Posts tagged with “zombie mayhem”
The Feel-Good Zom-Com of the Year
"And that’s what I do to zombies who snicker at my lady blazer."
ZOMBIELAND (2009/IN THEATERS) As SML’s self-anointed zombie mayhem-thusiast, I ventured out to see Zombieland, despite the sleepless nights and near bedwettings some people often experience after viewing a romp through the apocalypse. What can I say, someone is a glutton for punishment. But color me surprised, Zombieland is a lighthearted dysfunctional family comedy, less goofy and satirical Shaun of the Dead than National Lampoon’s Vacation featuring a virus plague. The dramatic tension in this sucker lasts about 10 minutes, and the remainder is spent with characters gently teasing each other, driving gas guzzlers through vacant cities, and learning lessons about life, love, and family. What the fuck? An end-of-days trifle? Should we be teaching the children that zombies are not to be taken seriously? Lives could be lost!
Movie Pairings: Postapocalyptic Worldview Edition
Hide, you fool!
The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead (by Max Brooks) & 28 Days Later (directed by Danny Boyle)/28 Weeks Later (directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo) – If you feel like you’ve been getting too much restful sleep, or have fallen behind in stocking your basement with end-of-days supplies (may I suggest loads of bottled water, a machete, and delicious MRE entrees?), take in a back-to-back viewing of these bleak, humorless tales of zombie mayhem. Feel empowered by following up with The Zombie Survival Guide, a straight (yet often hilarious) how-to for those of us who choose to fight the undead menace. I may or may not have a confirmed Zombie Safe Zone, and no, there isn’t any room for you and your noisy grandma. Gluttons for punishment can also check out World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, also by Brooks, and plan on sleeping with a dense, zombie-bashing flashlight by the side of their bed for the rest of their adult lives. Safety first.
PTSD flashbacks are a perfectly healthy reaction to this shot.
The World Without Us (by Alan Weisman) & Children of Men (directed by Alfonso Cuarón) – Up for an optimism-shattering, heartbreaking, yet entirely plausible vision of the world we may have experienced with a McCain/Palin administration? (You know it’s true.) Gorgeously shot and almost unbearably tense, Children of Men is my favorite film that I will never, ever watch again. But not to worry, nervous nellies—Weisman assures us that we can go ahead and blow ourselves to smithereens, but our planet and many types of algae and disgusting insects will survive. Comforting? Uh, only if you’re the type who thinks you’ll be too busy hangin’ in the clouds with Einstein and Bea Arthur to care. You weirdo.
