FILM REVIEW: ZOMBIELAND
REVIEWED BY ADAM KAMIEN

WHEN George A Romero shocked movie-goers with Night of the Living Dead in 1968, he set a mark for zombie movies that is yet to be equalled, even by his own seemingly endless stream of sequels.

Jewish director Ruben Fleischer is the latest upstart to attempt a bold, new take on the undead oeuvre with his debut feature Zombieland, and while there are one or two aspects to like about his effort, the status quo is maintained.

The film takes place in the not-too-distant future in a world that is overrun with zombies. Through voice-over we learn that “patient zero” was infected after eating a dodgy Gas n’ Gulp burger.

Humans are an endangered species and the film follows four survivors who go by the names of their hometowns.

Woody Harrelson plays Tallahassee, a straight-talking, roughneck cowboy, eerily similar to all the other straight-talking, roughneck cowboys he’s played in the past (think No Country For Old men, Natural Born Killers, Wag the Dog, The Thin Red Line –- you get the idea).

Tallahassee is the leader of a ragtag group of survivors, which includes Columbus, played by Jewish actor Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland, The Squid and the Whale), Wichita, played by up-and-comer Emma Stone (Superbad, The House Bunny) and her sister Little Rock, played by Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine).

The unlikely foursome band together despite having different destinations, and hack, bludgeon, bulldoze and explode their way through an inexhaustible parade of flesh-starved, drooling canon fodder.

And killing zombies never looked so good. But in belting out this cavalcade of elaborately choreographed ultra slow-motion set pieces, it seems Fleischer forgot about the most important zombie-flick convention -– subversiveness.

Reducing the genre to a gigantic orgy of blood spatter, explosions, and stunts, is all well and good, if the characters and writing are strong enough to keep the audience interested in the down time. They aren’t.

Eisenberg tries hard, but is reduced to the same awkward, if adorable, neurotic he always plays. Either he only has one gear, or his agent needs to find him something different, but his Michael Cera (another Jewish actor who starred in Superbad and Juno) imitation is getting annoying.

On the upside, there isn’t a lot of down time, the set pieces are handled quite nicely and there is a cracking, big-name cameo, who steals the show.

Zombieland is currently screening in cinemas.