Zombies Do Zombie Things in Zombieland
by Mimi Luse
Zombieland
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
The vampire trend in film (and on TV) is forgivable. Tortured by their desires to drink blood and suck face, vampires are a wholey relatable bunch… and also kinda pretty. But this zombie trend needs a time out, especially in film. Though the genre has a storied past, there is now a subgenre of zombie parodies that the originals deservedly spawned; and now, like the beasts themselves, they keep multiplying; birthing parodies of parodies, like Zombieland, which is so far up its Hollywood K-hole it doesn't remember what it's parodying. Admittedly, today there is a lot of Zombie material to choose from, even outside of film. Zombies are an easy metaphor, and they seem to have clawed their way into popular culture through video games like Urban Dead and various flash-mob type events, before being finally re-animated through high art. All that the makers of Zombieland know is that zombies are "in" and funny in a sort of second-hand way; which makes this movie the highly-self aware Snakes on a Plane of the genre, with lots and lots of product placement. In fact, it seems as if at one point, the heroes of this film—the sensitive older brother from Squid and the Whale (Jesse Eisenberg) and only that guy from Natural Born Killers (Woody Harrelson)—enter a supermarket with the sole purpose of admiring the variety of products that General Mills (TM) makes. Actually, an entire plot line is derived from one character's search for Hostess (TM) Twinkies (TM).
So, while the entire country is infested with zombies, when it comes to the heart of the matter, the United States of Zombieland are basically no different from our own U.S. of A. Oh, and Bill Murray lives there too. Sorry, spoiler. It's the best part of the whole thing. He plays himself, pretending to be a Zombie! He dies too, but it's actually due to friendly fire. But I'm digressing, the movie is about zombies! They're funny right now. They also walk like drunkards and tear through human flesh like a bucket of KFC. Ha! And given the upgrade in special effects since the Evil Deads, Zombieland gives us 100% more gross zombie stuff.
Opens October 2
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