We’ve seen the zombie horror film, the zombie action film, even the zombie romantic comedy. What’s next? With ZOMBIELAND, it’s the zombie coming of age film.
I’ve gotta tell ya – I like zombies. They’re great monsters, defying all logic (How does zombie metabolism work? What do they eat when they run out of brains? Why don’t we ever see Harryhausenesque skeleton zombies? Ok, that last one’s easy – because then they’d be scary skeletons, not zombies. Work with me here, people.). Like great monsters, artists can adapt them to nearly any kind of story. And they’re cheap to make – get a bunch of college kids together, buy ‘em thrift store clothes, cover them in corn starch and licorice (for that dried blood look), and feed ‘em chicken wings and beer for a day, and you’ve got half your cast right there. And I like coming of age stories. It’s hard to find one’s place in life, and it’s easy to relate to other who are trying to do so. Put the two together, and you have a win on concept alone.
Fortunately, ZOMBIELAND works not just in concept, but execution. Jesse Eisenberg (also known as Michael Cera’s Michael Cera), desperately needs to find his place in the world. Yeah, he needs to find his place in a world filled with zombies, but still. He needs a role model, a girl friend, and someone to look up to him. Can he do it? Well, will college kids work for chicken wings and beer? There you go. The story bops along from one episode to the next, maintaining its sardonic sense of humor and its joy of zombie smashing throughout. It never stops being fun, it never stops having fun, and it never ceases to entertain.
Yeah, SHAUN OF THE DEAD covered much of the same territory and, frankly, did much of it better. But ZOMBIELAND does fine. If you like zombies and you like coming of age stories, you’re sure to like ZOMBIELAND.
