OnScreen Review: "Zombieland: Double Tap"
Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic
Has it really been a decade since we were introduced to the zom com, Zombieland? A decade is a long time in zombie years; when Zombieland came out the world was still a year away from The Walking Dead TV series, which is now in Season 10. In that time, we’ve also gotten World War Z, Warm Bodies, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Life After Beth, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Cooties, Cargo, The Dead Don’t Die, Overlord, and even an Arnold Schwarzenegger zombie movie, Maggie. While there was nearly as much zombie-related entertainment in the decade before Zombieland, with the addition of The Walking Dead TV series and its spin-offs and imitators on TV, it does feel like we have hit a certain level of market saturation in zombie content. There is very little new under the sun when it comes to zombies, and director Ruben Fleischer, along with screenwriters Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Dave Callaham, seems to recognize this in deciding to just run back much of what made the first movie successful with their sequel, Zombieland: Double Tap.
There is no reinventing the wheel with their Zombieland: Double Tap. If you enjoyed the first film then you will likely enjoy this one, though probably to slightly lesser degree; everyone’s mileage with zombies, and even comedy, varies. I thoroughly enjoyed the adventures of Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). All four of them are back for this sequel, which finds them taking up residence in the White House.
Their domestic tranquility is short-lived though, not due to zombies, but, rather, restlessness. Everyone except for Columbus has issues settling down. Wichita is afraid of commitment, because attachment in the zombie apocalypse is tough. Little Rock is a young woman who wants to be around people her own age. Tallahassee wants to be like his (alleged) Blackfoot Indian ancestors, who were completely free to roam and hunt. It’s total plot contrivance to break up the group but staying put would be a far less interesting movie. Wichita and Little Rock take off in the night, only for Little Rock to eventually run off without her sister with a hippie named Berkeley (Avan Jogia). Wichita eventually reunites with Columbus and Tallahassee and they set out on the road to find Little Rock, while they have also heard of a new, mutated zombie that is more impervious than the other zombies.
Fortunately, they have a fourth member who is along for the ride. Madison (Zoey Deutch) is a girl that Columbus stumbled upon at the mall and soon joins their ranks, despite the protests of Tallahassee. Madison is a quintessential dumb blonde, who Tallahassee believes has survived because zombies eat brains and she has none. Madison is a breath of fresh air that keeps Double Tap from becoming a warmed-over rehash of the first movie. Deutch is the daughter of Lea Thompson, so it’s clear to see where she got her comedy chops from. She is a hilarious addition to the group and arguably the highlight performance of the movie.
Also entering the Zombieland world are Nevada (Rosario Dawson), Albuquerque (Luke Wilson) and Flagstaff (Thomas Middleditch). Albuquerque and Flagstaff are nearly mirror images of Tallahassee and Columbus, though with some subtle differences. They show up in the middle of the movie and the way all four actors play off each other is entertaining. Dawson’s Nevada is also a nice addition to the team as a love interest for Tallahassee.
The plot is admittedly a little light, but the plot is never exactly the point of this kind of comedy sequel. It’s about getting to see these characters again and enjoying apocalyptic laughs and seeing creative zombie deaths (which have been upgraded from Zombie Kill of the Week to Zombie Kill of the Year). If they wanted to make a third Zombieland movie, I doubt they could wait another decade to do it. Getting to go back to the world of Zombieland feels like enough of a revisit for everyone to get it out of their system and say that they did it and did it well enough to be proud of it. Zombieland: Double Tap keeps things lively enough to keep things entertaining and prevent everything from decomposing and being completely braindead.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars