ENTERTAINMENT
Faze Online
ZOMBIELAND
By Heidi Filici
Are you a fan of zombies? Great! You’ll find all kinds of them in this film – fat, skinny, slime-spouting, flesh-ripping, clown-resembling – you name it!
However, this isn’t your typical scary movie. Directed by Ruben Fleischer, Zombieland intertwines horrific gore and suspense with laugh-out-loud comedy.
Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg) is a cowardly young man who has somehow mastered the art of “surviving” in a world ruled by zombies. Feeling like the only human left on the planet, Columbus heads towards his hometown in hopes of finding his estranged parents. On his way, he crosses paths with the Twinkie-obsessed Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), who also happens to be a zombie-killing machine.
The pair decide to stick together, and together they get hijacked (twice) by two very intelligent human sisters, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). Eventually, the four of them come to terms with the fact they may be the only humans left in the world and learn to work together towards their common goals i.e. staying alive and starting over. Columbus soon realizes that he has finally found the girl “who’s hair he can sweep behind her ear” (a.k.a the girl of his dreams), and also the family he’s so much been longing for.
An audience member described Jesse Eisenberg’s character as “a failed attempt to copy Michael Cera’s (actor from Juno and Superbad) awkwardly-charming persona and cash in on his geek-chic status.” Other audience members also expressed their discontentment with Eisenberg’s portrayal of the character Columbus, a role they believe was probably originally written for Cera. Despite this opinion, I think each cast-member was well-suited to their roles…especially one big-name star that appears as a zombie in the movie (and you’ll just have to go see who it is for yourself).
“This movie is just a self-indulgent excuse for the director to show as much blood, guts and gore as possible. The fact that was achieved by Woody Harrelson butchering zombies using everything from baseball bats to chainsaws is just a bonus,” said the audience member sitting to my right. And yet, amidst all the ludicrousness there is a heart-warming tale and love story. This film is an unexpected combination of funny, scary, gory, sweet and romantic.
Warning: Must be able to handle the following - heads being bashed in with baseball bats, bones sticking out of skin, people being ripped a part and lots and lots of blood. So if you have a weak stomach…go see it anyways! It’s hilariously funny. Just be prepared to cover your eyes…A LOT!
