Review of Zombieland: Double Tap (2019) by Bertaut1 — 04 Nov 2019

Just as funny and irreverent as the original, even if it hits all the same beats.

The original Zombieland was smart, funny, and self-aware, it didn't take itself too seriously, and it had heart, but it was hardly a film crying out for a sequel. But a sequel we have, and boy is it one of the most unnecessary I've seen in quite some time. However, as unnecessary as it is, it's also extremely enjoyable. It doesn't do a whole lot that wasn't in the original, but the irreverent sense of humour, sharp character interactions, and shedloads of charm are all present and accounted for. Directed by Ruben Fleischer (who helmed the original) and written by Rhett Rees and Paul Wernick (who wrote the original), along with Dave Callaham, Zombieland: Double Tap may not take too many risks, but it's a fine companion piece.

10 years after the events in the first film, the quartet is still together – there's the neurotic but sweet Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg doing his Jessie Eisenberg thing), the crass but caring Tallahassee (a wonderfully acerbic Woody Harrelson), the sarcastic Wichita (a dead-pan Emma Stone) and the laidback Little Rock (Abigail Breslin doing a lot with the little she's given). Staying in the White House, everything is going fine, until Little Rock breaks off from the group and heads to a supposed zombie-free commune, so the others set out to find her.

And that's about it as far as the plot goes.

Although 10 years have passed and the zombie-movie landscape is very different, one of the sequel's most successful elements is that next to nothing has changed; in essence, it acknowledges the gap precisely by ignoring it. So, Columbus's opening voiceover specifically refers to the long break as he thanks us for choosing Double Tap when there is such "a wide choice of zombie entertainment" and Madison tells Tallahassee his catchphrase is "very 2009", but the film as a whole feels as if it was shot immediately after the original.

This factors into the performances as well, insofar as Columbus, Tallahassee, and Wichita are all broadly similar to how they were 10 years ago. Little Rock has changed significantly, but that's as much to do with the fact that she was a child in the original and is now a young woman. This lack of character development may sound like a bad thing, but really, the familiarity of the characters and their group dynamic has its own inherent charm, we welcome it because it's familiar, with the cast essentially doing the same things they did in the original. Speaking of performances, I have to mention Zoey Deutch as Madison, a millennial bimbo who's been holed up in walk-in freezer. She completely owns every scene she's in. Sure, the character is clichéd as all hell and, on paper, she should be all kinds of annoying, but that she isn't, is a testament to Deutch's warm performance, finding genuine pathos amidst the perpetually peppy and cheerful high-energy ditz. She also has great chemistry with the original cast, especially Harrelson.

In terms of problems, as mentioned, the film doesn't do a whole lot that wasn't in the original – the characters, the narrative beats, the group dynamic, the humour; all are pretty much the same. Indeed, as much as I enjoyed the film, I would have liked to see it take more risks (there's certainly nothing here to rival the inspired Bill Murray cameo). Because of this blanket similarity, there is a sense in which the sequel isn't really its own thing, it's defined primarily by what the original did rather than forging its own path. Another problem is that it fails to do much with an interesting set-up, which sees women chaffing against traditional gender roles and the identities conferred on them by men. Once the gang end up on the road, this theme is pretty much forgotten (even with the introduction of Nevada (Rosario Dawson), a tough-as-nails Elvis aficionado, who seems more like a man's idea of what a tough woman should be than her own person). There are also more than a few clichés, primarily in relation to Madison (as blond a character as you'll ever meet) and the one-note Berkeley (Avan Jogia), a weed-smoking gun-hating hippie.

Zombieland: Double Tap is undemanding and doesn't completely justify its own existence, but it also does justice to the original, and never for one second does it take itself seriously. The effortlessness with which it slots into the original's groove is either funny or poor writing, depending on your perspective, but the film is smart enough to acknowledge that it feels slightly out of place in 2019. And if a little of the spark has been lost, the warmth, the characters, the jokes, and the playfulness make up for it.