Blogworthy Flick: Zombieland

So this is one of my favorite movies. I'll just start by saying that. I have very.....unique taste when it comes to films, but one of my favorite sub-genres is "horror-comedy" - when done right. And this one, my friends, hits the nail on the head!

The plot centers around college student Columbus, played by Jesse Eisenberg, who I had previously seen in Cursed and The Village. Columbus believes he is the last human on Earth, having survived the plague brought on by a Mad Cow Disease mutation that turns humans into zombies. He survives day-to-day by relying on a set of rules he created for surviving potential zombie attacks. For example: Cardio, Beware of Bathrooms, Check the Back Seat, Limber Up, and When in Doubt, Know Your Way Out. His mission is to make it back to his hometown (you guessed it, Columbus, Ohio) to see if his family is still alive.

In his wanderings he meets up with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), who is basically a zombie hunter out for revenge due to the zombies killing his family. He is also on a search for the last Twinkie on Earth. The two men become partners on a quest to kill as many zombies as possible while looking for more humans (or Twinkies). They meet two more humans, Wichita, played by Emma Stone (Superbad, The House Bunny) and Little Rock, played by Abigail Breslin (My Sister's Keeper, Little Miss Sunshine). The girls are basically con artists who steal the guys' guns and car (several times), but for some reason, the four gravitate toward each other.

Wichita tells Columbus that there is nothing left in Ohio and they all change course, headed for a rumored safe haven at an amusement park in Los Angeles. They stop in Beverly Hills and spend some time in Bill Murray's mansion (Murray makes a cameo that is hysterical) before heading on to the theme park, which of course, before the end of the movie, becomes crawling with zombies. There's not really too much else I can say that won't ruin this movie for anyone who hasn't seen it, so I'll stop at this point.

I did not expect to like this movie. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to like it, I just did not expect to. But I was very pleasantly surprised by the plot, the performances (Woody steals the show), and the effects. Even though the movie is not scary at all, and there is actually very little gore (save the first five minutes), the comedic timing and story make up for it. And the movie has quite the cult following, too.