Review:
*Originally written October 5th, 2019*
It's amazing to think that Zombieland is 10 years old now. A film I used to watch constantly when I was about 13. While my expectations for the sequel are pretty low, probably due to the fact Ruben Fleischer hasn't made a great film since this released and the trailers have been underwhelming to say the least, despite all the cast returning and still carrying the same wacky humour. I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks.
I'd been wanting to revisit this for a while. Part of me wasn't sure it would hold up, but to my surprise, for the most part it's still great fun. I even watched it twice this week due to having to watch both the Blu-ray and the 4K for reasons. Some of the effects are a bit iffy as a lot of it is CGI that is very noticeable and out of place among the always much better practical effects that pop up every now and then. Everything else though, is pretty great.
Zombie comedies seem like something we get a lot, but for me nothing even come close to Shaun of the Dead when it comes to the horror comedy genre, Zombieland is still a worthy entry though. What really elevates this though is the excellent chemistry between the cast. Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin all work wonderfully well together as the dysfunctional make-shift family of strangers put together in this zombie apocalypse.
Harrelson is obviously the stand-out with his cowboy like personality and his deeply relatable quest to find a Twinkie (I remember this film kick-started my interest in Twinkies, which were impossible to find in the UK until well after this film released. Needless to say, once I had one, I understood why he wanted one). Eisenberg carries his usual dorky charm while being a pretty strong lead character as he works the audiences through his rules to surviving Zombieland. Then Stone and Breslin bring a lot of fun to their roles as they con their way through the Apocalypse.
The balance of horror and humour is very solid. I was genuinely surprised at how well a lot of the humour still works 10 years on. A certain cameo is certainly the highlight and leads to a dark and hilarious resolution to that detour. Where the humour mostly works though is just the interactions between the leads as they slowly bond and learn about each other on their adventure. It even has just the right amount of heart, enough so that despite the poor trailers for the sequel and the fact the time might have passed, I'm still interested in spending more time with this group of people.
Forgot how stylish this was too. Fleischer's direction brings some unique visual touches, the opening titles to Metallica are wonderful and some of the slow-motion shots look really cool. I also love the use of random stuff going on around Zombieland like the "Zombie Kill of the Week" which is a great and funny gag, but it's never explained how anyone even knows about it, but it's stuff like that where Zombieland comes into its own and thrives on its unique personality. It's very clear that they wanted to expand the world, but it obviously never happened until now. Oh, and that cancelled Amazon Prime series no one ever talks about or remembers.
Zombieland still holds up very well thanks to its cast of fun and memorable characters, stylish visuals and solid mix of gore and laughs. The 4K disc is also another winner from Sony, who just continue to pump out amazing discs like no other studio. Great fun and always worth a revisit.
8/10 Dans
Zombieland is out now on 4K UHD and Blu-ray in the UK with a 4K UHD Steelbook available from Zavvi
Watch the trailer below:
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Letterboxd: Dan
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