The undead, a great twinkie quest and the “zombie kill of the week” – what’s not to like?
Now I will admit that some of the humor may be a bit “sophomoric” for some of the more self-described sophiticates out there. The same can be said, however, for films going all the way back to the Hope and Crosby “Road” pictures. Fran and I love a good comedy and well done zombie flicks – and if there is one thing this movie has, it is well done zombies. Now it can’t be just any zombie film; after all even we have standards (see 28 weeks later for an example). But roll good comedy and good zombie film all into one? Well what can I say except…
I haven’t laughed so hard since “Sean of the Dead.”
I laughed 'til I cried.
The “Zombie Kill of the Week” bit was just too funny (and of course it has nothing to do with the fact that it appears to have gone to a nun named “Miss Cythia Knickerbocker.”) Woody Woody Harrelson’s dead pan humor as “Tallahassee” was the perfect counterpoint to Jesse Eisenberg’s “Columbus”. A moment in the film that stands out as expressing this is when Tallahassee, the zombie killing machine on a quest to find the last box of Twinkies, first meets Columbus, a college student on his way home. Woody Harrelson comes roaring down the highway in his Cadillac SUV and screeches to a stop. Harrelson and Eisenburg are instantly facing off in the middle of the road “mano et mano” staring down the barrels of each other’s shotguns. A tense moment follows where one is not sure if the other is going to shoot first. Then, slowly, Eisenburg holds out a trembling hand and extends a thumb to hitch a ride.
Like Eisenburg, whose rules for surviving a zombie attack add the perfect touch of humor, we are all taken for a ride by Harrelson’s “good old boy” turned “zombie’s worst nightmare” (if, I suppose, zombies have nightmares at all). I haven’t had this much fun at a movie since “back in the day” when mom and I could go to the movies for $1.75 and sit through all the showings we wanted.
It is also a testament to the film that, in an era when an increasing number of theater seats remain empty, the movie played to a full house. As we were leaving the theater, Fran turned to me and declared the movie to be a “must own”. The movie, unlike many of today’s mmos, has a great deal of “replay-ability”.