Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Tuesday's Overlooked Movies: Zombieland



This movie was pretty successful, so I'm fudging a little, as I often do, by calling it overlooked, but I never saw it until now so I say that counts. As I've mentioned before, we don't watch many horror movies around here. ZOMBIELAND starts out a little too gruesome for my taste but then settles down into more of an action comedy/road movie as nice guy college kid Jesse Eisenberg, enigmatic loner Woody Harrelson, and sisters Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin drive across the zombie-infested Southwest from Texas to California, seeking an amusement park that's supposed to be a sanctuary from the plague sweeping the country.

It's kind of funny after the fact when Eisenberg, who went on to play Mark Zuckerberg in THE SOCIAL NETWORK, makes disparaging comments about Facebook. The movie has lots of intentionally funny lines, too, likable characters, an oddball cameo appearance from an actor playing himself, and plenty of action. It's pretty gory, but after a while the violence becomes rather cartoonish, sort of like a case of Acme Dynamite blowing up Wile E. Coyote.

I don't think this is a great film, but it's pretty darned entertaining, and I think that's all it set out to be. Many of you have probably seen it already, but if you haven't, it's worth watching.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely. Even if you know the Big Name Celebrity who plays himself (as I did) it still works perfectly in the context of the film (and his public persona).


Jeff M.

Unknown said...

Judy and I got a kick out of this one. I'm waiting for the sequel.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Yes, I was worried at first but it turned out to be great fun. I like Jesse Eisenberg. He is a good everyman.

James Reasoner said...

I like Jesse Eisenberg, too. Livia mentioned that if you don't look at him while he's talking, he sounds just like a young Woody Allen.

Anonymous said...

I see my comment disappeared yet again.

I am not spam!

Blogger can bite me.


Jeff M.

James Reasoner said...

Jeff,
It's back now. Odd that it would show up (I saw it the first time around) and then disappear like that. Blogger works in mysterious ways sometimes.

Todd Mason said...

Jeff, if you started entering your name rather than going Anonymous, Blogger might (maybe) be less likely to toss you in the pile...hit the Name/URL button (even if you don't enter an URL)...