I saw "Zombieland" on DVD tonight. Mildly funny -- an enjoyable enough movie, although I wasn't (ar ar) blown away by it -- it wasn't the comedic multiple orgasm-on-celluloid that I was led to believe it was.
It wasn't quite an undead romantic comedy ala "Shaun of the Dead" (and, at heart, that's what that movie was, although it had some great comedic moments in it, likely because the Brits have that razor's edge instinct for comedy when they want to). Or maybe it was another undead romantic comedy of sorts, since the neurotic nerd guy does end up with the cool babe, the babe who'd be out of his league in a non-apocalyptic world, but now, somehow likes him (instead of the Woody Harrelson character, who a gal like that seems likelier to like). Wish fulfillment by the screenwriters?
The telegraphing of the various Zombieland Rules was overdone -- it's one thing to have them make a pass through, but for them to keep reappearing felt like the writers were looking down their noses at the audience -- "Look! This is what the narrator was referring to earlier!" The "rules" feels like a hook that sold the screenplay.
I think we survived the Great Zombie Cinematic Plague, if we're in the parodic place for it, now -- sort of like the "Scream" movies re: slasher movies, where it's all self-referential and what-not. "Zombieland" captures some semblance of humanity in its characters, which gives it something of the half-life of a Twinkie, but that's not saying too terribly much.
I can't hear the title of it without thinking of Terminal Mind's "Zombieland" tune -- a good song, offering a critique of American culture. They were a Texas band, and this story begins in Texas, so maybe the writers were inspired by that. Very likely.
I need to think a bit more about it, I guess. Or not.
