Throwback Thursday/New Release Double Feature - Zombieland (2009) and Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)
Hey guys, Chuck here. Happy Halloween. Today, for the first time, I'll be posting a Throwback Thursday AND a review of a new release in the same post. For today, I went to see Zombieland: Double Tap, and so I decided to pair my review of it with a review of the original Zombieland.
Zombieland was released in 2009 and was a surprise hit. The film starred Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. The story follows four survivors of the zombie apocalypse, as they travel across the country, avoiding the hordes of the undead, and searching for just one Twinkie (it'll make sense when you watch the movie). A lot of what I like about the movie is the interactions between the four leads. Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg as Tallahassee and Columbus are both hysterical in the way that they bounce off each other, and Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin as Wichita and Little Rock actually felt like they could be sisters in real life, they were that good. I also enjoyed some of the other performances from the likes of Amber Heard as 406, Columbus' neighbor who turns into the first zombie he has to kill, and Bill Murray as himself in a hilarious appearance. I also like how the zombies all looked real, especially in an age where CGI has taken over everything (looking at YOU World War Z), it's great to have real actors in zombie makeup looking gruesome and disgusting. This movie also was instrumental in making zombies cool again, as without movies like this, Shaun of the Dead (which this movie has bee compared to multiple times), and so forth, we probably wouldn't have gotten franchises like Z Nation and The Walking Dead. So overall, I love Zombieland, and looking back at it ten years later, it still holds up as a must-watch every Halloween. Not to mention that the film's writers, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, went on to write the screenplays for movies like G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Deadpool, while the film's director, Ruben Fleischer, would direct last years surprise comic book hit, Venom. I give Zombieland a rating of 5/5.
Zombieland: Double Tap, released ten years later, sees the return of all four leads from the original, as well as new characters plated by Avan Jogia, Zoey Deutch, Rosario Dawson and so forth. In this chapter, set ten years later, Columbus, Tallahassee, and the gang arrive at the White House and begin to settle down. However, they hit the road again when Little Rock takes off and meets a hippie named Berkeley, played by Avan Jogia. Along the way, they encounter a complete airhead named Madison, played by Zoey Deutch, a badass named Nevada, played by Rosario Dawson, and a horde of evolved zombies nicknamed T-800's (again, it'll make sense when you watch the movie). Once again the action and the humor are a lot of fun, and the original foursome still bounce off each other as seamlessly as they did in the original ten years ago. While I feel it was definitely worth the ten year wait, and a lot of the new elements, including the Hound Dog Motel (located near Graceland), a hippie commune called Babylon, and all the fun zombie kills, unfortunately there are some parts of the movie that feel very been-there-done-that, which is an unfortunate drawback, but it was still a lot of fun. I also really enjoyed the characters of Albuquerque and Flagstaff, played by Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch, who are practically identical in every way to Tallahassee and Columbus. There are also two after-credits scenes (which is getting to be very common in movies now, thanks to Marvel), the first of which is set at the start of the zombie outbreak, in which Bill Murray (as himself) is being interviewed for a fictitious Garfield 3 by the likes of Al Roker, Josh Horowitz, and one of my favorite YouTube movie review personalities, Grace Randolph. So, definitely stick around for that. All in all, while Zombieland: Double Tap was a lot more been-there-done-that with just a touch of new elements, as well as the lack of that out-of-nowhere surprise that the original had, I definitely feel that it was worth the ten-year wait. I had a lot of fun with it, and I do recommend going to see it. I give Zombieland: Double Tap a rating 4.75/5.
Hope you guys have a great Halloween. This is Chuck signing off. See you guys next time.
Zombieland was released in 2009 and was a surprise hit. The film starred Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. The story follows four survivors of the zombie apocalypse, as they travel across the country, avoiding the hordes of the undead, and searching for just one Twinkie (it'll make sense when you watch the movie). A lot of what I like about the movie is the interactions between the four leads. Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg as Tallahassee and Columbus are both hysterical in the way that they bounce off each other, and Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin as Wichita and Little Rock actually felt like they could be sisters in real life, they were that good. I also enjoyed some of the other performances from the likes of Amber Heard as 406, Columbus' neighbor who turns into the first zombie he has to kill, and Bill Murray as himself in a hilarious appearance. I also like how the zombies all looked real, especially in an age where CGI has taken over everything (looking at YOU World War Z), it's great to have real actors in zombie makeup looking gruesome and disgusting. This movie also was instrumental in making zombies cool again, as without movies like this, Shaun of the Dead (which this movie has bee compared to multiple times), and so forth, we probably wouldn't have gotten franchises like Z Nation and The Walking Dead. So overall, I love Zombieland, and looking back at it ten years later, it still holds up as a must-watch every Halloween. Not to mention that the film's writers, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, went on to write the screenplays for movies like G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Deadpool, while the film's director, Ruben Fleischer, would direct last years surprise comic book hit, Venom. I give Zombieland a rating of 5/5.
Zombieland: Double Tap, released ten years later, sees the return of all four leads from the original, as well as new characters plated by Avan Jogia, Zoey Deutch, Rosario Dawson and so forth. In this chapter, set ten years later, Columbus, Tallahassee, and the gang arrive at the White House and begin to settle down. However, they hit the road again when Little Rock takes off and meets a hippie named Berkeley, played by Avan Jogia. Along the way, they encounter a complete airhead named Madison, played by Zoey Deutch, a badass named Nevada, played by Rosario Dawson, and a horde of evolved zombies nicknamed T-800's (again, it'll make sense when you watch the movie). Once again the action and the humor are a lot of fun, and the original foursome still bounce off each other as seamlessly as they did in the original ten years ago. While I feel it was definitely worth the ten year wait, and a lot of the new elements, including the Hound Dog Motel (located near Graceland), a hippie commune called Babylon, and all the fun zombie kills, unfortunately there are some parts of the movie that feel very been-there-done-that, which is an unfortunate drawback, but it was still a lot of fun. I also really enjoyed the characters of Albuquerque and Flagstaff, played by Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch, who are practically identical in every way to Tallahassee and Columbus. There are also two after-credits scenes (which is getting to be very common in movies now, thanks to Marvel), the first of which is set at the start of the zombie outbreak, in which Bill Murray (as himself) is being interviewed for a fictitious Garfield 3 by the likes of Al Roker, Josh Horowitz, and one of my favorite YouTube movie review personalities, Grace Randolph. So, definitely stick around for that. All in all, while Zombieland: Double Tap was a lot more been-there-done-that with just a touch of new elements, as well as the lack of that out-of-nowhere surprise that the original had, I definitely feel that it was worth the ten-year wait. I had a lot of fun with it, and I do recommend going to see it. I give Zombieland: Double Tap a rating 4.75/5.
Hope you guys have a great Halloween. This is Chuck signing off. See you guys next time.
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