Zombieland

Los Angeles Times Michael Ordona

First-time feature director Ruben Fleischer brings impeccable timing and bloodthirsty wit to the proceedings. Cinematographer Michael Bonvillain captures some interesting images amid the post-apocalyptic carnival of carnage, as when he transforms the destruction of a souvenir shop into a rough ballet.

Film Threat Elias Savada

Thankfully there's nothing remotely serious about Zombieland. It's just a heck of carnival attraction (Shoot the ducks/Shoot the zombies) on a roller coaster filled with laughs.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Zombieland is dead set against being dead serious. Its tonal pallor has more in common with a foreshortened "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" than with "28 Days" or "Weeks Later," and then, again, there's that jaw-dropping cameo. It'll kill ya.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Warts, entrails and all, I had a ball at Zombieland. It’s 81 minutes of my kind of stupid.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Modestly clever, this is definitely a little thing. Enjoy.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Mostly, it's just wicked fun.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

The four protagonists aren’t about to let something as minor as the complete breakdown of society get in the way of having a good time, and their fun proves infectious.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

At the bone, Zombieland is a polished, very funny road picture shaped by wisenheimer cable-TV sensibilities and starring four likable actors, each with an influential following.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Falling closer in tone to "Shaun of the Dead" than "28 Days Later" or the George Romero movies, Zombieland has its tongue planted firmly in its rancid cheek while still delivering the visceral goodies.

Time Richard Corliss

An exhilarating ride, start to finish. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg set a high bar for this subgenre with "Shaun of the Dead," but Reese, Werner and Fleischer may have trumped them. This isn't just a good zombie comedy. It's a damn fine movie, period. And that's high praise, coming from a vampire guy.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The picture is beautifully paced, with an exhilarating, comically violent opening, a halcyon middle section where, in what could be viewed as a sideways homage to "Rebel Without a Cause," our rootless wanderers share a brief respite in an empty, lavish mansion, and a finale filled with light and color and movement (as well as piles of vanquished zombies).

Slate Josh Levin

These down moments are fleeting, drowned out by the joyous din of zombie slaying and a scattering of subtler touches, such as Woody Harrelson's shotgun-savant Tallahassee painting a "3" on the side of his various commandeered vehicles, presumably a tribute to NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

The movie's a ride, basically. It's a slick, funny buddy-flick confection about a dork (Jesse Eisenberg), a Twinkie-loving hick (Harrelson), a hottie (Emma Stone) and a sassy kid (Abigail Breslin) who bicker and bond as they drive cross-country after a zombie plague.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Zombieland is still the funniest broad comedy since "The Hangover." Its yowling, marching, munching corpses are as scary as grad students and as hilarious as the plot of "G.I. Joe."

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

It's great, gruesome fun, a well-written and fantastically cast romp.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Isn't an especially good horror movie, it succeeds in enough different ways that such a defect hardly matters.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

It also boasts one of the funniest, loopiest Woody Harrelson turns in years.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

What Zombieland’ has instead - in spades - is deliciously weary end-of-the-world banter.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Guilty-pleasure movies should not be underestimated. I had a scary-fun-house blast at Zombieland, in which studly Woody Harrelson, nerdy Jesse Eisenberg, sexy Emma Stone and sunshiny Abigail Breslin roam a near-dead world kicking zombie ass.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

The secret in this case is the jokes, which are ferocious. Marrying a monster flick with an adolescent romance has produced a merry mutant.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Who would have guessed such a funny movie as Zombieland could be made around zombies? No thanks to the zombies.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Scary? Yes, in spots. Gratuitously gory? You bet. But, first and foremost, Zombieland is a comedy.

Chicago Reader Cliff Doerksen

Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wring a surprising amount of juice from the familiar premise, and director Ruben Fleischer heaps on the gore without burying their character-based comedy and surprisingly heartfelt moments. This is worth seeing just for the title sequence.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Benefiting from the very different but very appealing comedy styles of Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg even when the script's wit runs thin, this should be catnip to jaded genre fans.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

An improbably delicious comedy.

Time Out New York Joshua Rothkopf

The movie isn’t particularly scary--not a crime when your goal is laughs. More egregious is the niggling fact that this simply isn’t as witty as "Shaun of the Dead," forever the yuks-meet-yucks standard.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

The action-comedy Zombieland works because it's played with an emphasis on the living, not the undead.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Yet, even at its worst, Zombieland is better than most movies of its kind - disgusting but not too disgusting, and with a few laughs.

Washington Post Ruth McCann

Zombieland is sometimes funny. But those of us who have teeny coronaries every time something goes bump in Zombieland might have a hard time relaxing for long enough to really enjoy ourselves.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

A minor diversion dripping in splatter and groaning with self-amusement.

Village Voice Scott Foundas

Fitfully amusing romp directed with little ambition and even less distinction by first-timer Ruben Fleischer.