Fuck, I know. It looks like I'm about to take a big piss all over everyone's Fun. But that's not what I'm trying to do. I'll start by saying "Zombieland" is a decent comedy/family lesson/action film. I enjoyed it, and I wouldn't mind watching it again. My three favorite scenes:
3. The scene where Woody Harrelson (he pretty much outclasses the remaining cast members), Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin are taking turns talking in the front seat. Well-directed comedy.
2. The Zombie Kill of the Week. Or whatever the hell it was. It reminded me of Quentin Tarantino. By the way, Ruben Fleischer directed "Zombieland." Yeah, there is no wikipedia article on Fleischer, so don't even try now.
1. The scene where Woody is on a rollercoaster shooting shit. Great action directing.
Honorable mention to the slow-mo opening credits.
Were these scenes worth $8? I don't know, but the movie didn't completely shit the bed. But goddamn it, I despise advertising. When commercials come on, I stop paying attention. When people ask me if I've seen a particular "funny commercial," I have no idea what they're talking about. Total ignorance. And in this case, it makes me feel good.
On the other hand, it's hard for me to ignore a commercial when the product plays a central motherfucking role in the motivation of a character played by Woody Harrelson. Yeah, he really likes Twinkies, and just in case you can't remember, Twinkies are made by Hostess. Yes, he loves Twinkies.
The last two sentences are the summarized messages I received from "Zombieland," and the kinky part is that the movie wanted me to laugh at these messages. Honestly, it made me uncomfortable. For one thing, it wasn't funny to me in the slightest. I'm not unflexible on product placement or questionable advertising, either. "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is one of the few television shows I enjoy. One episode from its fifth season featured quite a bit of questionable advertising (the show was clearly sucking off Dave & Buster's), but I didn't mind because I laughed at the show's jokes. Maybe I need to see "Zombieland" again to get the elusive Twinkie humor, but it sure as hell didn't work on me the first time. And the number of Twinkie jokes was too much. I could have casually forgotten about one comedic misfire.
I would like a Twinkie right now, but that's not a good idea at the moment. So there you go. I'm not going to bitch about how lame Jesse Eisenberg's voice-over was or anything else, just offering a simple question:
Did "Zombieland" need the damn Twinkie jokes? Surely something funnier could have motivated Harrelson's character. Something that wouldn't resemble a commercial at all. Something that wouldn't make me hungry.
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2 comments:
I saw the movie too, and was also offended by the extent of its advertising. And, I also don't think it deserves 7.8 on imdb. There are so many good movies that are underrated and I really don't get how this movie is so highly rated. I'm not sure if you've seen Jennifer's body, but I personally think that movie deserves much more credit than this for being creative. The last and the most important reason that made me comment here is that I actually didn't even hear about twinkies until this movie. I saw it at safeway and bought it just out of curiosity. So this is my first time tasting this thing, and I am extremely underwhelmed and feel manipulated. They should promote something that at least tastes good. If I think about it, if I had known what twinkies tasted like before watching this movie, I would have been much more offended.
Summary: I feel extremely manipulated. 1. The movie rating was high so I watched it and it doesn't deserve that rating. 2. The twinkies joke made me uncomfortable even when I didn't know what twinkies was. 3. Twinkies tastes like shit.
I like twinkies, and i thought the twinkie jokes were good as well. Tallahasse is a character searching for something to temporarily regress back to childhood with. I believe that a twinkie is a universally understood symbol of a carefree afternoon in middle class america. You can complain about how it is an ad and what not, but i challenge YOU to find a more suitable fixation for the character to have
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