Zombieland—Oct. 9, 2009
(This is part of our recurring series in which we dish on newly released trailers,then solicit your feedback. Tell us if you'll see the movie below, in the comments!)
THE LOOK: The trailer for the upcoming horror-camp-fest Zombieland has been out since June, but this Wednesday, Columbia Pictures released the film's much juicier, much funnier red-band trailer. (Warning! It's gory and probably NSFW!) The cast is an odd but promising group─Woody Harrelson, Jessie Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, and a rumored Bill Murray─and the abundance of cheesy slo-mo shots is really fun. Love the tunes, which include the hip-hop remix of Johnny Cash's "Country Boy." No surprise that sneak snippets of the movie made a big splash at Comic Con a few weeks ago.
THE FEEL: Looks like Jessie Eisenberg is starring once again as Jessie Eisenberg─which is fine by us, since his earnest mumbling never fails to win us over. And Emma Stone is one of our favorites. But we can't quite get a read on Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee, a Tim McGraw-ed version of Sgt. Nicholas Angel. He'll either be hilarious or an eye-rolling cliché. (The Titanic part had us groaning.) But in the plus column, the actor has already claimed that training for this zombie-battling role is what caused him to assault a paparazzo a few months back. Badass.
GRIPES? Being a trailer, this clip is bound to paint with broad strokes. But it so aggressively oozes HAHAHA-it's-funny-wink-wink, much more than the deadpan classics of this genre(Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead), that we're left a tad cold. Also, the sexpot, raccoon-eyed character is a change of pace for Stone, and we're not sure how we feel about it. Her earlier roles─as Jonah Hill's bumbling crush in Superbad, and as Anna Faris's sorority protégée in The House Bunny─flaunted her smart, quippy comedy above her (obvious) beauty. We'd hate to see her watered down.
What do you think?
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
