Entertainment
Emma Stone's Perfect, R-Rated Comedy On Netflix Reinvents The Genre
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
One of the significant joys of consuming movie after movie is watching directors discover how to put a new twist on an old formula, allowing them to create something unlike anything we have seen before. A prime example of this is Zombieland (2009), a movie whose titular monsters had long since seemed played out on the big screen. However, director Ruben Fleischer made these venerable monsters serious again by placing them in the last place you’d expect: a comedy.
While horror comedies are often hit or miss, Zombieland sticks the zombie landing thanks to its smart writing and killer cast of stars. Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, and Emma Stone all team up to survive the apocalypse, and they are joined by Bill Murray, someone with quite a bit of experience putting the dead in their place. If you’re ready for the best gags and the most over-the-top kills, you don’t have to wait for a real-life apocalypse: all you have to do is stream Zombieland on Netflix today.
It’s The End Of The World As We Know It
The premise of Zombieland is that all of America has been overrun by zombies, forcing the uninfected humans to find their own ways to survive. One such human is Columbus (survivors generally go by their cities of origin), a young man who has developed an extensive list of rules for surviving the undead apocalypse. But when his plan to reunite with his parents goes entirely off the rails, it’s clear that he and his newfound friends will need more than a few commonsense rules to avoid becoming the walking dead.
The relatively small cast of Zombieland still sports some big names, including Jesse Eisenberg (best known for The Social Network) as a young survivor hoping to reunite with his parents. Woody Harrelson (best known for True Detective) plays a redneck survivor whose rough-and-tumble ways might just keep his newfound allies alive. In addition to the rule-loving young man, those allies include characters played by Emma Stone (best known for Easy A) and Abigail Breslin (best known for Little Miss Sunshine), two sisters who may be far more dangerous than they appear.
Girls, Guns, And Gore
Zombieland had a higher budget than most horror films. Fortunately for the studio, moviegoers ran to the theater (cardio, as the film reminds us, is very important), making this horror comedy a breakout hit. Against a budget of $23.6 million, it earned $102.4 million. This made a sequel inevitable, and Zombieland: Double Tap came out in 2016. Unfortunately, it had a higher budget and made less money, putting the franchise’s future in jeopardy. Still, director Ruben Fleischer hasn’t ruled out doing a third film focusing on Madison, the ditzy character (played by Zoey Deutch) who was introduced in the second movie.
When Zombieland came out, professional reviewers were more than a bit excited to see a new take on an otherwise tired genre: the zombie movie. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an 89 percent, with critics praising the movie for being both a quippy, quote-worthy comedy and a gloriously gory scarefest. They also gave it the highest praise of all, noting that this film is proof that the right director is still capable of giving us a zombie film that isn’t as dead on arrival as its shambling antagonists.
A Horror Comedy That Hits All The Right Notes
Personally, horror comedy is my favorite film genre, and I love Zombieland for how it manages to get the ratio between the two just right. As a scary movie, it’s full of incredibly memorable frights, and these scares represent the best modern use of zombies outside of Train To Busan. But Zombieland is just as funny as it is frightening, giving us killer one-liners and phrases (like double-tap) that instantly became part of our pop culture lexicon. Fortunately, all of the main cast are talented comedians in their own right, and they help to elevate the dialogue into something truly unforgettable.
Speaking of the cast, it helps that everyone in Zombieland has such awesome chemistry with one another, all while giving standout performances as surprisingly dynamic characters. Harrelson plays a gruff survivalist who secretly has a heart of gold, just as Emma Stone plays a damaged person secretly looking for someone to connect with. That person might just be Jesse Eisenberg’s character, and this Social Network veteran does a perfect job of playing a nebbish beta boy who is destined to embrace his inner warrior during the zombie apocalypse or die trying.
Surviving The Apocalypse With The Girl Next Door
That’s the thing about Zombieland: it’s easy to dismiss this movie as a silly horror movie, mostly suitable (at best) for when you want to turn your brain off and just vibe out with some popcorn. But beneath all the blood and guts, there’s a genuine film that fires on all cylinders. Every character gets a rewarding arc, every setup pays off, and every ultraviolent moment moves the plot forward. That gives us something genuinely rare: a horror movie with some meat on its bones, one that invites you to devour its runtime with the same zeal that its monsters devour every hapless human they can catch.
Is Zombieland the hilarious horror comedy you’ve been waiting for, or would you rather become a mindless zombie than watch through to the credits? The only way to find out is to grab the remote (go ahead and run to the living room, a little cardio will get you ready for the apocalypse) and stream this smash hit for yourself on Netflix. Afterward, one thing’s for sure: you’ll never look at Bill Murray the same after seeing his hilarious cameo!
