Saturday, October 29, 2011

Zombieland

2009 ****

Hi! Just jumping into Horrorthon for a moment. I've been absent largely due to my job, which is somewhat horrifying in and of itself. (Think main sewer line breaks in the middle of the night. So...maybe not horrifying as much as incredibly yucky and annoying.)

I said I might have some themes this year, but I've decided my new theme is going to be semi-pretentious name dropping, meaning I'll just review movies that involve people I've met here in Hollywood, but not in any truly impressive context. So, to begin with, I sat next to Rhett Reese on a plane. We were on the way to Austin Film Festival. I went because a script I wrote kinda sorta placed a competition, but not really. And he went because he wrote Zombieland so he is awesome. Semi-pretentious name dropping accomplished.

To give some insight into this flick, Rhett told me he and his writing partner originally wrote it as a pilot, and then it didn't get made, and they ended up getting paid to expand it into a feature, which did get made. I thought it was pretty great--clever characters, funny scenes, actually sorta moving at times, sharp dialogue, nice character development, and mostly very silly so you could forgive its super obvious internal story arcs. Guy's a loner--um, I'm gonna guess by the end of the film he'll learn to connect with people. But you know, when it's done right, it still works.

So I was totally on board, but I have to admit, after reading JSP's review, I thought, "Yeah....that Bill Murray thing was kind of a sideline. Huh." That was a little peek inside my head. That's the kind of thrilling analysis that goes on in there.

So maybe that little Bill Murray's mansion adventure was added as padding while the writers were trying to fill out 100 pages instead of 60. It works for me, though. Probably because I also really, really love Bill Murray, and I would actually be thrilled to meet him, pre or post Zombie apolocalypse.

Just to make the rest of this review about responding to JSP, I'll tackle his point about the ladies in the film making suddenly stupid, out of character choices. I would argue that they are contradictory from the git go. Even when they all first start driving in the hummer, Witchita softens a bit when Columbus learns his whole family has been killed. And she says the reason she's going to Pacific Playland is so her sister can be a kid again, so sure, it's really idiotic to turn all the lights on, but sometimes in the post apocoloyptic world you just have to let it all hang out and have fun. The girls are drawn as jaded and talented con artists, but it didn't seem too out of bounds that they're more vulnerable sides would cause them to slip up, especially after Witchita almost totally lets down her guard in the BM palace with Columbus.

I think the Zombie thing was mostly just a backdrop for the story between the characters, so if you're going to insist on certain classic zombie elements, I guess you could find yourself disappointed. But why torture yourself?

Clever ending line interrupted by child climbing onto keyboard;lkjjgfsgj'j,hggzzzzzzzzzz

5 comments:

Catfreeek said...

I rated this the same as you, loved the story, the rule system is genius. I must admit though, not a big fan of Bill Murray. Nice review & name drop.

Jordan said...

Has the statute of limitation ended on giving away the Bill Murray thing? I guess it has.

Julie, there's a lot of discussion on the DVD commentary track on the television show it could have been, and the elements from the pilot that made it into the movie (like "Zombie Kill of the Week")

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Glad to see your review Julie! I love the concept of "semi-pretentious name dropping" as a Horrorthon theme and want to see more!

Zack made a great point at the end there that I never considered. Make him a contributor I say!

I am clearly in the minority on this one. I watched it a second and third time and admit I underrated it but I still get highly irritable halfway through the movie and I think it has to do with Woody Harrelson's smugness.

Crap juice, I have fallen far behind on reading the reviews...

JPX said...

I'm not a huge fan of Bill Murray (I think he's kind of a jerk and apparently horrible to deal with in real life) but his appearance in Zombieland was not a distraction to me at all. I actually found that whole sequence to be pretty hilarious. I think it has great style and it pulls off the tricky horror/comedy thing, which rarely works for me. I dig Zombieland.

Octopunk said...

Well, I love Bill Murray too. It did feel a bit weird how much of a valentine to Bill Murray the movie became for a while -- even before he showed up. But I didn't mind.

I think Zack sent that exact text from my phone to someone recently.

Malevolent

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