The beauty of zombie flicks is that you can make any kind of movie you want with them. Tragedy, comedy, satire, romance, vaporous art-house musing. It’s all good as long as the dead keep munching.Zombieland is a warm-hearted comedy about finding your surrogate family.

Nervous nerdboy Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) wanders through post-apocalyptic desolation, surviving by rigid adherence to his rule book. He hooks up with badass Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), who’s on a quest for one last Twinkie, and with a pair of con-artist sisters (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) on their way to a California amusement park.

Not much of a story, it’s an unsold series pilot rejigged as a feature, according to director Ruben Fleischer in a commentary more jokey than informative. What makes the film work are the inventive gags and deadpan acting, particularly by Eisenberg and Harrelson, who stay just this side of caricature. Bill Murray shows up in the middle and gets the most outrageous laugh in the movie.

EXTRAS Fleischer, Harrelson, Eisenberg and writers commentary, two making-of docs, visual effects footage. Widescreen. English, French audio and subtitles.