't have fears. If he did, he'd kick their ever-living butt. In a world overrun by zombies, these two are perfectly evolved survivors. But now, they're about to stare down the most terrifying prospect of all: each other.

Zombieland (2009) | Review

"Time to nut up or shut up."
Maurice Broaddus

Content Image
Zombies continue to be hot. The current boom in zombiephilia may have some of its roots in the literary realm, from the horror of Brian Keene's The Rising to the comic ridiculousness of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. They have had a parallel surge in film, from the "fast zombies" of 28 Days Later again to the comedy of Shaun of the Dead. Zombieland is very much in the comedic tradition.

The movie review in a sentence: Zombieland delivers on what the trailer promises. Opening with the image of Earth turned into a vision of Apokalips (a present to us comic book geeks) due to a virus, we are introduced to our hero, Columbus. He's a neurotic, over-cautious, nerd (Jesse Eisenberg, Adventureland, The Squid and the Whale) who has managed to survive due to being a loner as well as the system of rules he created.
"I've always been a bit of a loner." --Columbus
As he longs to return to Columbus, Ohio to find his family, he comes across Tallahassee (an exuberant Woody Harrelson) who prefers to go by place names, because real names get you too emotionally attached. The loss he suffered in the post-human reality has transformed Tallahassee into a road warrior who revels in taking out zombies in the most brutal and creative ways possible.

The pair, who gradually come to at least not annoy each other throughly are completely flummoxed and bamboozled by two young sisters, Wichita (Emma Stone, Superbad) and 12-year-old Little Rock (Abigail Breslin, My Sister's Keeper), in apparent distress.
"When you're afraid of everything out there, you quit going out there." --Columbus
Columbus found a lot of things disturbing, from people to clowns, becoming a paranoid shut in. Except part of him still longed to be a part of a family. Columbus treated people like zombies to be avoided even before they were flesh-eating monsters. Now, the plague of the 21st century has reduced people to a hateful, violent case of the munchies.
"Without other people you might as well be a zombie." --Columbus
Zombies are the ideal monsters, perfect to illustrate our dehumanization. These creatures portray a resurrection to walking death. A similar metaphor is found in the case of Frankenstein and the curse of The Mummy. They are the living dead, with no hope, only an eternal existence in a "body of death" (Romans 7:24). They are particular reminders that there are worse things than death.

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