Entertainment
The best early gaming deals to shop ahead of Amazons Big Spring Sale
TL;DR: Ahead of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, gamers can already score some standout early discounts, including the Samsung 27-inch Odyssey OLED G5 gaming monitor for $349.99, down from $549.99, and NBA 2K26 on PS5, Xbox, and Switch 2 for just $19.93 instead of $69.99.
A quick look at the best Amazon Spring Sale gaming deals:
Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is nearly here, but gamers don’t have to wait for the official kickoff to start saving.
A couple of strong early gaming deals have already landed, and they’re the sort of offers that are great for whether you’re upgrading your setup or you’re just looking to catch up on the big releases of years past without paying full price — with plenty more still to come across PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, and peripherals like monitors, headsets, mice, and much more.
$349.99
at Amazon
$549.99
Save $200
As of March 17, the standout hardware deal is the Samsung 27-inch Odyssey OLED G5 gaming monitor, which has dropped to $349.99 from its $549.99 list price. That’s a 36% discount, or $200 off, on a QHD QD-OLED display with specs that are a lot more premium than this new price would suggest. This is even the OLED G5’s lowest price ever on Amazon, as confirmed via price tracker camelcamelcamel.
This model packs a 180Hz refresh rate, a 0.03ms response time, Nvidia G-Sync compatibility, and AMD FreeSync support, which is a strong mix for anyone who wants smooth gameplay without moving into the much more expensive OLED monitor tier. Samsung also highlights glare-free tech, HDR10, and Pantone validation, so this one looks particularly appealing if you want your games to pop as much as your frame rates.
Mashable Trend Report
$19.93
at Amazon
$69.99
Save $50.06
Mashable Deals
As for cheaper games, though, NBA 2K26 is down to just $19.93 from $69.99 on PS5 — its lowest price ever, as confirmed with camelcamelcamel, as well. That’s 72% off the full game that includes ProPLAY-enhanced gameplay, MyCAREER, MyTEAM, and MyNBA modes, giving basketball fans plenty to dig into whether they mostly play solo or jump online with friends.
More Amazon Big Spring Sale gaming deals
PlayStation games
Nintendo Switch 2 games
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Gaming mice
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Gaming monitors
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Entertainment
20 fitness tracker deals to shop ahead of the Amazon Big Spring Sale
Table of Contents
Amazon’s third annual Big Spring Sale kicks off next week (officially running March 25 through 31), but deals are already starting to roll in. You can find deal stamps across Apple products, robot vacuums, speakers, and even high-end fitness trackers, including Garmin, Google, and of course Apple Watches. Whether you need a new watch to track that 5K you’re training for or simply monitor your sleep habits, there will surely be a fitness tracker deal for you during the sale.
Deals are starting slow, with the biggest discounts so far on last-gen Garmin watches, but we’ll be updating this list as new price drops appear. There are a few big names that seem to be holding out until the official sale, like Whoop, Fitbit, and Oura. So we’d hold off on buying those brands until the Big Spring Sale commences.
Below, we’re tracking all the best fitness tracker deals at Amazon leading up to and throughout the official Big Spring Sale 2026.
Best early Amazon Big Spring Sale fitness tracker deal
$174.28
at Amazon
$299.99
Save $125.71
Why we like it
While it’s since been replaced with the newer vívoactive 6, the Garmin vívoactive 5 is still an excellent choice. It’s a perfect all-rounder for someone who wants a fitness tracker with plenty of smartwatch features. It can track everything from long runs and rides to stress, sleep, and body battery, has a bright and responsive AMOLED display, and boasts 11 days of battery power (Apple could literally never). I personally gifted this watch to my boyfriend (he loves it) after snagging an epic Black Friday discount, but it’s now even cheaper. At $174.28, it’s over 40% off and is down to the lowest price we’ve ever seen.
Best Apple Watch deal
$299
at Amazon
$399
Save $100
Why we like it
If you’re looking for a solid Apple Watch deal, this $100 price drop on the Series 11 makes it a pretty stellar value. It’s been chilling at this price for awhile now, so we’re hoping to see the Big Spring Sale drop it down even lower. But even if it doesn’t, $299 for the newest Apple Watch ain’t bad. It brings significant battery improvements over its predecessor, which alone makes it worth the upgrade. It also has a tougher design with more durable glass that’s twice as resistant to scratches, 5G capability for seamless connectivity, and a Sleep Score and hypertension tool for flagging high blood pressure.
