The Red Circle

By Tom Nix // 10.05.09

The term Instant Classic is thrown around a bit too much nowadays. Sometimes, films deserve it. PRIMER, PAN’S LABYRINTH, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. These are films that burst your brain with their originality. These are films that demand second, third, fourth, even sixteenth viewings. Not only because they’re great after that many sessions, but because the world they create requires further observation. A lot of people are calling ZOMBIELAND an instant classic. One of the premiere zombie films of the decade. They’re half-right.

ZOMBIELAND is the nickname given to the America (the world?) of the future, where a pandemic virus has all but totally obliterated human existence. At this stage in the game, the only people left are the hardcore survivors. The ones that have a plan, and the rules to back them up. People like Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) – essentially the quintessential nerd and narrator. He’s survived as long as he has due to an almost OCD amount of rules regarding surviving the living dead (There’s a running visual gag regarding these rules that, while perfectly integrated and hilarious during the prologue, overstay their welcome). Columbus is a college student in Austin, TX who is trying to get back to, you guessed it, Columbus, OH where his parents live. Or maybe un-live. He’s not sure as without cell phones, radio, television, and air travel, everyone is cut off from the rest of the world. He soon meets up with the Ash of this story, Tallahassee (A fantastic Woody Harrelson), a probably slightly insane southerner who has a hard-on for knocking off the undead. During a raid for twinkies (more on this later) at a supermarket, they find two sisters, Wichita (Emma Stone – unrecognizable as the girl from SUPERBAD) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) – one of whom may be infected with the virus.

Despite some small logic leaps (like, in the third act, the girls engage in a series of decisions so indescribably idiotic that it’s shocking that they are the same people that have managed to be one of the infinitely small number of Zombieland survivors) these characters feel natural with each other and form a very uneasy family. That’s an odd way to put it, but the film does an excellent job redefining what a family would and should be in a land ruled by something other than humans. It’s these interactions that both make and break the movie. The script is almost completely air-tight. There are an almost endless stream of jokes – almost all of them hit – and they don’t feel like a clever line of dialogue that screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick came up with late one night and shoehorned into the story. the characters have a reason to say these things and they seem like things that those people WOULD say. It’s an achievement. I also credit them for what is one of the best cameo appearances since Tom Cruise in TROPIC THUNDER. The less you know, the better. This one is a completely brilliant surprise.

Unfortunately, the great script, great actors, and interesting world are all the great things about ZOMBIELAND. I mentioned a bit about repeat viewings in the intro. This movie leaves no reason for anyone to watch it through the second time. The use of the Rules visual gag could have been put to better work as subtle character moments – all but ruined by calling out what the characters are doing non-verbally as a verbal joke. This an ultimate tell-don’t-show movie in a show-don’t-tell universe. It’s been forever since someone made a movie about a post-apocalyptic zombie world. Normally, we get to see the first stages of an outbreak and how people are trying to survive the oncoming madness. This movie (except for some brief flashbacks) wholly takes place after the zombies have taken over, and after the population has been dwindled down to the last survivors. It’s a half-hearted look at how people in Zombieland are living their lives.

I don’t blame director Reuben Fleischer for this. He shows moments of letting the audience soak in his world while moving the plot along. For example, Tallahassee has an unearthly craving for twinkies. Several times throughout the movie, he will attempt to find a giant horde of them. And both times this happens, he seems to barely miss a boatload of twinkies. For example, when he blasts open a Hostess truck that is full of snowballs, the camera shows a view from the inside of the truck. And behind the one closed door, is a huge stash of twinkies. Its unfortunate that its something like visual gag about snack cakes that gives the only non-verbal information in the movie. I wish that there were a lot more scenes where we could go back and fill in the blanks about the universe that’s laid out here, but ZOMBIELAND doesn’t want to give us that chance. It just wants to entertain us, make us laugh, and revel in the joy of killing zombies.

And its that last bit that makes ZOMBIELAND a little odd. There are barely any zombies in this movie. They pop up from time to time to provide the appropriate obstacle, or to be destroyed in some inventively brutal ways. But they don’t seem to be a major part of a movie that bears their name. Once again, this movie is more about the group of people that find themselves forced together in a world that is out to get them, but it takes that nihilistic premise, and turns it into a bit of a more farcical thing. It’s amazing that I’ve gotten this far and not name-checked ZOMBIELAND’S obvious inspiration, but this is something SHAUN OF THE DEAD managed perfectly. It was a hilarious movie with real horror and real danger and real consequences. ZOMBIELAND, as fun and enjoyable as it is, almost feels like obligatory brainless American remake of that film.

It’s all played for laughs, and those laughs are genuine. But there’s nothing going underneath the glossy exterior of a well-shot, well-acted, well-written ZomCom. They took all the elements of a great zombie movie, and instead of melting them all together into a delicious glaze, they threw them together into a tossed salad. You can see that all the ingredients are there, but they don’t have the cohesive texture and taste of a complete filmic experience.

ZOMBIELAND creates the world of an instant classic, but instead just makes a fun night at the movies. It’s just a little painful to watch a movie that has all of the tools for climbing the mountain of greatness forget to bring the rope.

7.5 out of 10

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