The Brainless Undead Aren't Much To Fear

Watched Zombieland this evening. I don't know that I'm a huge zombie fan. When they're slow, they hardly seem like something to fear, overwhelming numerical superiority or no. But fast zombies don't seem quite right* somehow. The most entertainment I've had with zombies was discussing with Alex what we'd do in the event of your standard zombie outbreak.

So it's good that Zombieland isn't terribly serious about its zombies. They run about and kill people, but it's clearly people who weren't being smart, 'cause if you're smart about it, you'll be fine. because zombies are dumb. The main characters only seem to get into trouble when they give in to hope, letting it override their common sense. Why would an amusement park be blessedly free of zombies**? As Morgan Freeman said in Shawshank Redemption, hope can drive a man insane.

The movie follows a path for me that's rather common. In the early going, when characters are being established and we haven't hit the turning point, I'm really enjoying myself. Columbus' rules, his interactions with Tallahassee, the initial run-ins with the con artists. Then things start to turn, the situation gets somewhat more serious, and I find myself annoyed the plot (or is it the character arcs?) is asserting itself on the film***. Maybe the increased camaraderie between the characters would have worked better without Columbus' inner monologue about how this group is what he's been looking for all along. It fits with the movie, since this is a fellow who actually wrote down all his rules for survival, even though he appears to have memorized them, but I was sitting there thinking 'I got it, you care about all of them! Not needing to be hit over the head.'

Perhaps it was an error to expect subtlety from a zombie comedy flick? I'm sounding far too negative. I really enjoyed Woody Harrelson's character, Wichita and Little Rock were appropriately manipulative to the point I doubted their sincerity constantly, which feels proper since the characters just met, and the ladies had hijacked the fellas twice. The movie star cameo (I won't name them in case it would spoil it) was strange, but I'm focusing too much on why that particular actor, rather than just letting myself enjoy his appearance. I don't think he needed that much makeup to appear undead. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.

* There's a question for you: In zombie movies, which do you prefer, slow and shuffling, or fast?

** I wonder who spreads the rumors of havens from zombies. People with out of date information? Crazy people? Evil people who are trying to use zombies to eradicate the rest of the human race, after which they'll flip a switch and kill all the zombies, leaving them the sole inheritor of earth? Or is it someone who just likes to mess with people?

*** Office Space is my classic example. I love that movie up to the point where their embezzlement scheme goes awry, and they all start freaking out, and Peter snaps out of his relaxed, go with the flow attitude.