Ah, poor Jesse Eisenberg. He finally meets a girl he likes, she's in an emotionally vulnerable state, and before anything has the time to develop she turns into a slavering zombie scrambling to bite a piece out of him. Love sucks.  Particularly love after the apocalypse.

Welcome to the world of Zombieland, the debut feature from Ruben Fleischer. A fairly unique spin on the zombie genre, Fleischer casts Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson in what essentially boils down to a buddy comedy from the end of the world, with the pair of unlikely allies joining forces after a freak meeting months after a zombie outbreak has devastated the world's population. Why not call the two of them by their character names? Simple: Because they refuse to tell them to each other, both having adopted anonymity as a coping strategy in a world where personal relationships lead only to the pain of watching your friends get eaten. Keep a buffer to keep your sanity. And so they call each other simply by their stated destinations, Eisenberg going as Columbus and Harrelson as Tallahassee.

Anonymity is one of Columbus' rules -- rules that have kept him safe and alive for this long. Rules bring order and structure to his chaotic world. They're like a warm hug from mom and he clings to them dearly. Rules like, always keep up your cardio. Always employ a 'double tap' rather than assuming a single shot will take the undead down. Buckle your seatbelt. Beware of bathrooms. You know, simple things.

Tallahassee, on the other hand, couldn't be more different. He's a loose cannon, a wild gun, a man who embraces chaos and views the destruction of the undead as great sport. The two should not possibly work together as a team but you know... when you just might be the only two men left alive in the country you can't really afford to be choosy. But while last men they might be last people they certainly are not, as the pair discovers when they are conned by a pair of sisters -- the elder of whom Columbus just may be developing feelings for...

Thank god almighty, Zombieland is a film not content to simply recycle the zombie films of yore. It has a unique voice, chooses an unusual starting point, is filled with charismatic characters and features some absolutely fantastic set pieces. It's funny, loaded with gore, has a topless zombie sporting nipple pasties and enough self-effacing comedy from Eisenberg to make Woody Allen blush. It also has one hell of a charismatic performance from Harrelson who seems determined to make people remember why he was once considered a legitimate A-list actor before spending the last several years wandering in the wilderness. For all these reasons you walk out of Zombieland really, really wanting to forgive it for its flaws. And it does have several. It is a film that promises more than it delivers, blowing its wad early with the opening sequence ultimately proving to be the best part of the entire picture. It is very good indeed at small moments but less good at seeing the big picture. Characters seem under-written and overly self-aware. It is a film that never quite gets to where it wants to go. And this, normally, would be fatal but in this case... well, where it wants to go is pretty damn spectacular which means falling just short still leaves you with a mighty entertaining night out.