The Watercooler for Netflix

New To Streaming

 Pulp Fiction (Trailer)

The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster’s wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

 Killers (Trailer)

A vacationing woman meets her ideal man, leading to a swift marriage. Back at home, they discover their neighbors could be assassins who have been contracted to kill them.

 Dark Shadows (Trailer)

The rich Collins family of Collinsport, Maine is tormented by strange occurrences in this ’60s classic series.

Expiring Soon

 Zombieland (Trailer)

A shy student trying to reach his family in Ohio, a gun-toting tough guy trying and a pair of sisters trying to get to an amusement park join forces to travel across a zombie-filled America.

 Company (Excerpt)

Raúl Esparza stars in this 2006 revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning musical comedy recorded live for PBS’s “Great Performances” 

 Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (Trailer)

When two brothers organize the robbery of their parents’ jewelry store the job goes horribly wrong, and they, their father and one brother’s wife are sent hurtling towards a shattering climax.

…you may like 

 Severance

 Dead Snow

(these are horror comedies available for streaming but they do have more horror than Zombieland, fyi)

Zombieland is a pretty amazing movie for the numer of genres it spans without seeming to overreach.  

As a romance it’s sweet but not saccharine.  As an action is quick but not frantic.  As a horror it’s gory but not gruesome.  As a comedy it’s witty but not screwball.  

You could make the argument that as a jack of all trades it’s a master of none, and maybe it should eschew one or more of it’s elements to focus on strengthening the others.  (Will makes this sort of argument for dropping the romance.)  Yes, there are movies out there there are better at each of their genres.  But the reason I love it so much is because it’s a mixed bag.  It’s the perfect kick back, Saturday night, bucket of popcorn movie.  

Zombieland could have been the best zombie movie of all time. The premise is genius: killing things and breaking stuff without consequences (besides possibly being et) is really fun. But it makes one key mistake: it includes emotions.

I am not against emotions, in theory. Many fine films have been made about, or with emotions. But they are not Zombieland’s strong suit, and every second spent on them is a second wasted. I know that the tendency is to think you need emotions to get people to care, or to push your characters forward. You’re wrong. You just need zombies, and killing them.

I feel the movie takes a downturn when the girls arrive on the scene, if only because it pushes the film into plot, instead of just Cheers Guy and Jesse Facebook listing rules and killing things. But instead, we have betrayals and relationships forming and unconvincing child acting and a culmination in the credulity-destroying trip to Please Zombies Come Eat Me Land. All of this is fat that could easily be cut from the steak.

Side note: The Cameo is, of course, wonderful and funny, but the tone of it is a little off - it sounds much more like a “joke” script than the ever-so-slightly more natural tone the rest of the movie carries. It feels weird to criticize what’s inarguably the movie’s best part, it just slightly bugged me.

So: Zombieland. It has a wonderful, gleeful energy, and when it’s doing what it was meant to be doing, it’s great. It just gets bogged down in other stuff.

One of the stand out features for this movie was the creative use of in movie texts.  By adding fun supporting messages along with the action helps bring the viewer into the story and better help understand what the story holds important.  All that plus the comedic atmosphere while surviving the Zombie Apocalypse is hilarious and is right up there with Shawn of Dead.