Zombieland

The thing that hooked me was a tantalizing remark by a reviewer: If you liked "Shaun of the Dead," you'll like "Zombieland!" And it's true! This had just enough gory stuff to sell tickets to the fanboys, with just enough potential romance for their dates and a nice road picture for the rest of us.

There were surprisingly long, peaceful intervals with great dialogue, there were lots of amazingly wrought CGI scenes of wanton destruction, there was a potentially sweet romance, and then of course, there was the great cameo by the big B.M! (My lips are sealed...smile...)

Of course our "Don't go in the basement!" moment was actually in an amusement park, but they covered it nicely; and our hero, Jesse Eisen- berg ("Adventureland"), has that sweet, decent, sorta virginal look that I thought Michael Cera had patented! I really appreciated his rules for survival in this post-apocalyptic world filled with flesh-eating zombies.

Each of the main characters is called by his/her city of choice:

• Jesse Eisenberg ("The Squid and the Whale") is Columbus, who wants to find his parents.
• Woody Harrelson ("No Country for Old Men") is Tallahassee, who just wants a Twinkie.
• Emma Stone ("The House Bunny") is Wichita, who is trying to protect her baby sister.
• Abigail Breslin ("My Sister's Keeper") is Little Rock, who wants to visit a theme park where she has happy memories.

Each of these characters is dealing with a very real loss of one sort or another, but this gore fest was LOTS of fun, just the same!