Mashable Trend Report
More fitness tracker deals
Apple
Garmin
Google / Fitbit
Nothing
Samsung
Entertainment
Netflix Just Released An Episode So Bad I’m Now Embarrassed I Ever Recommended This Show
By Joshua Tyler
| Published
One of the funnier scenes ever to make it into a movie happens in the classic Chevy Chase/Dan Aykroyd comedy Spies Like Us. The duo, playing inept spies, arrives at a Doctors Without Borders camp, and all it takes for them to convince the people there that they belong is to call everyone “Doctor” over and over and over again. It’s a fun, silly way of poking fun at pretentious PhDs and also the limited intelligence of our heroes.
Now imagine that sixty-second scene stretched over sixty minutes, played seriously instead of as a joke, and with Chevy Chase’s character replaced by a badly rendered miniature reindeer in a top hat. That’s what happens in season 2 episode 7 of Netflix’s pirate adventure show One Piece. Aptly titled “Reindeer Shames,” it may be the single worst hour of programming ever released on streaming, and somehow it’s the penultimate episode of the streamer’s new flagship show.
Having not seen episode 7 yet, and having previously enjoyed season one and all six previous episodes of season 2, I’d been recklessly recommending One Piece to everyone I know. Now, not only am I rescinding that recommendation, I’m not sure I have the strength to continue on and watch the second season’s final episode.
One Piece Fans Waited More Than Two Years For Time Wasting Filler
A quick positioning statement: I love anime and watch a lot of it. Like 99% of the people watching the Netflix show, though, I’ve never watched the anime version of One Piece. I’ve avoided it largely because there are thousands of episodes, and that seems daunting, but also because even its most ardent defenders often admit that many of those episodes are actually time-wasting filler.
The One Piece anime’s predilection towards time-wasting filler episodes may explain the presence of “Reindeer Shames” on the Netflix version, the plot of which involves none of the show’s actual cast. The story also has basically nothing to do with any of the narratives being developed in the rest of the season.
That might be an acceptable side trip in a series with thousands of episodes, but in the modern era of lazy streaming production, we only get eight episodes every two or three years instead of an annual two-dozen. Wasting one of those precious episodes on anything not directly relevant to what’s happening on the show would be a bad idea, even if it were somehow good. When it’s this bad, it feels almost criminal.
A Blatant Cost-Cutting Measure From Netflix
“Reindeer Shames” tells the story of a Doctor on the run in a country where Doctors are being rounded up for weird anime doctor-hoarding reasons. The Doctor encounters a tiny, talking reindeer who looks like he just fell off a Toys R Us plushy shelf during the Christmas holiday rush of 1997. Or he would look like that if the CGI used to animate him didn’t also look like it came from 1997.
It seems clear that at least part of Netflix’s motivation in making this episode was as a cost-cutting measure. The show’s other episodes look fantastic, with high-level special effects and large-scale action sequences. However, “Reindeer Shames” largely takes place in either an unremarkable bush or a single hut and offers only a few, half-hearted seconds of action at the end. And again, it doesn’t involve any of the show’s actual cast, which probably means Netflix only paid them for seven episodes while still producing eight.
Netflix Has Opened Its Own Learing Center
This has all the earmarks of a scam. Making your subscription-paying audience wait two and a half years for eight episodes and then cheaping out on one of them is the streaming version of a Minnesota Learning Center.
The talking reindeer is named Chopper, and I’m told by Jonathan Klotz, who I consider an expert in all One Piece matters, that this character is a beloved figure in the animated version of this tale. Maybe he’ll grow into that over the course of Netflix’s live-action series, assuming the awfulness of this outing doesn’t cause the show to be canceled. Still, he’s garbage in this episode, and plays out like a clumsy, half-baked attempt to create the next Baby Yoda in a world where everyone’s sick to death of Baby Yodas.
Stop Watching One Piece Unless Supervised By A Doctor
Instead of delivering the kind of pirate adventure One Piece viewers are tuned in for, the episode meanders around, fixating on endless speeches about how amazing and important Doctors are. Doctor this and Doctor that, and oh, aren’t Doctors incredible angels who totally aren’t doing this job just because they like buying Corvettes and hanging out at country clubs.
Sitting through “Reindeer Shames” made me wish One Piece was on YouTube instead of Netflix, so it could be interrupted by an Incogni ad. In that worse-than-streaming-sponsorships environment, I guess Chopper, since he isn’t a Doctor and only wants to be one, is the least worst thing about it. That’s a hopeful point for his continued Doctor presence on the show, which seems like something I’ll have to endure if I ever again work up the doctor-like courage to watch another One Piece episode. I probably won’t, at least not without the supervision of a Doctor.
“REINDEER SHAMES” REVIEW SCORE
The best early gaming deals to shop ahead of Amazons Big Spring Sale
20 fitness tracker deals to shop ahead of the Amazon Big Spring Sale
