Zombieland

Poster
2009
Ruben Fleischer

7/10 (Eisenberg = Cera-clone; completely illogical)

This was a good movie that could have been great. Woody Harrelson was awesome in a role that seemed tailor-made. The movie itself was funny, the kills were good, and it had a decent amount of seat-jumps, although these last were more heavily concentrated in the beginning. I would say the movie generally started out promising but dragged toward the middle, before a too-little-too-late finale.

Jesse Eisenberg in the starring role was FUCKING ANNOYING. Michael Cera is annoying enough by himself, without having a virtual clone. All I could think of throughout the entire movie was how Cera must have turned down the script so they had to look for a personality-double on short notice. Predictably, when the plot focused on him and the stupid love story angle, the movie ground to a halt. It also allowed for some of the worst dialogue I’ve heard in years.

My main criticism is that the movie was totally inconsistent; at some points it relied on realism but at others, especially toward the end, it just became absurdly nonsensical. No characters smart enough to survive as long as they did would be as stupid as they were during the grand finale. And of course, it makes no sense at all why the girls would continually screw over the guys either. Their chance at survival increased exponentially by staying together. I guess that’s zombie films though. They don’t have to make sense as long as they get their protagonists stuck in tricky situations. Of course, that´s why I think “Shaun of the Dead” was probably so successful: it at least stayed internally consistent with its logic.

Speaking of consistence, at the other end of the spectrum (on the AWESOME end) there was Bill Murray. I haven’t laughed as loud as I did during his scenes (especially his death) since “Drag Me to Hell,” and before that I can’t even remember. That shit was priceless, and Bill Murray has firmly launched himself into my personal hero camp. Woody is not far behind for how he played that first meeting scene, fawning all over the “BM.” The entire episode was a stroke of brilliance, and may god bless Bill Murray forever for having done it. It is worth seeing the film for that ten minute sequence alone.

17 March 2010

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