Zombies Among us

A zombie road movie to love -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
This weekend we’re having typical Texas yo-yo weather. Friday was sunny and 70, today is cold and rainy. Perfect weekend for me to catch up on some movies which I did with Zombieland (2009, Columbia Pictures) and a couple of others that were less review-worthy. One thing you can pretty much tell from the Zombieland movie posters and the fact it stars Woody Harrelson -- it’s an over-the-top comedy.

It is an over-the-top, silly comedy which made me fall off the couch a couple of times, with laughter. Note to serious people everywhere: silly is not a bad thing, sometimes it’s a needed prescription for what ails you.

Zombieland starts from a precept which is almost now cliché; a fast-acting virus has attacked the human race and turned 99% of them into slobbering, drooling cannibal zombies. The healthy remaining humans are few and far between -- they must use brutal survival skills (eg, “double tap“) to dispatch the lurching monsters. This gives us a charmingly odd quartet of people who happen into each other (each one named after a city of origin) on a road trip of sorts:

Columbus -- a shy, sweet still-virginal 20 year old college boy (Played by Jessie Eisentstein).
Tallahassee -- a mean, nasty albeit charming, gun-slinging, middle-aged man with a penchant for twinkies and killing zombies for fun (Harrelson, of course)
Wichita -- A beautiful 20-something con woman who thinks nothing of stealing cars and men’s hearts (Emma Stone)
Little Rock -- Wichita’s precocious 12 year old cohort who delivers dome of the movie’s best lines (Abigail Breslin)

This movie has something to offer everyone and it crosses thru several of my favorite genres. Men will love the bloody cartoon violence whereby zombies are decapitated, run over by cars and otherwise taken out of commission. Women will like the budding romance between Columbus and Wichita. I myself love road movies (eg, Paper Moon , It Happened One Night, even Thelma and Louise). There’s no better way to see that the journey often exceeds the destination -- maybe it is the destination.

Zombieland has our travelers going (somewhat randomly) from Garland, Texas to Los Angeles via a black Escalade and then a stolen yellow Hummer (found with only arms clutching the steering wheel -- one must assume that zombies feasted on the rest of the owner’s body). I like any movie with a southwest flavor. Due to the travel trajectory of this movie, we get some Willy Nelson, progressive country music backdrop, Indian casinos and southwest artifacts along the way. (Tragically, some of the artifacts get deliberately smashed to pieces).

Bill Murray has a hilarious cameo midway, and Tallahassee makes it clear that he’s an ultimate Murray fan. Well, I’m a Woody Harrelson fan so we’ve got almost a hat trick going here. Another of my favorite things are “movies within movies” and movies that pay homage to other great movies. Zombieland is a grab bag of movie references (not the least of which is the main characters watching and reenacting Ghostbusters at Bill Murray’s LA mansion). This isn’t a satire (like the Scary Movie series) but rather a clever mixing and matching of motifs for an altogether original and funny picture.

MODERN FAMILY ET AL
I’ve exhausted my creative energy on Zombieland so now I’m becoming a zombie myself. However I must mention that Wednesdays on ABC have become the new must-see television night. With The Middle, Modern Family, Cougar Town and Ugly Betty, there’s an unstoppable comedy train coming through on ABC. Last week’s Modern Family had the adoptive gay fathers being horrified that their infant daughter’s first word is “Mommy”, said to a woman babysitter. “She can tell you have (uhm) breasts and other lady parts. You’re her new mother. (beginning to sob) She‘s made her choice”. Elsewhere on the show, Manny and his step-dad are both afraid to go on the big roller coaster. The mother, totally disgusted that she must ride alone says, “Here is my purse, here is my fluffy hat, and there’s the lady’s room if either of you guys needs to go to the bathroom”. Two laugh out loud moments, one TV show. It’s hard to do but they did it.

The rain has let up a little and it’s near dinner hour, so I’ll sign off now.

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