The zombie withinBy John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
"A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch,
A living-dead man." Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare
Not since Shaun of the Dead have I enjoyed a zombie comedy film as much as Zombieland. Director Ruben Fleischer and his mostly TV crew have fashioned a classic that can be enjoyed for its gore as well as its glee. It does help to have a gun-totin,' wisecrackin' Woody Harrelson as your featured Zombie killer.
The world has turned into Zombieland with only a few humans left. The four principals of this satire--Tallahassee (Harrelson), Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin)-- are on a quest to an LA theme park (where else!), an area of amusement rides and rumored to be zombie free. As in most film and literary journeys, the destination is not the important point?it's the journey itself. In this case, it's finding a sense of family for the orphaned protagonist, Columbus, who does the voiceover to set the nostalgic tone, a Michael Cera for the horror flick: inexperienced and virginal.
When the team trashes a Native American souvenir shop, it's time to re-evaluate who are the zombies, probably concluding we are closer to that state than we think. At the very least, the mayhem confirms the oft-thought interpretation that the zombie may be within.
Bill Murray playing himself is a high point in the film, if you can judge by the audience's shouts as he enters. Having fun with his Ghost Busters legend, Murray deadpans his way through to a surprising denouement. Tallahassee's effusive praise of Murray is, despite the comedy, appropriate given his varied performances over his career. For a good laugh, Murray regrets making Garfield; I regret he didn't win an Oscar for Lost in Translation.
As in Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland can be scary while funny. Never could you confuse it with Night of the Living Dead or 28 Days Later, my favorites, but you have to admire the admixture of lampoon and blood: "What do you think? 'Zombie Killer of the Week'?" (Tallahassee)
Lamentably, I lost some dialogue as this audience supported just about every joke with applause or guffaws. Not a bad thing. My other disappointment was the length of the sappy scene bonding Columbus and Wichita. We could have rather had more Tallahassee wasting zombies. And that's what a good Romero romp is all about, dispatching zombies as if they were our worst selves begging to be put out of our misery.
John DeSando teaches film at Franklin University and co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com