Squeezing in one last Halloween review for the year! I opted for something under 90 minutes, clearly appropriate in theme but not seriously scary. Seemed like a partial palate cleanser.
We never learn the name of the narrator-protagonist (Jesse Eisenberg), because the few survivors of the zombie apocalypse don't want to feel too emotionally attached to each other. He goes by "Columbus," because he grew up in the Ohio capital. His long-time habits as a timid loner have prepared him for this new world, and he shares many tips with the viewers. While looking for a safe haven, he teams up with "Tallahassee" (Woody Harrelson), an older badass who loves hurting or killing zombies almost as much as eating the now-scarce Twinkies. Then they meet "Wichita" (Emma Stone) and her kid sister, "Little Rock" (Abigail Breslin). Columbus soon crushes on Wichita, but she's neither trusting nor trustworthy. Perhaps a shared crisis will change that....
The zombies herein are mostly fresh enough to sprint but also gory in appearance, being of the ravenous type, unlike in World War Z. Mercifully, we don't see them graphically kill anyone except in the beginning. It helps that they're curiously unclustered in most scenes before the climax. The R rating may be just as much for language, including explicit reference to an act that is never performed herein.
It's probably best described as a comedy first and foremost; despite a few sad details, not least Tallahassee's backstory, even deaths tend to be played for laughs. Well, more of the humor is found in dialog. Each living character's actions range from impressively clever to "Oh, you've got it coming." I for one wouldn't waste ammo on anything that doesn't move in their environs.
It's also more action than horror to my mind. Pretty much from the moment Tallahassee shows up, facing zombies almost looks like fun. And when there are none in the vicinity, the survivors can enjoy petty anarchic stuff like theft, vandalism, and...gosh, how do they still get electricity? No wonder the title sounds like an amusement park.
ZL follows too much of a formula to be brilliant, but it makes a worthy cap to the month. It's even kind of sweet in the end, for what little hope it offers.
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