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Draper Journal

Dan's Review: "Zombieland: Double Tap" keeps the undead fun going

Oct 19, 2019 10:08AM ● By Dan Metcalf

Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, and Emma Stone in Zombieland: Double Tap - © 2019 Sony/Columbia.

Zombieland: Double Tap (Sony/Columbia)

Rated R for bloody violence, language throughout, some drug and sexual content.

Starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, Emma Stone, Rosario Dawson, Zoey Deutch, Avan Jogia, Luke Wilson, Thomas Middleditch, Bill Murray, Al Roker, Grace Randolph.

Written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Dave Callaham.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer.

GRADE: B+

REVIEW:

Who knew zombies could be so much fun? Yeah, they’re disgusting, cannibalistic “brain-aholics,” but no film put aside the gross stuff and truly captured the comic nature of the phenomenon better than 2009’s Zombieland. Ten years later, the gang is back in Zombieland: Double Tap, taking on new, evolved undead.

We pick up with our quartet of survivors as they inhabit the White House, taking pleasure n defacing national relics and feasting off the spoils of presidential living, like sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom and putting their feet up on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. The Doldrums of palace living begins to take its toll on Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), who yearns to strike out on her own and start her own family with someone her own age. Wichita gets cold feet when Columbus proposes marriage (using the Hope Diamond as an engagement ring) and leaves overnight with Little Rock, leaving only a note. Heartbroken but unshaken, Columbus meets Madison (Zoey Deutch) while exploring an abandoned mall a few weeks later and invites her back to the White House, where she seduces him after a long drought from intimacy. The next day, Wichita returns, informing the group that Little Rock ran off on her own with a hippie named Berkeley (Avan Jogia) and that a new breed of evolved “super zombies” has emerged in the Midwest. The group leaves the White House and heads out to Graceland where they meet Nevada (Rosario Dawson), another survivor who shares Tallahassee’s affinity for Elvis. They also meet Albuquerque (Luke Wilson) and Flagstaff (Thomas Middleditch) who appear to be carbon copies of Tallahassee and Columbus. After a few super zombies attack, Tallahassee, Columbus and Wichita continue their search for Little Rock, finding her in a hippie commune where she seems happy and safe. Tallahassee leaves but encounters a massive herd of super zombies on their way to the commune. He returns and devises a plan to kill them off, leading to a great, bloody battle.

Zombieland: Double Tap is every bit as fun as the first film, with all kinds of hilarious dialogue, comic zombie violence, and culturally significant satire. The lead performances, anchored by Eisenberg’s neurotic clumsiness, Harrelson’s salt-of-the-earth redneck persona, Stone’s penchant for sarcastic wit and Breslin’s millennial problems is the perfect chemistry for another funny movie about surviving a zombie apocalypse. Zoey Deutch’s portrayal of a self-absorbed dingbat adds the perfect foil for a lot of the new jokes as well.

Even with the new stuff, Zombieland: Double Tap draws perhaps a little too heavily on the same gags that worked a little better in the original 2009 film, making the sequel a little less authentic. Despite these small inconveniences, the new version is good enough to keep the zombie kills going for another decade, at least.  

Another note: be sure to stick around for a Bill Murray post-credits bonus scene.


"Zombieland: Double Tap" Trailer