My 2022 Filmmaking Journey

 Zombieland: Double Tap | Movie Review

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Cast: Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Rosario Dawson

Duration: 1hr 39min

Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video

Zombieland: Double Tap is the sequel to it's predecessor Zombieland (2009) and Ruben Fleischer returns to direct this film. The characters have several rules and regulations to follow, in order to survive the now apocalyptic and desolated world where civilization has collapsed and society as we know it is nothing but chaos. Their second rule happens to be "Double Tap" which makes this film the second in the franchise.

We see our characters, now a sort of dysfunctional family finding a home while gleefully killing zombies, the obvious antagonistic forces in this franchise. It's portrayal of it's several rules as the text appears on screen reacting to the action taking place is pretty inventive and creative. Eventually, they settle in the White House and expectedly make a mess out of esteemed structure. "Tallahassee" played hilariously by Woody Harrelson and "Little Rock" played by Abigail Breslin have a sort of father-daughter relationship. But although Tallahassee means well, he may seem a little overprotective which causes Little rock to eventually leave them. While we still continue the relationship between Wichita and Columbus. Columbus proposes to Wichita and she doesn't have anything to say because it hit her all of a sudden. But as we know, by the climax of the film, they will eventually get married. Which is sweet and all sure, but expectedly predictable. 

The 2 sisters, Wichita and Little Rock leave Columbus and Tallahassee on their own journey. This causes Columbus to be upset and Tallahassee reacting to Columbus' complaining is incredibly funny. But he partially gets over it after meeting "Madison" played by Zoey Deutch, who knowingly is an extremely annoying character as she is a caricature of the teenagers of this generation. The emotional friction between Columbus and Wichita is used for comedic purposes and it works as it made me laugh.

Little Rock runs away with a "Pacifist Hippie" who Tallahassee hates, and they run away with his fancy car filled with weaponry who Tallahassee felt a connection with. The plot is about them trying to find Little Rock for her safety among this dangerous world. The introduction of the "T-800" zombies is solely to increase the stakes because they don't die easily which makes the struggle harder. 

The movie as a whole is light hearted with elements of bloody violence and dark humour in it. The dialogues are hilarious but nothing that stands out. The climax is point of high tension as the characters find new ways to get rid of the zombies without the use of guns or heavy artillery for they had been melted and everything ends with a neat bow and predictably. 

But I wish it had taken risks and done something different and unexpected like killing off a main character to increase the stakes or for bringing in emotional conflict and not for the sake of shock value.

This is an extremely enjoyable movie for sure with good performances. But feels like a Hollywood product instead of a story from a Visionary filmmaker which drags it down for me slightly. 

- 3.5/5

Thank You for reading my first blog. Hope you liked it and are looking forward to more of them. Please feel free to express your thoughts on the film and any suggestions for me. Have a good day!