An assured riff on zombie traditions, smartly playing the most basic concepts of the genre absolutely straight (the desolation of the post-zombie-apocalyptic world, the ravenous horrors of raging flesh-eaters, etc.), but allowing us to view them through a deadpan ironic lens, thus casting the horrific in an undeniably comic light. It arguably comes off the rails a bit during an extended sequence in the palatial Beverly Hills mansion of a certain Hollywood actor; it is the one point in the film where it wears its postmodern comedy a little too proudly on its sleeve and takes a broad approach to physical comedy that undermines its more sophisticated balance of the gory and the droll. (Hollywood Jewel 16, Waco, TX)