Valentines Day: The day for flowers, chocolate, and romance. Or in my case the day to pig out on junk food, and watch movies with extreme amounts of blood and gore. My boyfriend and I decided to rent Inglorious Basterds and Zombieland. One's a comedy, the other a serious action film, one portrays evil in the form of flesh eating zombies, the other Nazis. Both share the common theme of using violence to survive...and maybe even have a little fun while you're at it.
First Inglorious Basterds, somehow I was mistaken to believe that this movie would just be Brad Pitt and his misfit gang of Jewish-American soldiers scalping their way through Germany. There was a whole other story line centering around a young Jewish woman whos family was murdered, leaving her the only survivor, and her plot to take revenge against Hitler and his army. The best parts of the film where those where we see "The Basterds" brutually killing every Nazi that got in their way. One of their members was known as "The Bear Jew' and he enjoyed taking a baseball bat to the heads of his enemies. The sick and twisted pleasure they take in massacreing Nazis is by far more entertaining than the sad tale the film starts out with. They both eventually intertwine, but subtitled dramatic points dragged on and weighed the film down. Maybe thats what it really needed, some wieght and heart. But what I wanted was blood and fluff.
So that brings us to Zombieland, the deffinition of blood and fluff. But thats what makes this movie so great. This isn't about trying to figure out why as a human race we're willing to survive at all costs, or why we need other people, or any other really sound moral life lesson...no this film is about not just surviving but living it up a little. Sure the main chracter conquers some fears, gets the girl in the end, and all the other cliche movie lessons but thats not why we like him. His neurotic tendencies and strict paranoid code of conduct he lives by are why we like him. He's not your typical hero, he's just a kid trying to make it across America without being eaten. He's joined by Tallahasse, played perfectly by Woody Harrelson, a rough zombie slayer on a quest to just find a twinkie. On the way they meet two con artist sisters, trying to make it to the amusement park they loved as kids. Comedy and blood drive this movie, but thats what makes it great. The film never takes itself too seriously, which is why it works. If you just want a film filled with laughs and gore then this is the one for you.
