One funny horror, but in a good way
Zombieland is a bloody hilarious jaunt, which strikes an irreverent tone echoing Shaun Of The Dead. The rules for survival are explained in the film's tongue-in-cheek opening section: maintain cardio fitness because you'll spend a lot of time running away from predators, check the back seat of your car for unexpected, teeth-gnashing passengers and avoid bathrooms. The last thing you want is to be caught, literally, with your pants down as a zombie crawls into the cubicle.
Directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, actors Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin star as survivors of a zombie apocalypse. You see, America has been ravaged by a contagion, which has metamorphosed all but the lucky few into flesh-chomping predators.
Columbus (Eisenberg), the deadpan narrator, has managed to survive thanks to his fear of anything that goes bump in the night.
"It would be nice to see a familiar face… or any face that doesn't have blood dripping from its lips and flesh between its teeth," he muses as he makes his way back home to see his family.
En route, Columbus encounters gun-toting hard man Tallahassee (Harrelson), Wichita (Stone) and Little Rock (Breslin).
Together, the foursome take an extended road trip across the country in an attempt to find a sanctuary free from zombies, following a set of "rules" designed to keep them alive where others have failed, killing zombies in a variety of creative ways while trying to "enjoy the little things" in a ruined world.
While the plot seems incredibly similar to Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, Zombieland acknowledges it isn't a serious film, so it manages to avoid any comparisons to other productions.
Meanwhile, the movie – which grossed more than $60.8 million (Dh223.31m) in 17 days in the global box-office, surpassing the Dawn of the Dead remake to become the top-grossing zombie film to date – is actually funny.
Eisenberg's droll scaredy-cat is a wonderful comic foil for Harrelson's goofball avenger, who is so moved at one point, he confides: "I haven't cried like that since Titanic."
Stone and Breslin pull their weight too, shooting a fair few zombies as they search for a safe haven. Bill Murray's cameo as himself is a treat.
- Out now on from Dh115