Zombieland (www.the-usher.com)

"What do you think? Zombie kill of the Week?"

After a contaminated food incident led to a plague that turned ordinary human beings into flesh eating zombies, Columbus (Eisenberg) had be surviving by following his own set of rules to keep him alive. This was a very lonely life in Zombieland however but when he meets Tallahassee (Harrelson) everything changes. Where Columbus’s rules have allowed him to avoid the hordes of the living dead, Tallahassee had taken the fight to them and discovered he had a real gift for zombie killing. As the pair team up and continue to head west to California to a rumoured zombie free safe haven, they meet Wichita (Stone) and Little Rock (Brelin) and discover that it isn’t just the zombies they should be wary of.

When it comes to naming a Zom-Com you would instantly think of ‘Shaun of the Dead’ but now the American’s are having an attempt at mixing Zombies with Comedy.

When director Edgar Wright and stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost came together to bring us ‘Shaun of the Dead’ back in 2004, the Zombie Romantic Comedy was born. Since then there has been an influx of Zombie movies but none of them ever captured the right mixture of horror and comedy, until now. Director Ruben Fleischer and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have taken the Zom-Com to the American shores to bring us a story of survival from the undead hordes but with a comedic twist. When a burger infected with Mad Cow disease is eaten by on unsuspecting member of the public, a plague quickly spreads across the world turning everyone into flesh eating killers. With only a few survivors and rumours of Zombie-free areas on the East and West coasts of America, they are left with only their wits and, in some cases, common sense to save themselves from becoming an undead killing machine. One of those survivors is a young man who has developed his own set of rules to keep himself safe from the plague. With the human survivors forgetting about names and just calling themselves after their home town, so Columbus from Ohio just wanted to get back to see if his family had survived.

Along the way he meets Tallahassee, a man who has found in new calling in life. Zombie killing. With his mother always saying he would be good at something, he never knew that it would be taking the fight to the undead hordes. An odd couple, the pair travel across America but are soon joined by two girls, Wichita and Little Rock as they head for a rumoured safe haven in California. This, of course, leads to adventure and a battle to survive, even from each other.

Why ‘Zombieland’ works is mainly because of the casting and what the performers bring to their characters. Since appearing in ‘Rodger Dodger’ back in 2002, Jesse Eisenberg has carved out a career for himself playing the geeky nice boy and in ‘Zombieland’ he continues this as the survivalist with the set of rules, Columbus. Emma Stone sprang to prominence in ‘Superbad’ in 2007 and as Wichita, she becomes the girl of Columbus’s dream who can certainly handle herself and a gun. Nominated for an Oscar for her role in ‘Little Miss Sunshine’, Abigail Breslin shines again as Little Rock. Woody Harrelson almost steals the show however, as zombie-killer extraordinaire Tallahassee. On a quest to kill as many of the undead as possible and to find the food that he longs for the most, a twinkie.

Filled with fantastic zombie killing moments and comedy that hits new high with a hilarious cameo, ‘Zombieland’ is America’s answer to ‘Shaun of the Dead’. While it might not be as original as the Wright/Pegg/Frost outing, this is great fun with a lot of style and what should be the start of a new comedy horror franchise.

PICTURE & SOUND

The Blu-Ray disc presents the movie in High Definition wide screen 1:75 up to 1080p, with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround sound.

BONUS FEATURES

Beyond the Graveyard: Picture in Picture Track
While you watch the film, you can also see insights into key scenes, interviews and other moments relating to the making of Zombieland

Commentary with actors Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, director Ruben Fleischer and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick
The man at the helm, his writers and his stars provide a chatty and fun track for Zombieland. With insights into how the scenes were put together, casting and what it was like on set, this is a good commentary track that fans of the film will enjoy.

In search of Zombieland (15.57 mins/HD)
Director Ruben Fleischer, writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, producers Gavin Polone and Ezra Swerdlow and Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin talk about how Zombieland changed from a TV pilot into a fully fledged movie.

Zombieland is your Land (11.59 mins/HD)
Director Ruben Fleischer, producer Ezra Swerdlow and production designer Maher Ahmad talk about creating the sets, stages and locations for Zombieland.

Deleted Scenes (5.27 mins/HD)
Entitled ‘Ziploc Bags’, ‘Mom and Dad would have to wait’, ‘The jokes on them’, ‘The slow and the weak’, ‘Girls play at the park’ and ‘You always think of something’, these deleted scenes suffer from the lack of a commentary track or introduction to explain why they were removed.

Visual Effects progression scenes
See how the visual effects shots for the scenes entitled ‘Washington’, ‘Seat Belts’, ‘Banjo Zombie’ and ‘Falling Zombie’ where put together.

Theatrical Promo Trailers
View the different TV and cinema promos for the movie

Trailers
Previews of ‘2012’, ‘Year One’ and the theatrical trailer for ‘Zombieland’

BD Live
Place the Blu-Ray in an internet ready player or PS3 and gain extra features from Sony Home Entertainment

OVERALL

The Blu-Ray treatment for Zombieland is one that fans of the movie will enjoy. The commentary is very good and the featurettes cover most aspects of the film’s production. It just lacks that little something special to make it a great release but what it does supply is very good.

BLU-RAY

Shaun of the Dead

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2009