Zombieland: Double Tap

Starring: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Zoey Deutch, Avan Jogia, Rosario Dawson, Luke Wilson, Thomas Middleditch, Victoria Hall, Bill Murray, Al Roker
Directed by: Ruben Fleischer
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Horror, Comedy
2019

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) continue their misadventures in Zombieland.

Review:

Tim: Zombieland was a shocking hit in 2009. I don't think anyone expected this comedy zombie movie to be as incredible as it was. So, I was ecstatic when we got a sequel, a full decade later. I loved seeing this cast together again. While this movie isn't close to the heights of the original, it's a worthwhile sequel that does a lot right. While I wish I enjoyed the movie even more, it's still a big success.

To me, it felt like this movie existed right on the edge of "good" and "very good". The scales finally tipped toward the latter, but mostly because of how much I loved getting to see Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock again. These characters are wonderful and memorable. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since we last saw them. That's the single biggest appeal of this movie- we get to check in on our friends and have more adventures with them. You can't really overstate how important this is. The characters are so great, plus they are played by the absolute right actors. That does so much for the film. Of course, you need a solid script around them, but this is the biggest success of the film.

The story here is good (but perhaps not great). The movie does separate Little Rock from the rest of the group for a large part of the movie. Oftentimes, in films like this, a movie gets dinged when it breaks the group up. It's the group interactions that people want and separating them needlessly can really hurt (see Star Wars: The Last Jedi). Wisely, this film just separates Little Rock, who (if we're being honest) is the least compelling of the group. The story gives us some really funny moments and introduces some compelling new characters. While it does have some fairly large plot holes, it's mostly great fun.

The film does give us some truly entertaining scenes. The highlight might be the weird doppelgangers of Tallahassee and Columbus. This was exceptionally well executed and allowed the characters to poke fun at each other. It certainly helped that the film cast Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch to play opposite Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg. The joke here is certain a bit meta, but that adds to the humor. I really loved those scenes. Zoey Deutch had some great moments as well. I really, really like her and was impressed with her performance here. Her character was a bit off-putting (especially because she seems genuinely intelligent in real life), but she created some truly humorous moments. She gives a good performance. I liked the addition of Rosario Dawson, although the whole Graceland sequence wasn't all that great. Her character felt underdeveloped, but her presence was welcome.

The supporting cast as a whole was strong, especially the introduction of the new characters. Madison was definitely the standout. Even better was seeing the main cast together. Jesse Eisenberg was good as Columbus. He shows up and does his thing again. He might have been a little less relatable here. I'm not sure if it's just Eisenberg as he gets older, but he seemed too sure of himself, too petty. I liked Columbus less this time around. I love, love, love Woody Harrelson, but I have to admit his performance was a bit uneven. There were terrific moments, but he had a number of scenes where he's clearly overacting. Director Ruben Fleischer needed to reign him in. It's a weird performance to watch, because Harrelson is so talented. Maybe he just got caught up in the excitement of playing this character again. He needed to show more restraint in his performance. Emma Stone was solid again as Wichita. Apparently I'm complaining about all four of these great actors, so I'll continue with her. I'm not sure if it was the script that didn't give her enough to do, but she seemed a bit disinterested in the whole thing. Harrelson and Eisenberg were all in and Stone felt like she had one foot in and one foot out. Abigail Breslin in the weakest member of the main cast, and that felt even more apparent in this film than the first one. I know I just wrote complaints about these four, but I genuinely loved seeing them all together again. The performances don't reach their excellent ones in the first film, but it was so fun seeing them reunite.

It's not surprising that this film would represent a drop in quality from the original. It's an action/horror/comedy and horror sequels and comedy sequels are notoriously difficult to pull off. For the most part, though, this film delivered a worthwhile story without being completely derivative. It doesn't live and die by recycling the same jokes (besides the post credits scene, which is exactly that). That's not easy to do- to branch out away from what worked the first time. It scores the film serious points. I'm so happy Zombieland: Double Tap was made. The original was exceptionally great, so it was unlikely this film could have reached those heights. This is a worthwhile sequel, though. I had a lot of fun with it. Triple Tap anyone?

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Zombieland, Adventureland