Zombieland: Double Tap

With this bunch (including the pink blonde), you wouldn’t be bored even if they just stood around talking at a bus stop. Even so, the screenwriters of the second Zombieland didn’t exactly overwork themselves. The film is a road movie with three stops where something happens just for a moment of amusement, not for moving some elaborate story forward, much less for enriching genre conventions. Even the imaginative pacifist smelting of weapons in Babylon was spoiled by the silly solution of the final problem with the zombie army. It’s okay for watching once, though. (11/26/2019)

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. (10/25/2019)

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. (03/05/2020)

The same thing as the first one, really. An entertaining premise and a couple of good formal ideas elaborated into the rumble of the four (five) likeable characters that doesn’t result in anything original. The great cast carry the film on their shoulders again, Flescher adds a few functional ideas, plus a couple of cameos to make things more interesting, and the viewer can kick-back and relax. And even though neither the characters nor the world go anywhere in the end, it’s impossible not to acknowledge that this innocent zombie silliness works surprisingly well – and like the previous, it deserves a strong 3*. (12/24/2019)

(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. (10/29/2019)