Movie review
By Kaylee Brewster
Three out of four.
Unlike the zombie apocalypse, “Zombieland: Double Tap” is an all-out entertaining and funny trip down Zombieland lane that doesn’t fall victim to being just another zombie movie.
The film picks up where the 2009 film, “Zombieland” ends. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone), Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) have their makeshift family and are surviving “Z-land,” as Columbus calls it.
That is, until the day Little Rock runs off with Berkeley (Avan Jogia) a hippie pacifist who won’t fight the zombies trying to kill him. Knowing Little Rock won’t survive long without a gun and desire to crack some zombie skulls, Columbus, Wichita and Tallahassee are in pursuit. There is even more urgency to their quest when they learn there is a new type of zombie that is deadlier and harder to kill.
“Zombieland: Double Tap” follows much of the same humor and narrative style of “Zombieland.” Columbus narrates to bring the audience up to speed. Graphics displaying his rules are played within the scene for an additional laugh or two. Violent zombie fighting is done in a blood-spattering, over-the-top manner but for humorous, not horrific, effect.
Not much has changed for the characters, which is good because viewers won’t want them to. The rough and gruff, gun-loving Tallahassee plays well against Columbus’ nerdy neuroticism. Wichita’s cold-as-ice sarcasm, often directed at Columbus, gets laughs from Tallahassee and the audience.
However new characters provide just as much fun as the old. Madison (Zoey Deutch) is the perfect pink-clad person to shake things up for Columbus and Wichita with her cluelessness and unneeded observations that annoy Tallahassee and Wichita.
Then we meet Nevada (Rosario Dawson), another tough, gun-toting zombie killer. The two most interesting characters are Albuquerque (Luke Wilson) and Flagstaff (Thomas Middleditch), who are near clones of Tallahassee and Columbus in both appearance and personality. This adds some extra fun for the audience as Columbus and Flagstaff bond over their similarities and compare notes on their few differences, while Albuquerque and Tallahassee try not to kill each other. All these new characters and their interactions provide plenty of laughter.
Along the journey, the characters learn that it’s not important where you are in the zombie wasteland, it’s who you’re with. The same lesson goes for the viewers. It doesn’t matter how many zombie films you’ve seen, these characters, both old and new, are what matter and what makes “Zombieland: Double Tap” a fun-filled ride.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlW9yhUKlkQ
