Directed by: Ruben Fleischer
Written by: Dave Callaham, Rhett Reese
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Zoey Deutch, Avan Jogia
Ten years ago I was at a screening of Zombieland. I didn’t know much about the movie other than it was a comedy zombie movie. I don’t remember how I scored tickets to this screening, but the place was packed, not a single seat was left open.
I was in Texas at the time, and the crowd erupted with cheers when one of the main characters stated he was in Garland TX which was just a hop skip away from the movie theater. We were all hooked in the first five minutes of the film.
Fast forward to 2019, and now Zombieland is back in theaters with Zombieland: Double Tap. I was really pumped for this film. If you haven’t seen the first Zombieland, you might be a little confused, so let’s catch you up real quick. Zombies now overrun the world, and the film follows a motley crew trying to survive the zombie apocalypse.
Things have changed in the last ten years. Zombies have become smarter, faster, and more deadly.
Four types of zombies are described: The least worrisome “Homer,” dumb zombies who are easily outsmarted and distracted by shiny objects. Hawking (think Steven) zombies are very clever and will hunt you down using smart techniques. Ninja Zombies are very quiet and hide in the darkness waiting to kill you when you least expect it. I’ll get to the fourth one later.
The group we followed in the first film are still together surviving the zombie apocalypse. They’ve managed their way into Washington D.C. and have made the White House their new home.
While they are surviving and living a pretty decent life considering the alternative of constantly running in fear, the group is feeling a sense of stagnation.
The youngest of the group “Little Rock” (Breslin) has grown into an adult and longs for a romantic relationship. Things between Witchita (Stone) and Columbus (Eisenberg) are ok, but just ok, nothing special. Tallahassee seems unphased and is happily living life in the luxury of the White House.
Suddenly overnight, Little Rock and Wichita vanish in the night, leaving behind a note that feels like a one-night stand breakup note rather than something meaningful.
Columbus and Tallahassee deal with the departure of half of their group in their own ways. I felt like this was a bit unrealistic as they’ve been together for years now, and they both seem more bummed than hurt that both women have left them.
Life goes on, and Columbus meets a beautiful woman while scavenging in a mall. Her name is Madison (Deutch). She’s gorgeous but pretty much a dingbat. Somehow, after all these years she’s survived in the mall defending herself with a can of mace. Very quickly Madison and Columbus become “a thing” as it’s been years since Madison has interacted with anyone meaningful.
On the other side, Little Rock and Wichita pick up a handsome guy named Berkley (Jogia), who looks like a cross between a hipster and a hippie.
Berkley seems like the typical Gen Z kid. Hes’ an annoying, pretentious, guitar playing, pacifist. Imagine being a pacifist in a world where everyone is trying to eat you. Both Little Rock and Berkley hit it off and decide to leave Wichita alone so they can go to Graceland together.
Wichita makes her way back to D.C. to get help to save Little Rock from danger being with her new pacifist boyfriend. With the help of Columbus and Tallahassee, the team is together again with the addition of ditzy Madison off to save Little Rock from a new type of Zombie.
Without giving too much away, this new type of zombie is called the T-800, you can use your imagination on what that means. Thousands of these zombies are traveling in droves right toward Graceland, and it’s up to the group to save Little Rock from being eaten alive.
A lot of sequels are never as good as the original. I would say for Double Tap, it felt like a continuation of the first film. Even after ten years, I still loved these characters and felt the same sense of delight, seeing them kill zombies in creative ways with Metallica playing in the background. While new characters are introduced in this film, fear not, the story still keeps focus on the four main characters we met in Zombieland.
With the addition of the new characters, it feels more like adding sprinkles on top of your ice cream sundae. The characters add to the entertainment of the film and don’t distract from the main dish.
If you didn’t catch Zombieland before, you would enjoy Zombieland: Double Tap as a standalone flick. You will only miss out on the inside jokes from the previous film, but it won’t take away from the entertainment value of Double Tap.
Do yourself a favor and catch this one when you need a good laugh and want something light, you won’t regret it.
When you do watch it, don’t leave the theater right away! Stay a couple of minutes into the credits for some more laughs calling back to the first film. It’s worth sitting through a couple of minutes of credits especially if you watched Zombieland. Stay to the very end, past the credits to see even more.
