Zombieland: Double Tap

In terms of content, this a clearly bad film. Its schematic, weak and sloppy story about the journey of the characters from point A to point B serves only as a necessary link for a series of comedy sketches and action scenes with zombies, all with fluctuating levels of quality. The film of course copies the first Zombieland, but this time it's all much simpler, more straightforward, more predictable and, overall, somewhat worse in all respects. Moreover, after ten years, the main characters have degraded to annoying one-dimensional caricatures. The film is fully aware that they are unbearable, but rather than doing anything about it, it uses these aspects as a source of humour (and builds a panopticon around them of deliberately annoying and exaggerated, demented side characters consisting of personalized stereotypes, so that the main characters appear more sympathetic to the audience). The film is partly saved by a fairly entertaining level of comedy, and in places by the actors, who obviously enjoyed filming it, which the audience can see. Only every third to fourth joke works, but with the huge cadence of gags, it doesn't matter much. (23/10/2019)

This movie plays it safe and other than the characters being older, don't expect much variation. In a way it's a sympathetic approach, but it would have been even more sympathetic to me if I hadn't found the last film to be an altogether entertaining but also contradictory spectacle that I just couldn't miss. The second Zombieland is better perhaps only in that the vast majority of the most rewarding humor this time rests on the shoulders of Woody Harrelson, who is simply brilliant, and newcomer Zoey Deutch, who wraps everyone around her finger with her endearing portrayal of a less than bright girl. It's the other characters' clashes with her way of "thinking" that entertained me the most (along with the final credits). Not the mashing of the undead with combines and the tired,obligatory finale, nor the hackneyed romance with its predictable conclusion, and certainly not the whole part with Luke Wilson, which was a few completely tone-deaf minutes and a bore to watch. (25/10/2019)

(SPOILER ALERT!) Zombieland offers a very decent intro, you cannot help laughing when you see the film's logo, then slowly but surely it leads to the badass finale, which ends with an incredibly funny tribute to the "unnamed ghostbuster". The second film may have some weaker spots, with too much talking, lecturing, shouting or spitting, but all of that is amply made up for by the large number of action and climactic scenes. The award for funniest character goes to the endearingly goofy "blonde from the freezer", and I was also very amused by the "doppelganger" sequence. In the end, it's a weaker four stars, but I can't say I was bored in the cinema, and that's the most important thing in a comedy. (29/10/2019)

Whereas some lenient reviews assert that the second Zombieland offers essentially the same thing as the first one, that is not entirely true. While watching the film, you repeatedly say to yourself that specific scenes and shots are a variation of something from the first film, whether that is slow-motion splatter shots or the characters pushing each other around. But that is merely just mechanical fan service and thus basically the exact opposite of the very essence of the first Zombieland, which became a sensation in its time because it came up with a fresh approach to zombie flicks and managed to transform them into clever entertainment by means of a detached view and genre reflection. The second film, on the other hand, is shocking in its failure to offer anything fresh or original. It is as if the returning filmmakers had suffered a severe case of dementia over the preceding decade and are thus merely repeating what they did last time. Furthermore, whereas the first film had a certain degree of causality and, above all, it managed to build a functional and coherent world, here everything falls to pieces. The result is an unwanted travesty in which the characters find themselves outside of their world, while the new reality lacks any cohesion (which is most apparent in the absolutely dysfunctional and interchangeable environment of the climax). Everything could almost be saved by claiming that this time the filmmakers came up with a brilliant meta concept which, following the example of typically insipid direct-to-video sequels, offers a deliberately cheaper and more shoddily made variation of the original hit, but nothing in the film indicates such a degree of detachmentand conceptuality. (09/11/2019)

To my own surprise, the sequel after six years was even more fun than the first installment. The plot seemed more coherent, I also liked the calmer part in the White House and I was pleased that the authors cast Zoey Deutch and Rosario Dawson. Oddly enough, I didn't even mind that it was a blatant rip-off of the 2013 film, some scenes almost a carbon copy of the original idea. (05/03/2020)