Comedy sequels are notoriously hard to pull off with far more of them failing that succeeding. The fact that Zombieland: Double Tap succeeds as well as it does is nothing short of a miracle. Is it as good as the original film? No, clearly not. But as a follow-up to a beloved Zom-Com 10 years later with a game cast, it's still plenty of fun.
As the film opens, we are once again greeted by Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg) who thanks us for choosing returning to Zombieland among the plethora of Zombie related entertainment options (a nice little lampshade hanging on the fact that we are overrun with Zombie content these days). He gets us caught up on what has happened since we last saw this post-apocalyptic surrogate family. Zombies have evolved, ranging from the stealthy and lethal ninja zombie to the easily distracted and harmless "Homer" zombies, named after the eponymous Simpsons character. Meanwhile, Columbus, Wichita (played by Emma Stone), Little Rock (played by Abigail Breslin) and Tallahassee (played by Woody Harrelson) have decided to move to nicer digs, settling on none less than the White House. They settle in together making the White House their own playground of sorts while raiding area buildings for various resources and decor. When Columbus proposes marriage to Wichita, with the Hope diamond no less, she gets scared and runs off with Little Rock, who was wanting to strike out on her own after growing tired of still being treated like a kid by Tallahassee. Saddened by their departure, Tallahassee and Columbus venture out to the local deserted shopping mall, where Columbus meets and hits it off with the incredibly dense Madison (played by Zoey Deutch). Tallahassee is less impressed as he accurately pin points for Columbus why she's still alive: "Zombies eat brains and she ain't got any!" Still, looking for a rebound, Columbus takes Madison home with them. It's not long before Wichita comes back looking for weapons because Little Rock ditched her, taking off with a pacifist survivor named Berkeley (played by Avan Jogia). That's not all, there's also a new and extremely hard to kill breed of zombie out there heading their way, dubbed the T-800 by Columbus. Determined to save Little Rock, Tallahassee, Wichita and Columbus hit the road along with Madison to try and find her.
The film is once again directed by Ruben Fleischer from a script by Dave Callaham, Rhett Reese, and Paul Wernick. Despite the film coming out almost exactly ten years after the original, the film does a great job of picking up more or less where we left off with our four intrepid heroes. It's a few years later, but it is still recognizably Zombieland. The filmmakers also have a fun time expanding their zombie ridden world, from our main characters moving into an abandoned White House, to introducing us to new survivors such as Nevada (played by Rosario Dawson), who lives an Elvis themed hotel not far from Graceland. They also introduce us to Albuquerque (played by Luke Wilson) and Flagstaff (played by Thomas Middleditch) who are basically doppelgangers for Tallahassee and Columbus in one of the film's more amusing gags. They also have our heroes track Little Rock and Berkeley to a huge compound filled with pacifists who have forbidden anyone there from having guns (to Tallahassee's understandable horror). The zombie action is expanded in interesting ways as well, with the different species of Zombie that have developed (the most hilarious for me was the harmless Homer zombies that aren't even worth a bullet). They also stage some great zombie fight sequences, including an extended single take as Tallahassee and Columbus fight off two zombies at once that was impressive in it's execution.
The cast do a fantastic job picking up their characters again after all this time. Woody Harrelson is still having a blast playing Tallahassee and the fun is infectious. Jesse Eisenberg once again captures Columbus' insecurity although he has grown a bit since the first movie, even working up the courage to propose to Wichita, even if that backfires a bit. Emma Stone recaptures Wichita's feistiness quite well and does very well playing off Zoey Deutch's Madison. Speaking of which, Zoey Deutch absolutely nails the role of the air head Madison. She was hilarious from her first introduction throughout the rest of the movie. Abigail Breslin has a lot to play with as Little Rock is going through some serious growing pains, wanting to strike out on her own and feeling smothered by her surrogate dad, Tallahassee. This leads her directly into the arms of Berkeley, a pot smoking pacifist who has inexplicably survived in the wilds of Zombieland. Rosario Dawson is a fun addition to the cast as a potential love interest for Tallahassee and is every bit his equal in the badass department, as we quickly discover. Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch have fun with their cameo roles as Albuquerque and Flagstaff as they find fun ways of twisting the traits of Tallahassee and Columbus that we know and love.
Zombieland: Double Tap is a better than average sequel that finds plenty of new material to mine as we continue to follow the adventures of Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock. It doesn't quite have the novelty of the first film, but I don't think a sequel was ever going to recapture that. This follow-up is still a brisk, funny and worthy follow-up to the original film. If you liked the first one, chances are you are going to enjoy the second one as well. I know I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment