Zombieland!

The Columbus Film Guild viewed "Zombieland," the new movie written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Both these writers have a lot of TV credits behind them, and it showed in "Zombieland," for good and bad. The pacing was a bit off for a feature film, and I sure knew when I was supposed to laugh. But it was still a great zombie movie, following many of the monster movie conventions and introducing a few new ones. It was very much along the lines of "Shaun of the Dead" (2004). I loved the list of ways to not be zombie-food, which added cohesiveness to the plot. And these rules unfolded much like the sound effects in the TV Batman series, demonstrating a good "BAM!" when disaster was about to strike. For a monster movie, "Zombieland" had a very strong plot, albeit one that revolved around a quest for twinkies. As in all good monster movies, I felt the need to shout "don't go in there," more than once, but especially when the female leads jump on a ride that was sure to get them eaten once the power was cut. Woody Harrelson was a natural as Tallahassee, but with a jolting character twist at the end of the movie. (I liken it to Alan Alda in the final episode M*A*S*H.) Jesse Eisenberg played a character much like the Columbus Film Guild saw Michael Cera play in "Year One" this summer.

Chris Bournea brought up the point that the movie was more an action comedy with a few zombies thrown in, rather than a typical zombie movie.

Overall, I'd recommend it during this monster movie viewing season. If you see it for no other reason to than to see Bill Murray, it's definitely worth the full price of admission.