The year was 2012. I had recently just come out as a cinema snob. The only problem was how anti-blockbuster I was. If movies weren't made pre-1980 or lacked any sort of artistic value, I shunned them entirely as the populist trash they were. My catholic youth group had just started a movie night, and the first movie they were to show in October of that year was Zombieland. I hummed and hawed as I sat down to watch the movie. How I could possibly enjoy a movie that was nominated for 0 Oscars, or was not on the IMDb Top 250? What I found instead was a surprisingly heart-warming, laugh out loud action comedy that changed my mind entirely about studio movies. I have revised my favorite all-time movie list more than a dozen times since then and Zombieland is a constant placeholder.
Seven years later, I walked into a theater showing Zombieland: Double Tap. I still had equal if not more reservations about the movie. Usually comedic sequels are absolutely awful, especially ones made 10 years removed from the original source. I also thought of the ill-fated Zombieland TV series, which never made it past pilot as one of the original Prime series. After all of this doubt, I have to say that once again, a Zombieland movie pleasantly surprised me.
I want to stress one point: Zombieland: Double Tap is not a superior film to the original by any means. However, it is able to stand on its own wihout falling into classic sequel tropes. Of course there are more characters than our original heroes Tallahassee, Little Rock, Wichita, and Columbus. These new characters operate well as comedic foils while letting the main characters shine. This is especially true of Madison, (Zoey Deutch) a dim-witted yet gorgeous woman who has somehow survived the zombie apocalypse.
Though it was not as perfectly executed as the original, the comedic aspects of the film were hilarious. It had a fair amount of callbacks for Zombieland's cult following, without being over saturated in nostalgia. Having the original director and screenwriters return for sequels help carry ideas across movies, which Double Tap does. The film is also able to maintain the heart of feel-good dimensions that the first one demonstrated well. My only wish was that there was a little more zombie killing within the film, and a little less dramatic storytelling. I missed some of the cartoonish gore and disturbing kills of the first film.
As far as comedy sequels go, I feel as if Zombieland: Double Tap is one of the best. It is tightly packed, funny, sentimental, and a hell of a lot of fun. I enjoyed the movie from beginning to its absolute end. Be sure and stay around for two of the greatest post-credits sequences in the history of film. Seriously, it puts Marvel to shame.
Grade: (7/10)
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