Review of Zombieland (2009) by Thomas S — 23 Feb 2017

Shaun of the Dead this ain't...at the end of the day, Zombieland is a pretty funny movie, with some decent acting and likeable, if somewhat bland, characterizations (with the exception of Woody Harrelson's excellent Tallahassee).

But in the end, it isn't really a true zombie movie. Sure, there are legions of undead walking the streets of ex-U.S.A., but their more of a nuisance than a real threat. Hell, they barely feature at all in the movie, save for the first and last 15 minutes, and in fact, none of the characters left alive after the initial outbreak that are seen are ever actually killed by the things in the first place. Bill Murray's capable of passing himself off as one of them with just a little make-up. At no point in Zombieland does it feel as if the characters are in any real danger, and thus the audience is asked to go along with some decently written jokes in place of the actual tension required to make a zombie movie feel like a zombie flick. They might as well have just been on vacation. It wouldn't make much difference to the plot.