Zombieland

The brilliant British Shaun of the Dead remains unsurpassed. However, Zombieland can be described as a pleasantly silly and at the same time mainly entertaining film with a reasonable runtime, which has good ideas and is adorned with the excellent (certainly not small) role of Bill Murray. However, the traditionally unsympathetic Eisenberg deserves to be eaten and spat out in the first minute. (04/08/2011)

I avoided Zombieland at the time of its release in movie theaters, as I didn't expect any miracles and after watching it, that feeling was confirmed down to the last detail. It is good to compare this film to the British film Shaun of the Dead. After all, they are both in the same genre and thematically about the same thing. From this comparison, it's clear why American cinema so successfully crushes its competitors. It has perfectly mastered marketing and can sell even average products as exclusive matters. Although Shaun of the Dead is a much more mature and clever spectacle, both films have the same rating scores and Zombieland easily leads in terms of viewers. All in all, it is an average affair and one of the numerous cases where the functional content is contained in the trailer and a substantial part of the film is filled with mere filler. The first ten minutes are fine, setting a decent pace and outlining the rules by which the main hero operates in his desire to survive the rampage of zombies. Then the film falls into routine, occasionally interrupted by a good gag, such as the destruction of a bloodthirsty zombie with a piano or Bill Murray's role with his undignified end. The film also shows an obvious effort to sell it to a teenage audience as the target group, so besides the horror parody, it also uses elements of a teenage comedy. Fleischer's film has tremendous untapped potential, as the subject matter allowed for countless gags and comedic situations. Overall impression: 50%. (04/17/2010)

(Don't Fear) The Reaper, baby. Unfortunately I was right when I said to myself after seeing the opening credits that nothing better could possibly follow. Zombieland is a movie where its greatest blessing is also its greatest affliction. Woody Harrelson is unarguably outstanding and pulls the whole movie along, but even so the role should have been given to somebody with cult status gained by hard work in countless B-movies. Yes, somebody like Bruce Campbell would be more suitable. And everything in Zombielandis like. What you find here is good and entertaining, but you can also see clearly how much better and more rounded it could of been... P.S.: It was really nice to see the nod to Deliverance. (11/30/2009)

I confess that despite the excellent responses, I didn’t believe in Zombieland, at all. The trailer didn’t interest me in the slightest and given how much I (didn’t) like that other highly praised zombie comedy (Shawn of the Dead), I expected 80 minutes of boredom and suffering. Fortunately, the heroes of Zombieland are a lot more likeable than the gang around Simon Pegg. Where I fundamentally disagree with most other reviewers is in my opinion about the course of the film. I consider the beginning as the weakest part (those first fifteen minutes made me fear a new Shawn, with the corresponding two stars), the quiet moments in the middle (the interactions of the characters) as the best, and the action-packed climax as a fun end to the ride. BM’s cameo was awesome! (11/03/2009)

Likeable main protagonists, a ton of laughs and eye-candy slow motion splattering blood. What more could one ask for? Woody Harrelson is awesome and Jesse Eisenberg was a very pleasant surprise. The zombies here aren’t spooky, so no horror, but maybe comedy of the year. You must learn to appreciate the simple things in life. (11/30/2009)