Ten years after ZOMBIELAND, ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP hit the screens in 2019 with the same great cast of Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, and Emma Stone and the same director (Ruben Fleischer) and writers (Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick). The result doesn’t have the same punch as the original and largely trades on the same jokes, and besides that the story simply isn’t as strong, but it’s a crowd-pleasing sequel, banking on the characters’ charm and the original’s fundamentals.
In DOUBLE TAP, our gang of four have roamed Zombieland for years and end up at the White House, where they set up a home. This “family” is content but suffering some growing pains as Wichita chafes at commitment with Columbus, and Little Rock has grown up, wants to find people her own age, and chafes at Tallahassee’s protective fathering. The ladies take off, and the boys pursue, having adventures and meeting new people along the way, while discovering a new and powerful type of zombie.
It all feels kind of recycled, the climax comes out of nowhere, and the story is pretty weak (especially Little Rock, who is treated as a plot device for the rest instead of a real character), but the cast has so much heart, charm, and chemistry that they pull it off, with the result being a compelling, fun, purely escapist ride.
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