Zombieland

In director Ruben Fleischer's fitfully funny and splatter-filled road movie, fearful neurotic Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), gung-ho cowboy Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) and two con-artist sisters (Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin) form a reluctant alliance on a post-apocalypse Earth overrun by zombies. Their blackly comic story is padded out with flashbacks as they head for the refuge of a Californian amusement park, with Columbus's list of 47 survival rules - including "Don't be a Hero", "Check Car Back Seats" - cutely annotated on screen. Not a lot happens en route, but when it does, there's gory mayhem. It's slick, glossy and engaging, if nowhere near as clever as Shaun of the Dead (a clear influence for the director). The most inspired section is when the quartet settles in the Beverly Hills house of Tallahassee's hero Bill Murray, who appears in an extended cameo sending up his career.