On the Double

When it comes to pop culture, I was feeling a little bit of "zombie fatigue," which is why I didn't rush out to see Zombieland: Double Tap when it released in theaters. I liked the original well enough (quite a bit, actually), but it took me a month or so to wade through other movies that felt like a higher priority.

In that time, I also rewatched the original Zombieland again. It's totally unnecessary to do this, in terms of "continuity." Nuance is not Zombieland's thing; there really isn't much you need to know from the first movie to see the second. But I did find it good to watch the first film again in terms of calibrating expectations. In the many years since I'd seen Zombieland, I'd slowly convinced myself that it was "all time great," like on my Top 100 Movie list great. Watching it again, that's really not the case. It's quite enjoyable, but my original review had pegged it right to call it an A-. It's good, just not as good as I remembered.

That set me up to find Zombieland: Double Tap better than I'd anticipated. First and foremost, it succeeds at being "more of what you loved," and that actually sets the baseline pretty high. Quippy Woody Harrelson, neurotic Jesse Eisenberg, badass Emma Stone, snide Abigail Breslin -- they're all here. And it's been long enough since we saw these characters last that it feels pretty good to see them again.

The sequel does a great job of checking the most fun boxes from the first movie -- the survival rules of Columbus, the showpiece "Zombie Kill," the wanton destructive moments and over-the-top violence, the slow-motion opening credits sequence, and wall-to-wall sarcasm. But the movie isn't just a repackaged "greatest hits album." And indeed, the new additions are generally the highlights of the movie.

There are a number of new cast members. Zoey Deutch is hilariously obnoxious as Madison, kind of the last person you'd want to find in an apocalypse, and a great tool for stirring things up among the veteran characters. Rosario Dawson is pretty much always great, and is no exception here as Nevada, a no-nonsense survivor our heroes encounter out on the road. Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch also show up to fantastic comedic effect in the middle of the movie.

For being a comedy first and foremost, Double Tap actually takes the action quite seriously. There are a number of great set pieces sprinkled throughout. One in particular is the movie's real show-stopper, an elaborate sequence designed to appear as a single take. It travels through multiple rooms (generating tons of visual interest along the way), involves six characters, features a number of great stunts (including some I can only assume were achieved with digital face replacement for the actors -- but it's seamless enough that I'm really not sure), and plenty of camera trickery to hide the cuts. It's a great sequence even if you don't pick up on the filming techniques at play, and even more impressive if you do.

This is also a "stay at least partway through the credits" kind of a movie -- but one that's definitely worth it if you do. That's about all I can say on that.

Zombieland: Double Tap is a solid B+. Perhaps not quite as good as the original, but still absolutely worth seeing if you liked the first one.