Screams become laughs during the new "horror" film Zombieland

Zombie movies were once considered horror films.  They were built around fear and the bleak scenarios their protagonists found themselves in.  At some point in the last twenty years however, filmmakers discovered that these campy, shambling monstrosities could actually be used to create brilliant comedies.  As a suspenseful thriller "Zombieland" fails, but as a witty and gorey slapstick comedy it is a resounding success

The film opens with the narrator, Jesse Eisenberg, who plays Columbus, a hopelessly endearing geek whose fear of zombies is surpassed only by his fear of clowns and girls, explaining some of his numerous rules that have kept him alive for so long in a post-zombie-apocalyptic United States. 

He soon meets with his polar opposite, the psychotically aggressive Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), who is on a quest to find the last Twinkies left in existence.  The pair meets up with the sisters Wichita and Little Rock as they hit the road heading nowhere in particular.

The best aspect in any zombie flick is finding new and satisfying ways of killing the endless hordes of undead antagonists, and here "Zombieland" shines.  Tallahassee often forgoes his many guns for much more elaborate kills involving everything from hedge clippers to a banjo.  For most of the film the zombies aren't terrifying threats to the characters' safety, but rather they function as sacks of meat existing only to be killed in the most hilarious and bloody way possible. The characters rarely feel threatened, and as a result some scenes are a bit anticlimactic. 

At the end of the day, "Zombieland" is just an incredibly fun movie.  The film isn't a masterpiece of American cinema, but it makes no attempt to be.  The movie advertises itself as a funny and somewhat off-beat zombie blood-bath, and it delivers on almost every promise it makes.  The narrator's monologues, the zombie killings, the oddball protagonists, even the out-of-left-field Bill Murray cameo, all add up to make a movie that is genuinely fun and will have you laughing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071KqJu7WVo