So, I loved 2009’s Zombieland. I found it largely a clever and hilarious take on Zombie movies with a terrific cast. Amazon tried to do a series based on the film, recasting the characters with lesser known performers and a rather blah pilot episode. I eventually gave up on the idea of ever getting a sequel…and then last year, on the heels of director Ruben Fleisher’s successful but critically maligned Venom, it was announced that a sequel was in the works…and that it would have the central cast returning. But revisiting Zombieland ten years later feels like a risky proposition.
Probably one of the original’s most notable flaws is how it feels like a lot of ideas strung together without a central story. lots of really entertaining sketches. The film still works, just maybe could have used a more centralizing story.
However, while the film begins feeling a bit the same, a cohesive tale and goal for the group comes together. The film adds some very fun new characters, and the jokes really land a good 90% of the time.
I appreciate that they kept a lot of the first film’s visual identity and this film feels like a surprisingly natural follow up to the first. If you enjoyed the first Zombieland, I feel confident you will have a great time with Double Tap.
Written and Directed by Josh Hamburg (most notably the writer of all three Meet the Parents films) addresses a discussion a friend and I were having recently. We were talking about films having familiar plots. My take on this is that I do not generally care if a film has a plot point we “have seen before”. If it does it well? I am not going to be annoyed by it. There are only so many plots, and I cannot think of many films that told a tale that has previously unseen elements. But there is a flip side to this. A story that follows all the familiar points like a rigid map? Rarely is it done well.
Tripping Through Gateways 