Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer, 2009)

With: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin

Plot: An alternate present day where 99% of the world's population have become zombies, strangers Eisenberg and Harrelson team up with con-team sisters Stone and Breslin to try and reach a safe haven.

---

Never a dull moment, and it rockets by in only 80 minutes, but I still thought it could have been better, this feeling is strengthened by the fact that everything this film does try and do it does very well. The laying out of Eisenberg's 'rules of survival' as actual text popping up on the screen could be overly cute, but his dry performance and likeable observations make such moments enjoyable. Despite being a comedy it's properly gory and manages decent tension when it needs to, and the main quartet of survivors are all well acted and written, though the girls are typically more throwaway than the boys. You could say it does everything right, but there's too much untapped potential, such as the extended Bill Murray cameo, which is very funny but so easily could have been hilarious. I should just be thankful that it's a very enjoyable comedy horror, it's just that it seems a few steps away from greatness.

63