Review: Zombieland: Double Tap

Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

As is the case with most sequels, "Zombieland: Double Tap" doesn't have any real reason - or need - to exist. The original film by Ruben Fleischer was an amusing enough horror comedy that mostly worked due to the casting - pairing a wisecracking, gun toting Woody Harrelson with a nebbish sidekick (Jesse Eisenberg) and two sisters (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) who can take care of themselves against a horde of flesh eating zombies.

This sequel picks up some time later and the only real development is that a new strain of zombie - who is compared to the central villain of "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" - is making life more challenging for the survivors. Otherwise, "Double Tap" is mostly an excuse to get the gang back together for more wisecracks, exploding zombie heads and retreads of old jokes. It has its moments, but this sequel is mostly forgettable.

As the film opens, the central four characters are living in the abandoned White House. Tallahassee (Harrelson) seems to want to move out on his own, while Columbus (Eisenberg) has proposed to Wichita (Stone), causing her to panic and flee with her sister, Little Rock (Breslin), who is being suffocated by Tallahassee's overbearing fatherly ways.

In other words, their flight is merely an excuse to thrust the four characters back out into the world and fight more zombies. Along the way, they pick up a slew of new characters, most of whom are completely unnecessary to the story and exist merely to either be picked off or be the butt of running jokes, most of which aren't that funny.

Zoey Deutch has the unfortunate task of portraying Madison, a ditzy blonde who Tallahassee and Columbus discover in a shopping mall. Her utter cluelessness is meant to be funny, but the joke never goes much further than "look at this airhead." Even less necessary is a pair portrayed by Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch, whose behavior and partnership is meant to be the mirror image of that of Tallahassee and Columbus. This new pair only exists to provide exasperation to Wichita and their onscreen time culminates in a silly fight.

Even worse is a hippy character (Avan Jogia) who claims Bob Dylan and Lynyrd Skynyrd songs as his own, and convinces Little Rock to run off with him to a nonviolent commune known as Babylon, where the film's final scenes take place. The only remotely interesting new character is a woman (Rosario Dawson) who oversees an Elvis Presley museum, of sorts, near Graceland, although those scenes exist merely to set up a bunch of Elvis-related jokes. A modestly amusing cameo during the credits is the film's only genuine surprise.

"Double Tap" isn't necessarily a bad movie. It has a few laughs, it's competently made and all involved appear to be having fun with it (possibly more so than the audience). But there's not much of a reason to exist, other than some studio head thinking that a sequel to a fairly popular, decade-old cult movie could bring in some money. Those wanting a retread of the original will likely have a good time, but "Double Tap" otherwise offers little else.