Movie Breakdown: Zombieland: Double Tap (Noah)
Pre-Screening Ramble:
On rewatch, Zombieland is a toneless mess hung on the scraps of a single good joke. Where I believed a more recent viewing of the film would set me in the proper state of mind for its sequel, I am now morose that I have to spend two hours in a theater with it.
Post-Screening Ramble:
Zombieland: Double Tap is, somehow, an improvement on the first Zombieland. It is the rare sequel that instead of deluding the qualities of its predecessor with bombast and budget, it uses it as a launching pad for an altogether more enjoyable film. Every aspect of the first film that feels listless and difficult to consume, feels fully baked in the second. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (now of Deadpool and Venom fame) are better writers and this film is stronger because of the experience brought. Sure, Jesse Eisenberg is still unintentionally creepy and entirely unbelievable as the source of sexual desire for not one but two women and Woody Harrelson leans way too hard on a character that isn’t much more than a man-with-cowboy-hat-who-likes-guns, but their interactions are actually entertaining. The introduction of Zoey Deutch as a sorority bimbo who gets between Emma Stone’s Wichita and Eisenberg’s Columbus is a masterstroke, and Deutch continues to be one of the more interesting up-and-comers around. Double Tap is not a great film, or a great comedy, but it is enough of an improvement on the original, a good enough time spent with fairly likable characters that when the credits rolled (and maybe it was the low key odor of vape smoke curling out in wisps from the man seated behind me), I thought, “I’d probably watch a third.” And in ten years when I go back for a double (tap) rewatch, I’ll probably rue those words. But tonight, in this moment, with the thought of Jesse Eisenberg having sex with a woman still burnt into my brain – I’m sticking with it.
One Last Thought:
The introduction of Las Vegas (Rosario Dawson) and Madison (Zoey Deutch) forces the film to sideline Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin and honestly, I barely noticed.
