Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Oh boy, this has been a week. Been a lot of changes, I’ve come down with the plague, very stressful time. But I need to put SOMETHING up this week so here we are. Talking about a sequel to a movie I’m not a huge fan of but hey, this is what I saw last week so this is what I have to talk about. Either this or Tetsuo: The Iron Man, but I’m not coherent enough to get my opinions on that across so this is what we have, Jesse Eisenberg killing zombies and trying to get into a meaningful romantic relationship with Emma Stone. Let’s go!
Zombieland: Double Tap picks up about 10 years after the first film, which, to recap, ended with the four heroes Wichita (Emma Stone), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), and Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) facing their fears, coming together, and forming a post-apocalyptic family unit. Since then, the quartet has had many offscreen adventures and gotten used to the whole zombie America thing. But even with their newfound safety, this new life isn’t totally satisfying for Little Rock, who wants to find people her age, or for Wichita who finds herself experiencing some old anxieties about their new situation.
I’m keeping this kind of short because I don’t have that much to say about this movie. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the original Zombieland, a lot of the humor seemed mean-spirited and there was a tad too much zombie apocalypse wish-fulfillment in it for me. I’m not completely being down on it though as it did give us a cast with good comedic chemistry and a now refreshingly upbeat look at the zombie apocalypse. That being said, Zombieland: Double Tap is an improvement on the original in basically every way.
What strikes me about Zombieland 2 is all the little changes that added up to make something significantly different than the first film while keeping the same core elements. Like the original, this one is also a ‘road trip’ movie but we meet a ton of memorable characters who immediately jump out at you. No one is ‘just okay’ you either love or hate everyone who shows up and that leads to a lot of good comedic moments. And the big personalities of the characters aren’t the only things that have been expanded on, almost everything feels bigger and wider in scope than the first movie, in a good way.
A lot of this is simplicity done right. Take the same characters that people liked, add new locations, new wacky survivors, more zombie kills, and just throw it all together. But simplicity is also the movie’s biggest problem. I wouldn’t call it super memorable, and the familiarity of everything does build as the film goes on. You know basically what will happen, you’re just along for the ride to see how it plays out. And that isn’t always a bad thing, especially when all the little pieces are so well made.
Everything seems to line up pretty well and while Zombieland 2 is in no way must-see cinema I would say that it is a worthy sequel that is a lot of fun and I would recommend to people who liked the first film or to people who are into horror-comedies.
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