Opening 10 Dec 2009
Directed by:
Ruben Fleischer
Writing credits:
Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick
Principal actors:
Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Amber Heard
Some films should not be made, and Zombieland, which is as bad as its title suggests, is one of them. A zombie virus infects all but a few persons, four of whom unintentionally come together and drive cross-country, deflecting zombies at every stop until they reach California and an amusement park, where they aide one another in killing off a whole lot of zombies, which consummates their mutual trust and their bond as a "family". And that is it, end of story.
Director Ruben Fleischer, with snarling extras in garishly amateurish make-up, brings brutal disdain for people and property to a new low. He relentlessly tosses in parodies, accented by drop-down titles to make sure we do not miss them. Granted, Fleischer tries to stretch a story that can be told in one line into a feature film; however, the result is as dismembered as the various ghoulish scenes he flashes on the screen at us.
Labeled a comedy, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick’s forced screenplay tells the story through the young nerdy guy Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), with lots of moral embellishing… oh please. The talents of Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson (Tallahassee), Emma Stone (Wichita), Abigail Breslin (Little Rock) and Bill Murray, as himself and offering the only unadulterated comic moments, are wasted in a film like this; was it contractual or a need of money that ensconced them in this project? Seems this film is a big hit in the U.S. Hmm… to coin the movie’s tagline, this film is so dead. (Marinell Haegelin)
