Listen Here
By: Dylan Frazier
Email: frazierd@findlay,edu
Twitter: @dylanfrazier44
The year was 2009, gas prices were through the roof, Obama just took office, and iPod Touches were the coolest thing ever made. We also began to see the first wave of zom-coms (zombie comedies) come out and very few had the acclaim that Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland had. With its gruesome gore and great humor, it was my first rated-R movie I had ever seen, I was 12 back then and I loved every second of it. Now let’s fast-forward 10 years, I am 22 and in college (not to brag), Tom Brady has ruined my life, and now the sequel to Zombieland has come out. While Zombieland: Double Tap seems like it’s a little overdue and maybe unnecessary, it more than makes up for that with its great cast and great humor makes for a great time at the movie theater.
The story picks up where the first one left off, we follow Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and their battle of fighting off zombies and being a dysfunctional family. Much like the first one, Wichita and Little Rock run off from Columbus and Tallahassee, only to come back. Only this time, Little Rock leaves Wichita. So, Wichita, Columbus, and Tallahassee go on the road to find her. With many bumps in the road, and don’t forget the zombies, it makes for a great road trip.
The first thing that comes to mind was Harrelson and Eisenberg’s scenes together, much like the first one, they were the best parts of the movie. The blend of Eisenberg’s quirkiness and Harrelson’s redneck mantra work so well again. I was laughing out loud several times because of the interactions these two had throughout the movie.
That’s not a knock against Emma Stone either because she was hilarious, maybe even more so in this one than the first one. Her one-liners and sarcastic comebacks were so funny and helped make you really feel like you were watching a dysfunctional family take a road trip across the country.
The only thing that was bad, and it’s really not even bad, was that Breslin isn’t in it very long at all. I really enjoyed her in the first one, serving as the innocent kid who got thrown into the zombie apocalypse, but she’s only in the movie for about 20 minutes. The 20 minutes she had were great, but I wish we could have seen the big four all together more than we did. The movie is at its strongest when they’re all together.
I really wasn’t looking forward to this, mostly because I didn’t want it to ruin the first one for me because I love the first one a ton. Thankfully, Zombieland: Double Tap is a great complement to the cult classic and I think if you like the first one, you’ll really enjoy this.
SCORE: 83/100
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