Now, from its pedigree, Zombieland should have been a disaster. The writers previous movie experience were limited to Clifford’s Really Big Movie and Cruel Intentions 3 (and creating the tv show The Joe Schmo Show). The director’s big prior experience was the MTV reality show Rob and Big. Yet, it all came together to make a surprisingly entertaining movie. Now, where exactly is Zombieland?

Now, the characters in the movie don’t have names (that are shared with the viewers), they are instead referred to by the locations that are important to them for some reason or another. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is a college student who is a loner and doesn’t have a lot of friends. When he lets a pretty girl comes into his dorm room, he is momentarily happy…until she turns into a zombie and tries to eat him. After a lot of practice, Columbus comes up with a set of rules that keep him alive. He’s making his way to his parent’s house in Columbus to see if they are alive when he runs into Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) who is on a quest for Twinkies.

Columbus and Tallahassee run into a pair of sister who lived by constantly running scams and they have kept it up to survive. They kidnap the guys and are headed to Disneyland Pacific Playland. Along the way they search for Twinkies, meet up with Bill Murray and Columbus and the older sister start a fledgling romance. They each have some quirks. Columbus has his rules, the girls have their scams and Tallahassee has his twinkies (and a MASH finale moment with his dog).

The movie is actually three separate movies. One with a guy trying to survive a zombie apocalypse to see his parents, the second is a zombie buddy comedy and the third is a zombie romantic comedy. The first one is very funny, the second isn’t bad, but the third is mostly boring. The movie starts off with a lot of laughs which mostly disappear closer to the end of the movie. The action slows down in the middle, but more than makes up for it in the end. Overall, the movie is a fun adventure, but I was slightly disappointed since the beginning pointed to a much better film. Recommended