Zombieland: A breath of fresh air

With a title like Zombieland one would expect to see ghoulish flesh-eating fiends terrorizing innocent victims as a major part of the story (if the filmmakers even decided to put a story in there, I mean, it is a horror film!) But could said film not only contain the standard scary zombie stuff but also fully realized characters and a solid story?

Columbus is heading back to Ohio in the hopes of discovering that his parents are still alive after a plague wiped out most of humankind and turned the rest into zombies with a taste for human flesh. Along the way he runs into other survivors (Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock) whom he decides to tag along with. Together they must not only fight to survive the zombies, but each other as well.

One of the best things about Zombieland were the performances of the lead actors, specifically Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg. Harrelson was a hoot as Tallahassee, a man who reveled in finding his true calling in life (i.e. killing zombies) while blindly obsessing over finding some Twinkies. Eisenberg's paranoid, yet relatable Columbus provided the moral center for the story. His often hilarious rules for surviving Zombieland kept him alive but also kept him from getting what he wanted more than anything in life, a real family and a girl. It's only after he met the other survivors, including a beautiful young woman named Wichita, that he realized the life he was living (essentially as a shut in) made him a zombie in his own right and sometimes rules need to broken in order to get what you want. For a character to undergo that type of development and have said development drive the story is rare to find in most movies nowadays, let alone a horror film. The story was another plus for the film because there was actually one present (and a good one at that). Between the comedic quips and tense action the audience learns that Columbus was not the only one looking for something more in the post-apocalyptic world. Tallahassee's hunt for the elusive Twinkie, Wichita's desire to get her younger sister Little Rock to Pacific Playland amusement park, each was seeking something that seemed normal in an insane world. And by the end of the film, each came to realize that the most normal thing in their lives was the pseudo-family they had formed. I can't remember (if ever) the last time a Freddy Krueger or Michael Myers film dealt with something so simple, yet so real in its story.

When a film is able to breath fresh air into a genre full of staleness and unoriginality, it is a welcome change. Zombieland was that breath of fresh air for it not only provided the type of action and chills the audience was expecting, but also gave them witty dialogue, dynamic characters and a wholly satisfying story.

Grade: A

Green Zone: You might not like what you see

A word of advice for those of you checking out this film. It is not another "Bourne" movie. Green Zone took on topics much closer to reality than a super soldier who lost his memory.

Army Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller is sent out to find weapons of mass destruction in the provinces of Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. When the intell he and his troops receive fail to uncover anything, Roy sets out to discover why. The answers he finds lead him into a world of lies and cover-ups perpetrated by factions within the U.S. Government.

It is rare to find a film that not only provides excellent action but also has the courage to make a meaningful statement, Green Zone is one of those films. Director Paul Greengrass delivered the same kind of frenetic, hand-held camera shot action pieces audiences have grown accustomed to seeing from his previous work on the last two "Bourne" films. Matt Damon was solid as Roy Miller, a soldier whose singular focus on discovering the truth about the weapons of mass destruction propelled the story and kept the film moving. But where Green Zone distinguished itself from other action thrillers set during the second Iraqi conflict was in its portrayal of the U.S. Government. Inspired by true events or not the film painted quite an unflattering picture of certain Government agencies. Those agencies, the CIA and Defense Intelligence, bickered amongst themselves as each attempted to weld power and create an Iraq that they could control. The question of if the United States even had real intell to justify invading Iraq to overthrow Saddam was posited in the film as well, further pushing American viewers out of their comfort zones of believing their Government had nothing but the noblest of intention when freeing the Iraqi people. Clearly this depiction of events might upset some viewers but one has to admire the statement both Greengrass and Damon were trying to make. Green Zone was not just some action film filled with funs and explosions but a complex war thriller with loftier aims of making the audience face some truths they might not have wanted to.

Grade: B

Whiteout: One bland thriller

Maybe it's the Midwesterner in me but I've always enjoyed films that take place in isolated frozen places like the Artic (or maybe it's my undying love for the scenes on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back that would account for this!). Something about that icy environment lends itself to creating the perfect backdrop for an intergalatic throwdown or a thriller (see John Carpenter's The Thing) which is why I was excited to watch Whiteout.

U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko is trying to put her life back together after she was betrayed by her old partner. But when the body of a geologists is found near the Antarctic research facility she is stationed at she must face her demons in order to catch the killer.

On paper the film seemed like a slam dunk to be at least somewhat entertaining. There was a beautiful lead, an exotic loaction and a mystery as to why there was a dead geologists in the middle of an ice field. Unfortunately, Whiteout failed to utilize any of these things in order to be remotely intriguing and was nothing more than a bland, by-the-numbers thriller. If the filmmakers would have taken the time to develop Carrie's character arc, perhaps the audience would have been able to take more of an interest as she attempted to put the clues together and figure out just what was happening. Instead, she was saddled with the usual trappings facing a female protagonists in a thriller, and even those standard plot trappings were stale and insipid. Burdened by the lack of character development, a dynamic story or even lively dialogue Whiteout seemed like more of a chore to watch than anything.

Grade: D