DIRECTOR: Ruben FleischerFor many, this film will work its voodoo purely because of what it is: a zombie comedy. It'll distract with its hip casting and zippy visuals -- enough that you'll forget the zombies aren't scary (or even very prevalent), that its end-of-the-world backdrop is empty rather than unsettling, that the comedy offers only schoolboy yuks, and that its core romance is geek gratification hogwash. It invites you to gawp at an array of slow-motion tableaus that escape the opening credits, giggle at a recurring visual motif regarding its lore's "rules", and suffer a redundant voice-over from ostensible nerd hero Jesse Eisenberg...
WRITERS: Paul Wernick & Rhett Reese
CAST: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin & Amber Heard
RUNNING TIME: 81 mins. BUDGET: $23.6m
The US of A has become the colloquial "Zombieland" after a plague turned the majority of its citizens into sprinting undead -- all of whom do nothing horrific like tear off limbs or eat brains, rendering them as scary as trick-'r-treaters in costumes. Human survivors include virginal introvert "Columbus" (Eisenberg), who's penned a list of cautionary rules that have enabled him to survive the apocalypse thus far ("beware of bathrooms", "check the backseat", "travel light", etc.) Columbus is currently hitchhiking to his namesake city (all characters are named after locations, for no logical reason) in the hope his parents are still alive there. Along the way, he gets a lift from redneck zombie-slayer "Tallahassee" (Woody Harrelson), before they become victims of con artist sisters "Wichita" (Emma Stone) and "Little Rock" (Abigail Breslin) and have their van stolen. Naturally, before too long they've called a truce and agree to travel together to L.A's supposedly zombie-free theme park "Pacific Playland".
It felt like a post-modern version of National Lampoon's Vacation, with a backdrop of wastelands and a sporadic zombie, as both feature a gang's road trip to a theme park with comic obstacles thrown in their path. It's actually the second road trip for Little Miss Sunshine's Breslin (unrecognizable), and the second theme park/"land"-suffixed movie of 2009 for Adventureland's Eisenberg. It will be widely seen as the US version of Shaun Of The Dead; the difference being that Shaun understood the enduring appeal and symbolism of George Romero's shuffling hordes, spun a romantic entanglement around that core, and insulated the gaps with post-modern larks. Zombieland throws Zack Snyder's light-footed menaces from the Romero remake into what's essentially a not-very-raucous, predictable comedy that gave away its best moments in the trailer.
Low-budget Shaun climaxed inside a local pub with a tense siege of entrails and gore, macabre laughs, palpable grief, and grisly deaths; the bigger-budget Zombieland ends in a huge theme park with bloodless peril, CGI-assisted stunts, and no real laughs unless you find clowns funny. And what kind of idiots hides from hundreds of zombies, all unencumbered by rigor mortis, by going on a ride they'll never be unable to get off, anyway? New rule for the book, kid: "avoid fairground rides."
Overall, Zombieland's reputation and sleeper hit status is unjustified but not surprising. Never underestimate how well a few quirky motifs and Woody Harrelson clubbing zombies will mask a script's lack of invention or peril. It has a high-concept that it does nothing interesting with, but at least has the good grace to clock in at a brief 82 minutes. When your most memorable moment is a cameo from Bill Murray [highlight to reveal] that feels like a Funny Or Die sketch got edited into the final cut, I think it's time to call it a day.
BLU-RAY DISC REVIEW
Picture: (2.40:1, AVC MPEG-4/1080p) A surprisingly excellent high definition transfer with sparkling picture quality, particularly noticeable during the film's many slow-motion sequences. Stunning clarity and pinsharp detail, plenty of that visual "pop" a lot of people crave from Blu-ray, and no discernable artifacting.
Sound: (English DTS-HD MA 5.1, French DTS-HD MA 5.1, English Audio Description) A good soundtrack mix that handles the dialogue well and has some meaty bass, but I was disappointed it didn't make me feel truly immersed in this bleak American dystopia.
Special Features
Audio Commentary. Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg join director Ruben Fleischer and screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick for this largely uninspired and dull yakker, where they backslap each other repeatedly and come across as generally a bit boring.
In Search Of Zombieland (HD, 16 mins.) A Making Of featurette that covers the basics of how the film was put together, as it started life as a TV pilot script that wasn't picked up but evolved into a feature film. Dull.
Zombieland Is Your Land (HD, 12 mins.) This featurette has some brief interviews with the talent involved, and takes a brief look at how the film was designed and constructed. Fairly good stuff, but nothing remarkable.
Deleted Scenes (HD, 5 mins.) A collection of scenes left on the cutting room floor, for good reason because they're not very funny
Visual Effects Progression Scenes (HD, 2 mins.) A very brief, silent look at key visual effect sequences from the film that were a technical challenge to create. I actually appreciate extras like this, which are no-frills and just explain things with fast, well-edited visuals. Here you'll find an interesting look at how they made the Washington D.C street attack, the lady smashing through the car windscreen from the opening credits, the supermarket bludgeoning with Tallahassee, and a zombie's fall from a theme park ride.
Theatrical Promo Trailers (HD, 6 mins.) A compilation of promos ("Bounty Towels", "Bowling Ball", "Buddy System", "Skillet" and "Swiss Army") that assumedly ran in US cinemas. If so, why doesn't the UK show this kind of thing? In each one, Eisenberg and Harrelson answer an "audience" question on zombies and how to survive them.
Previews. A collection of trailers -- 2012, Year One, Zombieland and Boondock Saints II: All Saint's Day -- together with the omnipresent and still pointless "Blu-ray Is High Definition!" promo.
Beyond The Graveyard (Picture-in-Picture) This PiP track appears at certain points with cast/crew interviews, Making Of vignettes, animatics, storyboards, etc. It's actually the only feature you need to bother with, as it essentially covers everything else on the disc. The only downside is that the PiP window sometimes lingers for too long, which can become irritating
Extras: As is customary for Sony discs, you can connect to BD Live and access a Sony website, and watch the movie with MovieIQ activated for filmographies and trivia accessed from an online database. www.sonypictures.co.uk/movies/zombieland
