Producer Paul's Ramblings

I went into this movie with pretty high expectations, since every reviewer in the world seemed to love it and a bunch of my friends told me how great it was.

So did it meet my expectations?  Yes and no.  There were parts of it I really liked, such as the opening 20 minutes and the ending sequence, which takes place in a theme park.  The middle of the movie?  A little slow.

But it’s only a 90 minute movie, so the slow parts aren’t that long, and they are spiced up with an unexpected cameo that is a great deal of fun.

The high points:  Woody Harrelson returning to comedy as a badass zombie hunter.  He is certainly the best thing about the movie and is obviously having a great time.  The aforementioned opening scenes (including the inspired opening credits).  And Jesse’s Eisenberg’s “rules” for surviving a zombie apocalypse are amusing and enjoyable. The zombie kills are also very inventive and appropriately gruesome.

The low points:  Jesse Eisenberg.  He is a fine actor, but he reminds me too much of Michael Cera.  He’s kind of Michael Cera Light, so that was a bit distracting.  Also, I think Abagail Breslin was the wrong actress to play the young hoodlum style girl.  She’s still too much Little Miss Sunshine and not enough Hard Candy.

That’s about it.  A fun movie, an enjoyable movie, but not a great movie. 7/10.