In the early days of zombie horror movie fatigue, Ruben Fleischer revitalized the genre with his critically and commercially successful Zombieland. Zombieland managed to combine self-referential, absurd humor and gory action with an incredible ensemble of acting talent. After 10 years, Fleischer, along with the original film’s star-studded cast, is bringing audiences back to the apocalypse with Zombieland: Double Tap.
Double Tap continues to follow the misadventures of survivors Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita and Little Rock—portrayed by Jessie Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin respectively—as they attempt to survive and thrive 10 years after the start of the zombie apocalypse. After Little Rock suddenly leaves, the rest of the group must hit the road while trying to deal with tougher zombies, new survivors and each other.
The cast was the original film’s greatest asset. In Double Tap, Eisenberg once again rocks the role of the quirky yet cowardly Columbus, while Woody Harrelson adds even more energy to the already tough-as-nails zombie killer Tallahassee. The duo has remarkable chemistry that leads to some truly hilarious moments.
Furthermore, new characters like Madison—played by Zoey Deutch—and Nevada—portrayed by Rosario Dawson—populate Zombieland to make the film feel significantly less empty than the original. Although most new survivors don’t have a large amount of screen time, these new characters all interact with the original cast in pretty entertaining ways.
Of the new characters, Madison, a living, breathing “dumb blonde” stereotype picked up by Columbus and Tallahassee, has the most screen time. While many of her lines are funny enough, her presence can become a little grating at some points, although the film does a good job of not overusing her character as a punchline.
In addition to a great cast, Double Tap also boasts the writing of talents of Dave Callaham, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick—the latter duo responsible for writing Deadpool and the original Zombieland. The humor is a nice mix of slapstick, self-reference and jokes that all land well for the most part. The film’s brand of humor pretty much mirrors that of the original Zombieland, so anyone who found the original funny will certainly enjoy this film.
While the writing for Double Tap doesn’t rise too high above the bar set by its predecessor, its action scenes are a major improvement. Some of the sequel’s action sequences are truly impressive due to a wonderful mix of practical and CGI effects as well as excellent camera and editing work.
While the original often had quicker cut action scenes, Double Tap boasts sequences with longer takes and lots of characters moving in and out of frame at once, creating an action-packed visual feast of brains, bullets and mayhem. The stunt work also brought an incredible amount of life to the action and made for plenty of fun scenes.
The largest flaw with Zombieland: Double Tap is its story. Although most are tweaked slightly, nearly every beat of Double Tap’s story is something ripped off from the original Zombieland. Choices from music to character arcs to even the final act all have some link to events portrayed in the original. These beats were not built upon by the script but rather take the audience on a journey they’ve definitely been on before.
Furthermore, the original survivors, save for Little Rock, have personalities that are nearly identical to those from the original film. While this works for the cast’s chemistry, this choice makes it hard for the audience to invest in characters whose arcs haven’t changed 10 years later.
Overall, Zombieland: Double Tap is a good sequel to a great film. While the film’s talented cast and crew do wonders for comedy and action, the film is too derivative of its source material. While certainly not rotten, Double Tap manages to be a fun, albeit reanimated, return to Zombieland.