Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
39 Adventures of Power
66 Afterschool
73 Amreeka
49 Antichrist
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
71 Big Fan
65 Black Dynamite
76 Bliss
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
76 Broken Embraces
70 Bronson
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
60 Collapse
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
53 Dare
50 Defamation
67 Departures
70 Earth Days
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
88 Fantastic Mr. Fox
31 Fix
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
xx From Mexico with Love
28 Gentlemen Broncos
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Horse Boy, The
74 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
26 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
43 Little Traitor, The
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
46 Love Hurts
84 Maid, The
45 Mammoth
75 Messenger, The
55 Missing Person, The
59 More Than a Game
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
48 New York, I Love You
66 No Impact Man
26 Oh My God
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
79 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73 Red Cliff
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
65 Skin
41 Splinterheads
42 Staten Island
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
58 Storm
82 Sun, The
49 Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73 That Evening Sun
61 Trucker
49 Turning Green
83 U2 3D
45 Uncertainty
67 Visual Acoustics
32 War on Kids
67 Way We Get By, The
65 Wedding Song, The
xx White on Rice
59 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74 Woman in Berlin, A
43 Women in Trouble
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Zombieland

EMAILPRINTColumbia Pictures (Sony)

Zombieland reviews
73
8.2 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 151 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy  |  Horror

Written by: Rhett Reese
Paul Wernick

Directed by: Ruben Fleischer

Release Date:
Theatrical: October 2, 2009

Running Time: 80 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for horror violence/gore and language

Starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin

Columbus has made a habit of running from what scares him. Tallahassee doesn't have fears. If he did, he'd kick their ever-living ass. In a world overrun by zombies, these two are perfectly evolved survivors. But now, they're about to stare down the most terrifying prospect of all: each other. (Sony Pictures)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90

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.

Read Full Review >
90

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.

Read Full Review >
89

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.

Read Full Review >
88

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

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

Read Full Review >
88

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

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

Read Full Review >
88

USA Today Claudia Puig

Mostly, it's just wicked fun.

Read Full Review >
83

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.

Read Full Review >
83

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.

Read Full Review >
80

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.

Read Full Review >
80

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.

Read Full Review >
80

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).

Read Full Review >
80

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.

Read Full Review >
75

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.

Read Full Review >
75

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."

Read Full Review >
75

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

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

Read Full Review >
75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

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

Read Full Review >
75

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

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

Read Full Review >
75

Boston Globe Ty Burr

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

Read Full Review >
75

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.

Read Full Review >
75

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.

Read Full Review >
75

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.

Read Full Review >
75

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

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

Read Full Review >
70

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.

Read Full Review >
70

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.

Read Full Review >
70

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

An improbably delicious comedy.

Read Full Review >
60

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.

Read Full Review >
60

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

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

Read Full Review >
50

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.

Read Full Review >
50

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.

Read Full Review >
50

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

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

Read Full Review >
50

Village Voice Scott Foundas

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

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 151 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Stephen G gave it a9:
Zombieland is really good. I recomend seeing it.

Mark C gave it a6:
Pretty funny in some spots, drags a little in the middle. Overall, good movie to see.

Ken G gave it an8:
Goofier than most zombie movies, but still fill of action, thrills and suspense, this is just a lot of fun.

Jerry W gave it an8:
Woody Harrelson leads a group of desperate humans in a world overrun by flesh-eating zombies. The action is as brutal and bloody as you might expect, but it kicks ass! What makes this even better is the comedy…snappy and impudent. (Bill Murray’s cameo is already a classic!) The flick fast-paced, chocked full of great kills and pure popcorn pleasure. The most fun I’ve had at an action film since “Star Trek.” NOTE: Stay thru the credits for an extra laff.

Ryan S gave it a7:
I liked the zombies, the gore, the violence. Woody Harrelson makes a good zombie killer. The laughs were there, but there was nothing overly funny. The teen romance element was kind of out of place.

homes gave it a10:
Truly a funny horror/comedy. Touching (as much as it can be) as well. I wish to restate this comedy is actually funny. A funny comedy, complete with new catch phrases like "nut up, or shut up". I recommend it to anyone with a stomach for gore and a sense of humor.

Eric W gave it a9:
Truly a great experience for any zombie enthusiast. I never grew tired of it's comedic moments and the action parts were pretty solid for a zombie film. This movie sits up there with Shaun of the dead on my list of favorite films.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use