ZOMBIELAND - Blu-ray review

"Zombieland" feels like one of those films born out of the hypothetical games that people like to play. Which is harder to survive? A post-apocalyptic nuclear world, or a post-apocalyptic zombie world?

There's no question as to which is funnier. Ever since the old Miller Lite zombie commercials, I've had a hard time taking zombies seriously. After all, in so many of the previous zombie films they always walked with arms extended and moved so slowly that it's like trying to survive killer slugs. Uh, I think it can be done. Maybe even with a little flair, too. It's the ant factor that'll kill you. When too many of those swarming flesh-eating undead come upon you, well, you can kiss your south end goodbye. And in "Zombieland," the ant factor figures prominently.

Other zombie movies give you pockets of zombies and bands of normal, scared-to-death people. Not this film. It's truly a post-apocalyptic wasteland in which only a few humans survive. The rest have succumbed to a brain-attacking highly communicable disease. "Remember mad cow disease?" asks Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), the voiceover narrator and point-of-view character. "Well, mad cow became mad person, became mad zombie."

And how is it that a wimpy, neurotic nerd came to be one of only a handful of survivors roaming what he now calls the United States of Zombieland? Simple. He has rules of survival that he explains to the audience, whom he directly addresses, throughout the film. As the action and his reaction follow those rules, one of them will suddenly flash on the screen in a running gag--rules like "Cardio" (be in peak condition and run fast), "Double tap" (always kill a zombie twice), "Beware of bathrooms" (they like to catch you with your pants down), "check the back seat" (in case a zombie is hiding there), and "wear seat belts" (which comes in handy if you forget the previous rule and you have a zombie to get rid of).

The rules and Columbus's laconic deadpan delivery account for a large part of the film's humor. The other part comes from a human he comes across while car-less and needing a ride--a human who relishes being the last person in a zombie world a lot more than Columbus. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) is a truck-driving, gun-wielding, Twinkie-loving madman who seems one step away from mad zombie disease. When he wastes a zombie he does it with flair, and while Columbus tries to avoid them, Tallahassee relishes the encounters. He feeds off of them . . . so to speak. When a Twinkie craving sends him into a grocery store that's all lit up, he walks inside, plays a little "Deliverance" on his banjo, and then, when zombies come running to attack, he uses it like a weapon. "You got a purty mouth," he says, dropping one of a number of movie one-liners along with the blood-spewing zombie.

And what's a post-apocalyptic movie without the prospect of a little species regeneration? When that prospect comes to a young man who's still a virgin and has no idea how to repopulate, it makes for additional comedy. He's in more distress than the two "damsels" they run across--a pair of sisters who have a set of rules of their own, and they all involve survival through conning people. Now, the only people left to con are Columbus and Tallahassee, so Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) do what comes naturally.

Like "Shaun of the Dead" (2004), which director Ruben Fleischer said was an inspiration, "Zombieland" is a mixture of film genres. First and foremost, "Zombieland" is a road movie with plenty of road kill. The zombies are a gross bunch, but they're also faster and over-caffeinated. They seem to exist as much to provide carnival-game targets as they are to create tension. The zombies are disposed of with video-game verve, and while it's bloody as hell, it's also played a bit like those old Miller Lite commercials. Secondly, "Zombieland" is a teen coming-of-age comedy, but a little sweeter than I-gotta-get-laid movies like "Superbad." There's also a bit of the old animated "Scooby-Doo" adventures here, which is especially apparent during the sequences shot at Wild Adventures Theme Park in Georgia.

Most zombie movies have limited sets, but production designer Maher Ahmad ("Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story," "Extract") captures the visual look and feel of each genre this film embraces, and he also seems to intuit that in a deadpan comedy much of the joke depends upon visuals for support. Cinematographer ("Lost") does a fantastic job of framing everything so we get both the longshots that suggest bleakness and the intimate shots that allow us to enter this world through point-of-view filming. As bleak as the landscape feels, the frames themselves are full and rich with detail.

Most horror/zombie pictures are all about the creatures, with the writing an afterthought. That's happily not the case here, as intelligent dialogue is as rampant as those gross blood-puking, regurgitating zombies. "I hate to give credit to anyone who looks like Yosemite Sam," Columbus begins. Later, the object of his derision says, "You got taken hostage by a 12 year old?" His response: "Well, girls mature faster than boys." Great lines like that catch you by surprise, like those zombie attacks.

I would be remiss not to mention a cameo by Bill Murray that takes his trademark deadpan to a new level. It's without a doubt one of the film's highlights and one of the most unpredictable sequences. For while "Zombieland" is a fun film, it's really a little predictable and features the same threaded-but-threadbare plot that plagues so many road movies. Even with the zombie body count piling up in their wake.

Video:
Much of "Zombieland" is shot in dim light or darkness, but the 1080p Blu-ray really picks up the detail no matter what. Every blood-spattered moment comes at you in all its Hi-Def grossness. Close-ups reveal the skin texture that we've become used to seeing in Blu-rays, and colors really pop out at you the way that brightly-lit stores seem like oases to the human pilgrims in the film. "Zombieland" was shot using Panavision Genesis HD and Phantom HD cameras, and the AVC/MPEG-4 transfer to a 50GB disc is a good one. There's nary an artifact. Presented in 2.40:1 aspect ratio, "Zombieland" looks great in HD, plain and simple.

Audio:
The audio is also dazzling, so clean and crisp and precise that even the silence is astoundingly clear. When the action picks up--supported by a hard rock soundtrack by groups like Van Halen, Metric, and The Raconteurs--all the channels rock out. Credit the featured English or French DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio, which also fills the room with nice directional and ambient sound. Even animators know how important it is to get a satisfying "whack" when someone catches a frying pan to the face, and the sound engineers do their part to support the film's overall tone. There's also an audio description track for the sight-impaired that's offered as a Dolby 5.1, and available subtitles are English, English SDH, and French.

Extras:
Fans should be happy with a nice bundle of extras. It's hard to pick a favorite, there are so many interesting ones, but let's start with the featured making-of offering. "In Search of Zombieland" (16 min.) is a pretty standard making-of bonus feature but what makes it click is the content. We learn a lot about this film that wasn't apparent from watching or hadn't made the "buzz" rounds, including the fact that it was first conceived of as a TV show. We see the arduous process of going through zombie make-up too, and get a full sense of how the film was designed and how it came together. Also very good is the companion "Zombieland is Your Land" (12 min.), which goes more into production and set design.

Blu-ray exclusives include a PSP-only Digital Copy and BD-Live connectivity and movieIQ, which purports to put you in touch with "real-time information on the cast, music, trivia, and more while watching the movie." But the real gem is "Beyond the Graveyard," a picture-in-picture trivia and behind-the-scenes track that's both fun and informative--a nice way to watch the film a second time.

Those who like audio commentaries will probably enjoy the freewheeling one provided by director Fleischer, writers Reese and Wernick, and actors Harrelson and Eisenberg. All of them have things to say, and all of them get a word in edgewise without a lot of overlapping or competition. They each have opinions on favorite (or hated) scenes, how shots were crafted, what location filming was like, or who did what to make a scene work. It's a very fun commentary track to listen to--easily above-average.

Rounding out the bonus features are seven deleted scenes that run under a minute each, four "Visual Effects Progression Scenes" that run under four minutes, and a bunch of trailers.

Bottom Line:
While "Zombieland" doesn't necessarily do anything new with zombies, it plays with the genre enough to where you willingly hop in the car with these survivors and criss-cross the United States of Zombieland--just for the fun of it.