Editorial
Front Page - Friday, October 16, 2009
The Critic's Corner
David Laprad
“Zombieland” is one of those movies you can imagine being conceived in about five minutes as two slightly inebriated filmmakers bounce ideas back and forth:
Guy 1: “I love those old George Romero zombie movies. They rocked!”
Guy 2 (in a haunting voice): “They’re coming to get you, Barbara...”
Guy 1: “I get chills just thinking about it! I want to make a zombie movie, but there have been so many, they’re not scary anymore.”
Guy 2: “So direct a zombie comedy. A zomedy!”
Guy 1: “Nah. It’d be a piece of cheese ball trash.”
Guy 2: “You’re always self-deprecating when you drink imported. It wouldn’t have to be one of those zombie movies where everyone holes up in a house or a mall. Picture the hero running around outdoors, pillaging what he can and thinking he’s the only human left alive.
“He could have a set of rules that helps him survive, like doing cardio so he can outrun zombies. We could even show a zombie chasing down some massive huff ‘n’ puff across a football field while our guy explains the rule.”
Guy 1: “I like it! He could be a nerd, a loser, but he’s got the smarts to survive in hell.
Guy 2: “Nice! Except he shouldn’t be alone for the whole movie; he could eventually meet up with a tough talking, wannabe cowboy.”
Guy 1: “You mean Woody Harrelson? Ha! And they could come across a pair of girls, but instead of falling in love, the girls con the guys out of their ride, their guns, everything. The four of them eventually team up, though, and...”
Guy 2: “And?”
Guy 1: “I’m thinking...”
Guy 2: “I’ll get the fire extinguisher.”
Guy 2: “Remember that movie where Chevy Chase was hell-bent on getting to Wally World?”
Guy 2: “Yeah. So?”
Guy 1: “So the four of them could drive cross-country to an amusement park.”
Guy 2: “Oh! And along the way, they could kill a lot of zombies! We could send a woman through the windshield of her car, and when her face hits the pavement — SPLAT! People will wonder how we did it.”
Guy 1: “How are we going to do it?”
Guy 2: “It’s your movie. You figure it out.”
Guy 1: “And we could have an old church lady drop a piano on a zombie’s head. Now THAT would be funny.”
Guy 2: “But not funny enough. We’d need something more.”
Guy 1: “Like what?”
Guy 2: Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Guy 1 and Guy 2 together: “Bill Murray!”
Guy 1: “Awesome. There’s just one thing missing.”
Guy 2: “What?”
Guy 1: “I want the movie to have heart.”
Guy 2: “So the hero could fall in love with one of the girls, the cowboy could be on the run from something tragic in his past and the two girls could be sisters, with the older one trying to get the younger one to the amusement park so she can be a kid for just one day. Boom! There’s your heart.”
Guy 1: “And the cowboy could love Twinkies.”
Guy 2: “They could remind him of his childhood.”
Guy 1: “Should I start writing all this down?”
Guy 2: “Let me buy you a bottle of domestic first.”
And that’s “Zombieland” in a nutshell, with the exception of how creative, outrageous, energetic, funny, gory, suspenseful and surprising it is. If you go to the movies to have a good time, if your idea of money well spent at the theater is a film that slaps a big, goofy grin on your face and if you like special effects that make you go, “How did they do THAT?”, then check out “Zombieland.”
•••
Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has made a career out of dissecting the American Dream. Whether he’s turned his cameras on gun violence (“Bowling for Columbine”), health care (“Sicko”) or 9/11 (“Fahrenheit 9/11”), he’s laid his liberal cards on the table and dared you to show him a better hand.
Moore does the same thing with “Capitalism: A Love Story,” in which he argues that capitalism, fueled by greed, caused the recent economic recession. While his trademark humor, compassion and outrage are on full display, the film isn’t as satisfying as his previous efforts, perhaps because at times he seems to see a causal relationship where there is none. Moore’s audience is getting smarter, too, and by now should be asking about the side of the story he’s not telling.
Whether you agree with Moore’s politics or not, you have to admit he knows how to make a point. Wait for the DVD of “Capitalism,” though, and make it the centerpiece of a dinner party in which you invite all of your friends, left and right. You won’t have ANY problems keeping the conversation flowing.
|
|