Zombieland: Double Tap review

ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP:

NUT UP OR SHUT UP, CUZ THIS ZOMBIE-COMEDY SEQUEL IS GORY FUN!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

COLUMBIA PICTURES

Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Abigail Breslin are back in Zombieland: Double Tap

            Everyone’s favorite zombie apocalypse survivors (and I ain’t talking about those d*cks on The Walking Dead!) are back for more in Zombieland: Double Tap, the highly anticipated sequel to the 2009 horror-comedy hit Zombieland. The first Zombieland is actually one of my favorite comedies of all time and while a comedic perspective on the zombie apocalypse is nothing new with the 2004 Simon Pegg and Nick Frost movie Shaun of the Dead popularizing the concept, it added some funny and charming characters on top of all the zombie bloodshed.

            It was a massive critical and commercial success and was the highest-grossing zombie movie of all time until 2013’s World War Z dethroned it. Talks of a sequel had been going around for years but was very difficult to get off the ground especially after the disappointing films that followed Zombieland that Ruben Fleischer (30 Minutes or Less, Gangster Squad, Venom) chose to direct…Tom Hardy eating chicken out of the garbage…and it grossed close to a billion dollars…what’s wrong with you people? 

            Zombieland really was lightning in a bottle that would be very hard to duplicate, and I was worried that Fleischer wouldn’t be able to recapture the fun and wit of the first film. Luckily, he was able to go back to basics and finally get Zombieland: Double Tap made with Woody Harrelson (The Messenger, The Hunger Games franchise, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Now You See Me 1 and 2, The Art of Self Defense), Emma Stone (Superbad, La La Land, The Favourite), and Abigail Breslin (Signs, Little Miss Sunshine, Scream Queens) reprising their roles and deliver a very fun follow-up. 

            Granted, it doesn’t quite live up to the first movie and there are a lot of repeated jokes, but the film’s writers knew that if they still wanted the rehashed jokes to be funny then they needed to have different interpretations or outcomes to get a laugh. It doesn’t pull that “Oops, we did it again” bullsh*t but instead does exactly what a sequel is supposed to do, continue the story and for what it is, it’s done well. 

            Ten years after the zombie apocalypse hit, Columbus (Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Harrelson), Wichita (Stone), and Little Rock (Breslin) continue to survive and have taken shelter in the White House. Columbus wants to take his relationship with Wichita to the next level by marrying her but she ain’t having any of that so she and Little Rock bail on them…again.

            That is the least of their problems as these four slayers realize that there are several new species of zombies that have evolved since the events in 2009. From the dim-witted Homers (Obviously named after Peter Griffin!), intelligent Hawkings, and the sneaky Ninjas, and an indestructible killing machine known as the T-800 (There was a trailer for Terminator: Dark Fate before this movie by the way…coincidence?). 

            However, Little Rock discovers something far scarier than zombies, TRUE LOVE, AHHHH! In the form of a hippie guitarist named Berkeley (Avan Jogia-Caprica, Victorious, I Am Michael) and decides to go her own path leaving her friends and older sister (Wichita) behind. Because Tallahassee has a serious hatred for hippies and Wichita is worried about her sister’s safety, Columbus, Tallahassee, and Wichita along with a dumb blonde named Madison (Zoey Deutch-Vampire Academy, Everybody Wants Some!!, The Disaster Artist), and an Elvis-themed motel owner whom Tallahassee may have feelings for known as Nevada (Rosario Dawson-Men in Black II, Rent, Top Five) lock and load and set off on another journey through Zombieland to save Little Rock and put an end to this zombie apocalypse once and for all.

            The film also stars Luke Wilson (Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, Idiocracy) as Albuquerque and Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)) as Flagstaff. 

            Overall, Zombieland: Double Tap is goofy fun with a lot of laughs and over-the-top gore that may not be as unique as its predecessor but it’s still a thoroughly entertaining reunion with the characters you know and love. It’s more of the same, shooting and mauling zombies while making jokes and for a movie like this that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 

            At this point everything’s been done with the zombie genre and there isn’t much new you can do with it, unless you want to give the zombies superpowers and turn it into the Avengers: Endgame of zombie movies (Actually, that sounds awesome!). But because the chemistry between the survivors are very strong and the violence is still entertaining, you don’t really care if the plot is recycled. 

            It’s refreshing to see these actors who have gone on to receive various awards and nominees return to something as silly as this and I’m convinced this is all an excuse for these A-list actors to just have some fun and bring you along for the ride. Eisenberg is still a neurotic geek who always plans things accordingly but there are a few curveballs thrown his way that require him to break his own rules, Stone is pretty much the same as the love interest with a dry sense of humor and she’s still mysterious and you never know what she’s going to do, Breslin in this movie I’m rather mixed about because while she does have her moments of zombie fighting and delivering some funny lines and her performance is still very good she’s a lot more whiny and rebellious this time and even goes to the length of abandoning her sister over a guy she just met…in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. 

            But the character who has changed quite a bit since the last movie is Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee who is still the psychotic, gun-toting, foul-mouthed zombie assassin with a dangerous addiction to Twinkies (Surprisingly not many Twinkie references this time around), but is more accepting of his family and pretty much acts like a father figure to Little Rock and even does the classic “Dad hates the new boyfriend” trope but it’s done hilarious, not to mention much like his love of Bill Murray from the first film there’s a particular “King” in this movie that he is very fond of, also I’ll just say it Harrelson fanboying over a celebrity is both funny and strangely kind of adorable.

            As mentioned before, most of the action is what we’ve already seen before but there’s plenty of gore and bullets flying as well as some decent physical comedy to make it enjoyable to watch. The highlight being the group slaughtering a large zombie horde in a monster truck that’s so over-the-top and funny that it gives the shootout in Pacific Playland from the first movie a run for its money. 

            Zombieland: Double Tap doesn’t quite ride the same hype as the first film but it delivers a thoroughly entertaining and hysterical sequel. What else can I say but “Nut Up or Shut Up”?