Zombieland B+

In theatres, 82 minutes, Rated R

Zombieland is Exhibit A for truth in advertising. If you liked the trailer, you’ll love the movie. If you didn’t, don’t waste your time, ‘cause this is an 82 minute uber-violent, zombie-killing comic buzz of a film that starts in high and hardly slows down. The plot, straight from 28 Days Later, is as follows: The world is covered in zombies, and Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg, Adventureland—we only know the characters by where they’re from), a multi-phobic anti-social twenty-something, has found a way to stay alive by following some basic rules. He’s trying to get back to his parents place in Ohio when he takes up with a bona fide zombie killing nut job played with reckless glee by Woody Harrelson. They meet up with the two-girl swindling team of Wichita and Little Rock (Emma Stone, Superbad, and Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine) and band together to get to California to go to Disneyland. The story is organized around Columbus’s rules for survival (think Wedding Crashers) which include #1 Cardio, and #2 Beware of Bathrooms.

Director Ruben Fleischer is one to watch. He sets the raucous, over-the-top tone in the opening sequence and never deviates for a second. While there are tons of production tricks, including maybe the most slow-motion I’ve ever scene in a film, it all works. Also working: a great, great cameo that I won’t spoil here. Eisenberg recycles his Adventureland character, but that was a likable character. Emma Stone is fine if nothing spectacular as the hottie, and Breslin proves she might just make it out of Little Miss Sunshine with a career. But this movie belongs to Harrelson. His character channels the anarchic zeitgeist of the film, the devilish abandon of killing zombies by any means possible and loving it. It’s a fun, perfectly realized ride that I whole-heartedly suggest to you. B+