Columbus (Eisenberg) is a nerdy, gawky kid living in a zombie-infested wasteland using his wits, a double-barreled shotgun and an ever-expanding book of rules for survival. On his trip, he meets Tallahassee (Harrelson), a no-nonsense zombie killer in search of Twinkies, and the con-artist duo of Wichita and Little Rock (Stone and Breslin, respectively), who successfully bilk the other two out of their guns, car and dignity. What follows is a rip-roaring road trip through Post-Apocalyptia that will leave you in stitches.
I’ll lay this out now: Zombieland is hilarious. The plot is simple enough: the four aforementioned survivors (each taking the name of their original destination) band together to go to an amusement park in California, both for nostalgia and for the rumor that it’s not infested with zombies. The real meat of the movie, however, is the way the different personalities bounce off of one another. Tallahassee is pure, unfettered id, taking a perverse glee in not only killing zombies, but destroying them. Columbus, a former paranoid shut-in and the least likely survivor of the bunch, adheres religiously to his set of rules, which appear onscreen from time to time to illustrate his points (such as “limber up,” “always wear a seatbelt,” and “two shots to the head makes sure it’s dead”). Wichita and Little Rock are just looking out for number one. It’s gory, it’s fun, it’s funny and it contains one of the most startlingly appropriate celebrity cameos ever (I don’t want to spoil it, and you should avoid the film’s IMDb page too). Pretty good job for your first time, Mr. Fleischer.
