Zombieland: Double Tap Review

October 18, 2019 at 3:49pm
By Jason Stettner

Time has passed, both in this world of Zombieland and our regular lives. It’s not a sequel I thought I’d ever see, and despite a history of second entry comedies that come out years later not living up to the first film. This one actually does. It’s generally a solid follow-up that makes perhaps too many references to the previous one while still being something a little different.

It definitely retreads certain themes, and is way too heavy on the foreshadowing. That aside, it’s still generally a fine viewing and an entertaining one. It provides some laughs, a great cast and some interesting dives into the characters. We get to see them mature, and deal with a deadlier horde of zombies. It’s definitely silly, self-aware and it brings all of the charm of the original but in new ways.

With this next road trip, we see Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and Wichita (Emma Stone) team up with a strange new companion named Madison (Zoey Deutch). They’re out on the road in an attempt to find Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) that has set off to group with people of her own age. It’s a fine concept to get them on the road again, and it’s enough to set the stage for some jokes throughout.

For the most part this looked fine, and brought back a number of special moments from the last film. I found only one scene being a glaring stand out for poor CGI, and that was with a special monument falling over. It wasn’t needed, especially considering it was a two second segment that felt out of place.

The acting was solid from the group, they’ve definitely aged yet felt like their characters still. They also really branched out the core team in this one with some new appearances. Most of these were for some small gags, and I didn’t mind it. Should be some fun appearances, that might seem strange initially but work out well.

It’s neat how minimal this series has been on the overall world. You’re never quite sure the extent of the infection as it keeps the settings more intimate. It’s definitely a lot of revisiting what happened before and twisting it slightly with this one. Hitting the same beats, and while that might not be for everyone I did somewhat expect this. I got exactly what I had anticipated to be seeing in this sequel.

The Conclusion

Zombieland: Double Tap brings back many of the themes and concepts from the first movie, while altering them slightly with this process actually working fine. I didn’t mind what they did with this, it felt like the first one and was more of what I wanted. It was one of those rare times where I was actually happy with the sequel that came out many years later, a hard feat for comedies that wait so long for another entry. I actually hope this does well enough that we perhaps get another one in the near future.

It would also be rather funny to see them again ten years down the road, that would add a certain humor to the changes in them, as in the changes within their characters. It does hit the same beats, and some will feel like this is too similar to what we’ve seen before. I feel they largely counteract this by being self-aware of that aspect, and playing off of it in some neat ways. It’s still gruesome, filled with zombies and it doesn’t play up the special types too much which I appreciate.

I’ve always felt that special infected in zombie movies/games were honestly a tad silly, it’s nice to see that they’re in this yet not too over the top. This works, at least for me. I loved seeing the cast back together, they fit into their old roles well and the comedy still hits for me. It’s great to get some zombie satire, a road trip and some other odd situations along the path to recovering one of their own. Some good growth within the crew, and maturity as well. Be sure to follow the rules of surviving Zombieland, and be aware of the commandments! The after credits are worth it too, at least the first one is.

Zombieland: Double Tap Review at Theater with Standard Viewing

Rating Overall: 7.0