Zombieland: 10 Years Later

With all due respect to ‘Shaun of the Dead,’ the 2009 box office hit ‘Zombieland’ has to be my favorite zom-com (or zomedy) movie, combining an oddball menagerie of zombie apocalypse survivors – named after various American cities – on a roadtrip and the real-life Bill Murray into a hilarious smorgasbord of undead-killing fun that ended appropriately at a Southern California amusement park.  So when its planned sequel ‘Zombieland: Double Tap’ finally hit theaters exactly 10 years later, I immediately hitched up for a second ride.

 

In sync with the long wait, ‘Double Tap’ takes place 10 years after the original as cowboy Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), nerd Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and resourceful sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) travel back across the American wasteland to take residence in the White House.  The foursome split up when the girls left, but was eventually reunited by circumstances after Little Rock took off with a hippie musician (Berkeley) to the promised land, a safe haven and hippie commune called Babylon.  Bill Murray is sorely missed in this sequel as he was mistook for a real zombie and killed by Columbus in the first film (stick around for the end credits though), but the group took a detour to “Graceland” (Tallahassee loves Elvis) and met tough-as-nails Nevada (Rosario Dawson).  A fifth survivor, the dumb blonde Madison (Zoey Deutch), also tacked on with the group and provided some great comedic moments.

 

If you, like me, enjoyed the original ‘Zombieland,’ you will find much to like in this second go‑round.  Part roadtrip comedy and part travelogue, ‘Double Tap’ holds up well compared to its predecessor and does not disappoint. It's a movie about zombies, yes, but it's ultimately about a dysfunctional family who may bicker now and then but look out for each other because that’s what a family does to survive a zombie apocalypse with ever evolving strains of undead like the new “T-800” super zombies.

Grade: A