ZOMBIELAND DOUBLE TAP
MOVIE REVIEW

		Review by E.C.McMullen Jr.
ZOMBIELAND MOVIE REVIEW ZOMBIELAND - 2019 USA Release: October 18, 2019 Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, Pariah Rated: Africa: 16LV / Australia: MA / Canada: 14A / Chile: Y7 / Finland: K-15 / Ireland, Netherlands: 16 / Japan: R15+ / Mexico: B15 / New Zealand: R16 / Norway, Sweden, UK: 15 / Portugal: M/12 / Singapore: M18 / South Africa: 16LV / USA: R

It's 10 years later and in order to make this sequel work, everybody had to come back and not just the main cast, but also the director, Ruben Fleischer, and the writing team of Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (ZOMBIELAND, DEADPOOL [all], LIFE). A third writer comes to the team, Dave Callaham (DOOM, TELL TALE, THE EXPENDABLES, GODZILLA [2014]).

As you can see from the poster up there, Woody Harrelson (NATURAL BORN KILLERS, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, ZOMBIELAND, DEFENDOR, THE HUNGER GAMES [all], WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, VENOM), Jesse Eisenberg (THE VILLAGE, CURSED, ZOMBIELAND, CAMP HELL, NOW YOU SEE ME, VIVARIUM), Abigail Breslin (ZOMBIELAND, HAUNTER, THE CALL, MAGGIE, FEAR INC., FINAL GIRL, SCREAM QUEENS [TV]), and Emma Stone (ZOMBIELAND, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2), are all back playing 10 year older versions of themselves. The passage of time shows on everyone's face except, inexplicably, Jesse.

The group is currently living in what remains of Washington D.C. in what remains of the White house.

Well over 10 years after the apocalypse and plumbing and electricity work just fine, thank you. This is a model of American efficiency that simply doesn't exist anywhere else in the world.

Jesse as Columbus the narrator (which usually doesn't work in a movie but inexplicably again, does here), goes through his mental toy box of knowledge and memories and tells us that the zombies are evolving thanks to the zombie virus (wait for it).

In these past ten years, Tallahassee (Woody) has set himself up as the presumptive father figure. Columbus and Wichita (Emma) sleep together and live life as a bickering couple, and Wichita's little sister, Little Rock (Abigail) isn't a little girl anymore and is aching for a partner of her own.

Catching everyone off-guard and by surprise, Little Rock wants to leave to look for other people. Fearing that Wichita will stick with her sister over him, Columbus chooses this moment to ask for her hand in marriage. A loving and romantic request that gives Wichita all the reason she needs to sneak away in the night and go on a road trip with her sister, never to return.

A month goes by as Columbus nurses his grief and drives Tallahassee up the wall, until the older man is ready to leave all on his own.

Thus in the course of their scavenging travels they come across the giggly Madison (Zoey Deutch: VAMPIRE ACADEMY). She's only survived because she is the only one inside a shopping mall that has an enormous amount of food and a walk in freezer with a really thick door. Zombies seem to hate the cold.

That miraculous electricity, again.

Soon Madison is giving Columbus some much needed sexual healing back at the White house and driving Tallahassee up the wall in all new ways.

Outside of the sex, however, Madison's exceedingly dim bulb is increasingly irritating to Columbus.

So who should come back in their lives but Wichita? Seems Little Rock dumped big sis and lit out with a stoner hippie named Berkeley (Avan Jogia: DEVIL'S DIARY, THE DROWNING, GHOST WARS [TV]), and together they are looking for Graceland and Babylon.

Yes, MAD MAX movies gotta have car chases and ZOMBIELANDmovies gotta have road trips. That's just all there is to it.

So off they go to find Little Rock and as they do they will be involved in all manner of hilarious fun and foibles.

Believe me, while ZOMBIELAND is known for its snarky humor, I'm for real. This movie is a hoot!

It works because ZOMBIELAND DOUBLE TAP is self-effacing without being self-referential. In a post apocalyptic world, all the characters come from a horrific place of pain and they all deal with it in their way. Columbus remains the axis by which all the other characters revolve, as he sees people as people first, and their individual flaws and characteristics will just have to be dealt with as best they can, so long as those flaws don't harm their mutual adopted family group.

It's through Columbus that they other opposing characters come to terms with each other.

Wichita is still a manipulative, judgmental thief in the night and Tallahassee is still a temperamental ass-kicking redneck.

There are megawatts of fun and laughter as they come across new people like,

Nevada (Rosario Dawson: LIGHT IT UP, MEN IN BLACK II, SIN CITY [all], DEATH PROOF, EAGLE EYE, GEMINI DIVISION [TV], THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO, PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS, UNSTOPPABLE, RAZE, DAREDEVIL [TV], IRON FIST [TV], THE DEFENDERS [TV], LUKE CAGE [TV]),

Albuquerque (Luke Wilson: SCREAM 2, BAD SEED, SOUL SURVIVORS, VACANCY, HIGH VOLTAGE),

and Flagstaff (Thomas Middleditch: KONG: SKULL ISLAND, GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS).

But there is also the matter of the

!!!SCIENCE MOMENT!!!:
Zombies are evolving thanks to the zombie virus?

Okay, Columbus is supposed to be the well-read loner geek. He's supposed to be knowledgeable about the fundamentals of evolution as well as viruses, and he gets Both Wrong.

Continued at THE SCIENCE MOMENT/Zombieland Double Tap.

All the fun of ZOMBIELAND is back. Our old friends have new stories to tell and ZOMBIELAND DOUBLE TAP is the best road trip you'll ever take inside a theater.

The unexpected re-appearance of Bill Murray is just the cherry on top of the Twinkie!

This much rollicking fun gets all 5 Shriek Girls!

This review copyright 2019 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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