Zombieland: Double Tap

Zombieland knows that coming back ten years later brings with it a sense of anticipation, but also cynicism, and this is addressed as soon as Columbus picks up the narration as if nothing has changed at all.

It’s the sequel long wished for but fans were sceptical given Director Ruben Fleischer’s diminishing returns since the cult classic first movie. Fortunately, Zombieland: Double Tap largely delivers on the anticipation and will leave a warm feeling for any fans of the first film.

Fleischer largely keeps to the same winning formula as the first gifting us a second, fairly linear and rote road trip story but one which enables us to just enjoy being with these fantastic characters again. Bringing the four back together is, understandably, the film’s masterstroke and they slot into the roles like a second skin despite the Oscar nods and critical kudos they’ve gathered since then.

Ostensibly, the film revolves around the gang tracking down Little Rock who leaves their adopted home of The White House (because, why not?) on a whim to try and find other survivors her own age. This leaves a sprinkling of new, human characters to contend with as the mythology of the wider world of Zombieland begins to open up a little.

The new characters bring some funnies but are frustratingly one-note. Zoey Deutch’s Madison and Rosario Dawson’s Nevada are the pick of the bunch, Deutch deserving particularly praise for taking what could, on paper, be an old-fashioned and annoying butt of the joke and elevating the character to such a level that you’ll be left wanting to know more about her backstory.

The film knows its audience and is smart about how it plays to them. There are extensive Easter Eggs to the wider zombie genre as a whole (dig that Walking Dead put-down) as well as to the first film. They’re never dumbed down or blatantly signposted (Columbus still only seems to drink Mountain Dew Code Red, Tallahassee still paints a ‘3’ on the side of their vehicles) and, sometimes, they even go above and beyond the original movie: the ‘rules’ of Zombieland still pop up on screen and are used extensively as visual jokes and we get to glimpse a ‘Zombie Kill Of The Year’ from Italy which might just be the best onscreen zombie death you’ll ever see.

Sure, the film doesn’t change the game like its predecessor or try to be anything more than a loving piece of fan service but when so many sequels and reboots can’t even do this satisfactorily then Double Tap should get some praise.

Any time spent with these characters in Zombieland is time well spent (and please, PLEASE, stick around for a mid-credits scene for the ages) so, whilst Double Tap comes back into the world like the undead it depicts, it’s anything but a zombie.

4 stars ****