Zombieland

[sholio]

This movie was really too much fun! Zombies in general are not a trope I'm fond of, but as with Shaun of the Dead, I couldn't resist the adorable characters and tongue-in-cheek humor.

The only flat note for me was the Bill Murray joke sequence, which was funny for five seconds and then went on way too long, with a helping of extra WTF for the ending. But otherwise, it was light and exciting and fun, if slightly gory at times. The too-cute-to-handle bonding between "Tallahassee" and "Little Rock" was probably my single favorite thing in the movie ("We're making a fort!" *squeak*). And teaching her how to shoot zombies! Awwwww.

I think this is the only zombie movie I've ever seen in which none of the main characters died. On the one hand, the movie's weirdly light-hearted and cavalier attitude towards death is kind of disturbing (again with the WTF at the Bill Murray part ... seriously, WTF?), and the fact that there are no lethal consequences for any of the main characters in a movie that's about 99% of the population dying is something that throws me off a bit. On the other hand, I got so caught up in the characters and their weird little family-of-circumstance that I think it would've broken my heart if any of them had actually died ... so maybe sometimes it's okay when everybody lives?

"I swear you're like a cockblocking robot developed in some secret government lab." XDDD

I'm totally buying this one when it's out on DVD.

Comments

[spark-force.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it FANTASTIC? I'm not normally a zombie movie person-- I get too freaked out-- but I loved this one. They were all so adorable together!

The Bill Murray part was pretty... odd, though. And I didn't really get why they didn't just do what he did and dress up like zombies, if it really worked as well as he claimed it did...

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I know! Not really my thing at all, but so much fun!

I wish they hadn't pushed the Bill Murray cameo so far -- it was great as a one-off joke, and then it just wouldn't stop! And it made no sense in so many different ways; you're right about the foolishness of them not trying his trick, and if he was able to figure it out, shouldn't there have been a bunch of people in Hollywood who managed it too? And then there's the lack of concern over having killed one of the only remaining humans in apparently the whole country, which makes the supposed good guys look like callous jerks -- not at all the way I want to see them! I wish they'd just made a joke out of it and then moved on, because it doesn't work as serious plot material at all.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

Everyone dying is a staple of the zombie genre, but mostly it's just a staple because everyone else did it, not because it's a particularly trope.

And there's another one where none of the heroes (some main characters though) died. Land of the Dead. Awesome film. And it's doubly awesome because it's George Romero returning to the Dead films to teach the young punk directors how it's done.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Everyone dying is a staple of the zombie genre, but mostly it's just a staple because everyone else did it, not because it's a particularly trope.

Well ... yes and no, I think; it's a trope of horror in general, and zombie movies are a subset of horror. The whole focus on death and dying and "any of US could become one of THEM!" in zombie movies kinda lends itself to killing off characters.

Having said that, no, there's no specific reason why most of the cast has to die.

I haven't seen Land of the Dead -- I'm not generally a big zombie movie buff -- but I remember being intrigued by the promos.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

Amusing, I left out an important part of that sentence...

"not because it's a particularly good trope."

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

haha, okay, yeah, that does change the meaning somewhat, doesn't it?

[winter-elf.livejournal.com]

how gory are we talking about here. That one scene in Shaun of the dead (the zombies kill the guy by pulling his guts out) was tooooo much for me. Are there many scenes like that in Zombieland? Or just shooting zombies type of gore? If it's action movie type gore, I can handle it. And that the four 'hero's live, that was another thing I was worried about.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Er ... it's pretty gory. Definitely an R-for-violence level of gore. There are a number of scenes like the one you describe; clearly the whole movie isn't nonstop blood and ick -- there's plenty of plot in which they aren't fighting zombies at all -- but it's kinda on the high end of my gore threshold, which is pretty high.

[spark-force.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's pretty high on the gore scale, though mostly at the beginning-- once it got past the first twenty minutes or so, I was able to watch without covering my eyes too frequently.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you for this! I have been wondering whether to, but you drawing on Shaun of the Dead is not the worst rec ever... (I do like silly horror movies.)