As usual, the zombies are witless, lumbering oafs who dutifully line up to be slaughtered.

Woody Harrelson takes a great deal of relish in killing zombies, often declining to use a gun because he prefers killing them with car doors, tire irons and whatever else comes to hand. These items are displayed in onscreen graphics that pop up for laughs and include a tribute to the Back Seat Rule of my Little Movie Glossary, which instructs us - but I'm sure you remember.

More than that I will not say, except that not many zombie comedies can make me think simultaneously about 'Psycho' and 'Garfield.'Įisenberg, a good actor, plays a pleasant nerd who has compiled a seemingly endless survival list for the United States of Zombies. The foursome hauls up at Murray's vast Beverly Hills mansion, so palatial it is surely a grand hotel, and finds him still in residence. The filmmakers show invention and well-tuned comic timing, and above all, there's a cameo by Bill Murray that gets the single biggest laugh I've heard this year. Columbus, like so many others, is phobic about clowns, making Eisenberg an ingrate, since his mother put him through grade school by playing clowns at children's parties.Īll of this could have been dreary, but not here. Yes, even with a haunted house, the usual ominous calliope music and a zombie clown. Yet eventually they all join in an odyssey to a Los Angeles amusement park, for no better reason than that there's no location like a carnival for a horror movie. Wichita and Little Rock turn out to be con women, dashing the hopes of the love-struck Columbus. The plot comes down to a road movie threatened by the Undead, as countless zombies are shot, mashed, sledgehammered and otherwise inconvenienced.

Zombieland movie cover