Movie Review: “Zombieland: Double Tap”

“Zombieland: Double Tap”

Release Date: October 18, 2019

Runtime: 99 mins

Directed by: Ruben Fleischer 

Starring: Woody Harrelson 

              Jesse Eisenberg 

             Emma Stone

           Abigail Breslin 

Few fictional creatures feel more ingrained in the collective unconscious than the zombie. The concept of some sort of disease leaving its victims as walking corpses seems so intuitive it is difficult to believe it was invented barely 50 years ago. The late George A. Romero revolutionized the horror genre with 1968’s “Night of the Living Dead,” a film widely credited as the birthplace of our modern understanding of zombies. 

In the decades since, some genre tropes have become tired and stale. Filmmakers had to do something new, interesting or special to grab the attention of an audience. In 2009, “Zombieland” attempted to set itself apart with a unique style and focus on comedy. While it did nothing which had not been done before, it did not necessarily have to. It was charming and succeeded at being a pretty fun time.

Fast forward 10 years later to the present, and we have the release of a sequel, “Zombieland: Double Tap.” The movie reunites the audience with the four central characters from the first film. Their relatively safe and peaceful condition is interrupted when personal conflicts drive them apart.

The movie does not feel like it was made in 2019. If someone were to tell me “Double Tap” was completely finished by 2011, I might be inclined to believe them were it not for the cast being ten years older. Some of the comedy in “Double Tap” utilizes premises which would have been old even in 2009. A dumb blonde stereotype is featured heavily in the movie. There is nothing clever done with her; the writers just have her say asinine things and expect us to laugh. At one point, it seems almost certain her character is not going to be around anymore, but she suddenly appears again for no reason. The cut-away gags can also feel obnoxious, but there are only about two in the entire movie so it was not all that annoying. 

There was a scene with Bill in the first movie which was by far the best part of the entire thing. It is one of the most creative and well-executed celebrity cameos in any movie I have ever seen. The scene has little or no effect on the story, so I would recommend everybody look it up on YouTube, even if you have no intention of ever watching the entire movie. To be quite honest, I feel that scene is the only reason anyone remembers “Zombieland.” “Double Tap” obviously knows this and goes out of its way to give a couple giant winks to the audience as if to say, “Hey! Remember this?” It was a little aggravating, but there is also a mid-credits scene that I really enjoyed. 

The movie is really at its best when it is just some combination of the four main characters. Jokes have a higher chance of landing, and the dialogue tends to feel less forced and a bit more natural. The four of them do feel like a kind of family. That connection was the overall point of the first movie, and it does feel like the main arcs in “Double Tap” are just copied and pasted at times. I also did not feel the romantic relationships in the movie were very well established. These characters definitely feel like friends, but I did not ever get the impression it was any more than that. 

The action is fun more often than not, but it only seems to happen when the script says so. The characters will go to one place and there will not be a single zombie in sight, but a few minutes later, they will have to spend five minutes fighting off a giant horde. 

As a whole, there is more I disliked about “Zombieland: Double Tap” than I liked. However, I was not offended by anything in it. It manages to successfully maintain the same tone as the first movie even if it is not as good. It has enough charm that I do not quite feel like it was a waste of my time.

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