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Horror and comedy have been bedfellows since the mid-to-late 1940’s.
As time progressed and audiences became “more sophisticated,” the advent of splatter movies spun the merging of funny and scary into new realms.
It’s there that Zombieland resides – a gore-ific, violent monster movie played for laughs. And it often works. About the filmWhen the Golden Age of monster movies kicked off by Universal in the 1930’s – Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolf Man (actually that last one’s from 1941) – began to peter out, some fellow thought of playing the creatures for laughs.
That’s where Abbott and Costello came in. In 1948, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was a huge hit. In the early ‘50’s, the duo went on to meet the Invisible Man (1951), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953), and the Mummy (1955). Not everyone wanted their monsters funny – including the Movie Man back in the day – so the arrival of Hammer Studios in the late ‘50’s reviving the old classic monsters with modern filmmaking was welcomed. As we Hammerheads matured, horror and comedy got more graphic. Some films came along that were scary and just happen to have some funny parts in them – Jaws (1975), An American Werewolf in London (1981), and the wonderfully weird (and cable staple for decades) Re-Animator (1985). Then came a truly hilarious scary movie, the one that remains the best of the genre, Evil Dead II. It’s shockingly graphic and played for such broad laughs that nothing since has touched it. (However, others might laud II’s sequel, Army of Darkness [1992] which is mighty good, too.) Others: Scream (1996, MM #161, 7) was fun, but Scary Movie (2000) was overrated. Much ado was made in 2004 about Shaun of the Dead (Movie Man No. 579, a 6). It was a tad better than average, but not the knee-slapper that its advance buzz heralded it to be. Now here’s Zombieland – sorta “Hey, Abbott!” with f-bombs and intestines. The plot A disease has rendered most of the world’s population zombies – bloodied, gory freaks who seek the few remaining non-zombied humans so they can eat them. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg, a poor man’s Michael Cera) survived because he’s a loner, attached to his computer 24 hours a day. Heading to Columbus, Ohio, he runs into Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) who is on a mission to kill every zombie. The duo meet Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and, after a few misadventures, the foursome team up and head for a hoped-for zombie-free zone in California. They stop at a movie star’s house. The girls head to an amusement park where they get surrounded by hundreds of zombies. The males arrive to help. While Harrelson gets seriously Natural Born Killers on the undead, squirrelly Eisenberg has to man up. Which he does. What works The first 30 minutes of Zombieland is really funny. Eisenberg has survived by obeying his own written set of rules. As Eisenberg describes the order in which humanity began to get decimated (Rule 1: Cardio – fat people got eaten first because they couldn’t escape), director Ruben Fleischer comically illustrates the rules on screen with the fleeing participants breaking the letters up. Harrelson, clad in a snakeskin jacket, is a hoot as a killing machine who really wants a Twinkie. Subtlety isn’t required and it ain’t in his performance. Even his serious scene – a reminisce – ends with a Titanic joke. Zombieland is surprisingly short at only 80 minutes, but it’s long enough. (Originally – amazingly – it was going to be a TV pilot.) There’s a final funny after the end credits if you hang around. Best scene There’s a cameo – actually it’s a bit more than a cameo; it’s a small part – toward the end that comes out of nowhere. The Movie Man won’t reveal it here, but the character has a funny line about Eddie Van Halen – “who’s now a zombie, of course.” What doesn’t work Not every line or sight gag works, naturally. And Zombieland eventually begins to pale. The movie can never reclaim its ferocious, consistently funny opening. (Metroplex folks will like the initial line that talks about how barren and desolate America has become, but this is Garland, Texas and it’s always looked this way.) The zombies are easily avoided usually, but these undead are the fast sort recently upgraded in movies like 28 Days Later... The Movie Man does not approve of speedy zombies. The rating Certainly, as expected, Zombieland is a hard R. The icky/funny super slo-mo sequences under the opening credits warrant the R immediately – the zombies have a hard time keeping their own body fluids under control then begin munching on captured folks. With language and violence galore, the R is rock solid. Summing up The Movie Man would rate Zombieland above Shaun of the Dead and under Scream. Genre fans will enjoy the gore and plenty of (mostly male, certainly) moviegoers will love the combination of splatter and funny. Next up What a weak week – maybe Couples Retreat? |
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