Don't have a cow, zombies!

So where does Zombieland fit into the burgeoning subgenre of zombie comedy/horror? Is it more than just the latest and the greatest? After all, 28 Days Later... wasn't strictly a comedy! And one IMDb user said this was better than Shaun of the Dead. Or at least, a lot less British. Then of course, there was the Simpsons' Don't Have a Cow, Mankind. I don't know which struck first; about the same time if I had to guess. Perhaps it's a little of both: it is the latest and greatest, and yet symptomatic of the age we live in. Woody Harrelson does fine as the tough-as-nails aphoristic zombie killer who meets up with Jesse Eisenberg's nerd character who's almost adapted to this new way of life these films always try to project. The film apparently cost all of about 24 million dollars, but the computer effects looked pretty great. However, it looked like crappy digital video instead of film. I hope it's more environmentally friendly, because I hate the blurring it all causes to any type of movement now. Camera movement, actor movement, all blurry. Also symptomatic of our modern age of eyestrain from all corners. According to the IMDb tech specs, there was HD involved. To be fair, it looked better than 2012 which is also playing on cable now. 2012 is a far greater offender in this regard. Awful. Except for the big action sequences. Those look flawless, but the small in-between moments with the actors look like they were filmed with a VHS camcorder.
But back to Zombieland. A fairly enjoyable flick, although I tried to resist its initial release and its hailing as an instant classic. It no longer seems to be in the top 250! Oh well. And SPOILER ALERT: Bill Murray's cameo was better than I expected, but like the writing on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Woody's lust for Twinkies gets taken up that extra metaphorical notch. Well enough just can't be left alone anymore. And we'll know we're in trouble as a culture when we take the teachings of an Eisenberg type too seriously. Are we not men? I mean, human beings? Have we already forgotten how to live?

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-so sayeth The Movie Hooligan