The raucous romp Zombieland Double Tap is a fun change of pace to the serious fare in theaters. To set the tone, it begins with the woman in the Columbia Pictures logo dispatching a couple of zombies. This is a worthy sequel to the riotously funny Zombieland, number one on my list of Zombie Movies for People Who Don’t Like Zombie Movies.
In the original Zombieland, our young heroes (Jesse Eisenberg as Columbus, Emma Stone as Wichita and Abigail Breslin as Little Rock – very early in their careers) band together to survive the Zombie Apocalypse with the master zombie killer Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson). Tallahassee’s astonishing skills and unwholesome enthusiasm are very funny.
In Zombieland Double Tap, the characters, like the actors, are all ten years older. The young folks have learned from their mentor and are now equally adept at slaughtering zombies. This time, there is less zombie splatter, replaced by plenty of funny new threads. The four are camped out in the deserted White House and then travel to Graceland.
A new character Madison (Zoey Deutch) shows up, and Deutch practically reinvents the Dumb Blonde. A bit where she thinks up the business plan of Uber may be her funniest bit, but Deutch’s performance by itself makes watching this movie worthwhile.
Little Rock is no longer a kid, and she yearns for the companionship of a guy her age. Of course, she finds exactly the wrong first boyfriend (Avan Jogla) in a survivor who is hippie poser (named Berkeley!); not satisfied to impress Little Rock by plagiarizing Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone, he even claims that he wrote Lynard Skynard’s Free Bird.
Luke Wilson and Thomas MIddleditch show up as clones of Tallahassee and Columbus. Eisenberg and Middleditch have a lot of fun with their similarly neurotic personae. Rosario Dawson is in this movie, too, and she’s a lot of fun.
In the comedic highlight of Zombieland, the group finds shelter in Bill Murray’s LA mansion where Bill Murray (playing himself) is surviving by impersonating a zombie. If you stay through the closing credits of Zombieland Double Tap, you’ll be rewarded with a taste of Murray.
This a very funny movie. The Wife hates horror, and she enjoyed Zombieland Double Tap, too.