Zombieland: Double Tap (Fleischer) 2019

If you're looking for more of what made the first film enjoyable ten years ago, you'll get exactly what you're looking for in this sequel. If, on the other hand, you're looking for great plot and character development, you'll be sorely disappointed.

I've made it abundantly clear on this site that I am no real fan of horror films in general. My recent exceptions to this include Get Out and the original Zombieland. (There may be more, but that's the list I can think of right now.) Of course, upon further reflection, I don't really think of Zombieland as a horror film. It's a comedy set in a post-apocalyptic zombie-ridden world where a few people manage to survive, despite sometimes doing really stupid things to attract zombies.

In this sequel, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) are all back, having taken up residence in the biggest house they can find...the White House. When Little Rock and Wichita take off, leaving the boys alone at 1600 Pennsylvania avenue, they must set off to find them and save their friends.

Along the way, we are introduced to a new cast of zombie survivors including the dim-witted Madison (Zoey Deutch), pot-head Berkeley (Avan Jogia), and bad-ass hotel owner Nevada (Rosario Dawson). We also learn more about the zombies themselves and the different categories they fall into from the bumbling Homer (as in Simpson) to the new breed of super zombies dubbed the T-800s after Arnold Schwarzenegger's original Terminator. One thing that is never fully explained is how the zombies are evolving after all these years, and beyond that, how do they continue to multiply as the world population dwindles through death or becoming zombies themselves.

Again, the film isn't big on plot, it IS a zombie movie in the end. The returning gags are funny, and the way the characters play against one another, often coming dangerously close to breaking the 4th wall, is fun and I found myself laughing out loud in several places. I wouldn't be sad to see one of these films released every ten years so we can check in on how the team is surviving in the zombie world.

6 out of 10

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