"Zombieland" was a hit comedy-action zombie movie back in 2009. This year, 10 years later, here comes a sequel with the same director Ruben Fleischer. The original group of characters, all named after US cities, are back -- Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita and Little Rock, all played by the same actors who had since then all been nominated for an Oscar or even won one. It was subtitled "Double Tap," #2 on Columbus' list of rules to survive a world overrun by zombies, which meant to always shoot a zombie twice to make sure it is dead.
Our main gang of four took over an abandoned White House to hang out after disposing of the zombie horde outside it. Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), now a young lady, decided to hook up with Berkeley, a hippie musician she met on the road going to a blissful zombie-free zone called Babylon. Meanwhile the other three picked up a ditzy new companion, a dumb blonde named Madison and met the sultry kickass Nevada (Rosario Dawson) and her friends in the Elvis-themed Hound Dog motel along their way to reunite with Little Rock at her destination.
From the very start, we will already see zombies graphically killed in all sorts of ways in the first confrontation. After sensibilities have been numbed by that long opening sequence, there would be no more shock as the zombie death toll climbed with nearly every scene that came next, no matter how gory or messy they were. To up the challenge, this sequel featured more bullet-resistant zombies, which they called "T-800," a reference to the "Terminator" movies which Columbus loved. This meant they needed to come up with more imaginative kills against these persistent mutants.
The rest of the time I was just enjoying the crazy comedy offered up the these funny actors. Woody Harrelson (as Tallahassee) and Eisenberg (as Columbus) were a perfect comic tag team (who looked like they did not age in 10 years), with each line they threw practically a punchline. Emma Stone (as Wichita) kept right up there with them with her dry sarcastic wit. Zoey Deutch was a riot in pink as wacky bimbo Madison. Avan Jogia's best scene as hippie Berkeley had something to do with weed. Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch (as Albuquerque and Flagstaff) were hilarious in being uncanny carbon copies.
This sequel actually followed the same format and spirit from the original movie, with Columbus narrating the story, laying out his rules and naming the "Zombie Kill of the Week". Both stories also involved a road trip across states, fighting off zombies en route to reach a safe haven. This was Pacific Playland amusement park in Los Angeles in the first movie, and pacifist hippie commune Babylon in this sequel. Bill Murray, who was a celebrity cameo in the first movie, also makes a flashback-type appearance in this one, so do not leave right away as the end credits roll. This was still very much the entertaining gross-out zombie film we enjoyed 10 years ago, and then some. 7/10.
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