There comes a point in Zombieland when I could feel the narrative and the film as a whole completely derail - it comes a little past halfway into the movie and is so noticeable it might as well come with one of those record-scratching sound effects. To say any more would be a spoiler...sort of, as the scene involved has no point whatsoever. But what started as a simple, silly road trip with monsters quickly deflates into mush when something even scarier takes over - STUDIO INTERFERENCE!

Director Ruben Fleischer has stated that he took direct inspiration from the vastly superior Shaun of the Dead, and worse inspiration can be found. It's also easy to tell as, unfortunately, not many rom-zom-coms exist in the world. But while Shaun of the Dead had meat to it - the pains of turning thirty and not having a clear path in life - Zombieland is a string of silly jokes with not much "brains" behind it. Get it? Because everyone thinks that zombies just eat brains although Return of the Living Dead is the only series that involves this, and it's a spoof.

There is a little effort in giving the film some backbone. Our star, Columbus, claims to be a nervous wreck who is scared of everything, especially clowns. He's come to terms with the "zombies" (more on this later) mostly being a hassle as he crosses the country trying to reach his parents. He also has a set of rules that literally appear on screen when he references them, which though done before, is still a much needed quirk to set the film apart.

Where does all this lead with Columbus? Well, nowhere, really. He's not actually nervous though he claims he is, and the fear of clowns and everything else goes nowhere. The rules are cute and lead to a "enjoy life" message. Though appearing fleshed out, the characters really are mostly paper thin by the end, despite a long-winded and irritating voice-over from Columbus himself the entire movie. A third person narration like the original trailer had would've been much more effective.

Any zombie fan knows that the ghouls in question need to represent something; Dawn of the Dead it was mindless consumers, the aforementioned Shaun of the Dead it was the disenchanted populace in a similar situation as Shaun, etc. For a moment I thought Zombieland was going to adhere to this rule when a comment is made about how fat the zombies have become from chowing down on everyone in sight. Alas, nothing is made of it. They're just monsters.

And for a movie called "Zombieland," there don't seem to be any actual zombies. I spent most of the movie wondering about this, honestly, after Columbus makes a remark about how the zombies came to be. Yeah, they run, but since this is a simple spoof it didn't bother me. The fact is they have an infection in the brain that makes them go crazy and hungry. There was no time it was stated that they die first, so technically they cannot be zombies. Though, it was hard to tell, as there are no live people in the movie to test it on, so the debate in my mind continues. It probably doesn't matter but I'm going to pretend it does so shut up.

So, with all that, it's a spoof and full of silly jokes. The first half of the movie is actually pretty funny; one of my favorites is Columbus dropping his keys in the typical horror movie fashion as he tries to get in his car. Instead of standing and fumbling with them and getting eaten, he simply jogs in a circle to distract the monsters and makes another go at it. Pretty obvious! Woody Harrelson is great as the great traveling zombie killer and Twinkie hunter who constantly finds new ways of dispatching the living...infected.

But then there's that second half. My main thought when leaving the theater was just how much I wanted to read the original script, as there is absolutely no way it finished up the way the movie did on-screen. After an unfunny and pointless side trip to a house in Los Angeles and a brain-dead finale in an amusement park, I was left scratching my head as to what the hell happened. It almost instantly goes from a funny buddy movie with a lot of potential to a forgettable bore.

Maybe the next rom-zom-com will at least get through the machine intact without stripping away the meat and including "sounded like a good idea at the time" cameos. As it stands, Zombieland is one half of a funny movie that is only worth a matinee or a rental on DVD.

Man was the opening credit sequence good though!

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Not often do we get a blockbuster budgeted Zombie flick from a major production company (Sony and Columbia Pictures). It's even rarer that we get one that makes tons of money at the box office and is actually worth seeing. I'd call this one worth seeing, and maybe a return visit.

First off, I'll never call a Twinkie anything other than a "spongy, yellow, cream filled" cake again. Watching Tallahassee go nuts throughout the movie trying to find a spongy, yellow, cream-filled cake was awesome. He did a great job getting into his character. The zombie rules were fun also. The fact that the fatties died first was funny, going with the underlying tone that we as American's need to get off our asses and stop eating so many spongy, yellow, cream-filled cakes!

I'll agree with Fox. There was definitely a point in the movie where it turned from the unconventional zombie flick into a "hero-save-the-day" zombie flick. And if you go in solely for the story, it could easily distract you from the insane amounts of blood, gore, and humor. Along with that, the whole Ghostbusters thing was a bit overdone. It kind of dragged that part of the movie down, but luckily the action picked up again.

With humor, gore, a decent story line, and a never ending quest for spongy, yellow, cream-filled ... cakes, this is definitely worth a trip to the theater. You may even see me there again, popcorn in hand.

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