Zombieland: Double Tap Movie Review

Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)

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Written by: Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick and Dave Callaham, Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick (based on characters created by)
Directed by: Ruben Fleischer
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Zoey Deutch, Rosario Dawson, Luke Wilson, Thomas Middleditch
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock move to the American heartland as they face off against evolved zombies, fellow survivors, and the growing pains of the snarky makeshift family.

Verdict
Most of the movie is improbable, from their survival to plot progression. It's irreverent and wants to be funny, but it never escapes the feeling this is a sequel, coasting on the original, and released just to make money. The plot feels like a bunch of ideas, but they're never cohesive. There is a lot of opportunity for this movie to be funny that this completely misses. It seems like a rough draft of ideas.
Skip it.

Review
This is a sequel to the 2009 movie, Zombieland. The fun begins before the movie starts, during the production logo the Columbia lady fights off zombies with her torch.

This breaks the fourth wall in the opening voice over. The movie wants to be irreverent and funny, making fun of zombie movies to a degree, but it gets lost with a lot of unconnected ideas.

Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone play Tallahasse, Columbus, Wichita

Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) find a new house. I wondered how this place still had electricity. It's clear we're around ten years after the first movie so infrastructure should be non-existent. Where do they get fuel? How do they charge batteries? Eventually we get a throwaway line about electricity and how the rain keeps filling the dams, but that is a joke this movie could fully address with some silly explanations and doesn't. This dispenses with the difficulties of a post apocalypse setting and coasts on the premise. It could either address it or make fun of it.

This introduces a pacifist, Berkeley (Avan Jogia). Of course we wonder how he's survived this long. The movie could get very silly with that, but again doesn't. Instead Columbus interjects throughout the movie with zombie kills of the year. There's no communication or communication infrastructure in this world. He wouldn't know about these kills. These kills would be better served if the protagonists committed them during the course of the movie. At one point a combine runs over a zombie and makes a hay bale. Combines aren't hay balers.

Columbus mentions new zombie variants. This would have worked much better if he introduced them as the group encountered them. One variant he mentions in the beginning of the movie is never seen by us or them.

Abigail Breslin, Jesse Eisenberg, Rosario Dawson, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson play
Little Rock, Columbus, Nevada, Wichita, Tallahassee

Half way in I thought this might be a road trip movie where they meet various characters. It isn't that exactly. Columbus inextricably meets someone new in a shopping mall. The movie could lean into the improbability of this. Instead Madison (Zoey Deutch) is introduced just for plot drama. They also meet Nevada (Rosario Dawson) who runs a seemingly pointless hotel.

Little Rock was a child when the apocalypse hit and wants to experience everything she missed. The movie does so little with that. She runs away and despite her huge lead, the group catches up to her easily.

So little in this movie makes sense. It could lampshade it and make a joke about it, but doesn't. That's how this could get around the numerous unbelievable items in the plot. There are many opportunities for this movie to be funnier upon which it fails to capitalize. Many of the jokes we do get feel thrown in with no relevance to the plot. This could be a much more cohesive movie. I remember the first one being better while still being irreverent. Has the proliferation of zombie properties dulled the impact? I would guess the problem is that his movie feels, and likely is, thrown together. The script is more of a rough draft.