About Me

My photo
I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Monday, September 01, 2014


My Favourite Movies: Zombieland

When the world falls apart only the strong and brave will survive – or in this case the weak, the loner and the misfit. When a zombie apocalypse arrives, care of an infected burger, it quickly spreads across the US bring civilisation to its knees. Luckily for Columbus (played brilliantly by Jesse Eisenberg) he’s managed to avoid most of it by being a nerd, staying at home playing World of Warcraft and having no friends – oh, and his rule book. Making his way across the continent to see if his parents have survived he meets up with Tallahassee (the hilarious Woody Harrelson in sparkling form) who is looking for the last batch of Twinkies before they reach their final sell-by-date and who is enjoying the little things – which mainly means killing zombies in the most inventive ways possible. Heading east, where they have heard its Zombie Free, they bump into fellow survivors Wichita (played by the seriously sexy Emma Stone) and her younger sister Little Rock (played by Abigail Breslin). Having already financed their trips by preying on the gullible they manage to steal the boy’s truck and all of their weapons. Given chase in a new found Hummer with a kit-bag of guns in the back so begins a beautiful friendship based on lust, mistrust and the never ending hunt for safety and sweet confectionary.


I’ve said before that I am no great fan, or actually any kind of a fan, of the outpouring of zombie flicks, TV series and books that has flooded the world in the last decade or two. The whole thing pretty much leaves me cold (pun intended) and I’d rather read about or watch vampires any day (OK, I draw the line at Twilight but the point stands). I did think Shaun of the Dead was funny in places but that was about it. This example of zombie rom-com is head and shoulders above that with genuine scary moments interspersed with howls of laughter, pathos, a bit of romance (but not of the usual saccharine vomit inducing kind in these sort of movies) and some great one liners. Everyone, including Breslin (surprisingly as, as you know, I don’t normally rate child actors very highly) is universally excellent. Harrelson does tend to steal every scene he’s in but Eisenberg gives him a run for his money with his uber-geek persona. Emma Stones is, as you might expect, both very funny and very sexy as the street-wise big sister with a good heart and a pump-action shotgun.


This film operates on about 3-4 different levels and works on every one. I think I’ve seen it at least 5-6 times now and still find it laugh-out-loud funny. If you have nothing much to do one evening and haven’t seen this at all (or just for a while) and don’t mind a bit of zombie action, blood, gore, and strong language then this is just the things for you.  

6 comments:

VV said...

I love this movie, and Woody Harrelson is slowly growing on me. Have you seen him in True Detective? I think I've underestimated him as an actor.

CyberKitten said...

No. Haven't seen that. Heard of it though......

VV said...

It's really good. I think it might be available on Netflix, not sure if I watched it on cable or Netflix. You might want to turn on the closed captioning option, both Harrelson and McConahey mumble and have such heavy drawls that even I had trouble understanding them in some parts. M didn't like the ending. I will say it did seem odd, but then it was a quirky show overall.

Mike aka MonolithTMA said...

I just love this movie. I've seen it several times.

I do love zombie movies and TV. Totally hooked on The Walking Dead.

I also loved Shaun of The Dead. maybe you just don't get British humor? ;)

CyberKitten said...

British humour is just weird. They even add a extra U just because they can!

Mike aka MonolithTMA said...

Hahaha!