Zombieland: Double Tap
ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP - Sony Pictures Entertainment
It has been ten years since the last Zombieland instalment back in 2009 — a film that long promised a follow-up that never seemed to come to fruition even with a faux Amazon series cancelled before it even started. In the meantime, Zombieland has entered into a sort of cult status for a generation, but director Ruben Fleischer has always remained confident these characters and world would return. After his box office success with Venom (another SONY property), it has all but handed him the keys to the kingdom to continue with his beloved franchise in Zombieland: Double Tap. Nevertheless, has the ten-year wait been worth it? Absolutely not.
Zombieland: Double Tap is as cheap, hollow and uneventful as they come. Evoking a strong sense of direct-to-DVD sequel syndrome for a simple cash grab on nostalgia rather than a legitimate follow-up of exploring these beloved characters. The charisma and chemistry are nonexistent, with the humour often falling flat in a screenplay that, granted, does conduct a meta 2009 approach but fails to incite any entertainment value or comedic sentimentality.
The performances are arguably the film’s greatest strength, but undeniably dull with the actors all sleepwalking through production. Jessie Eisenberg as Columbus is most entertaining and pure of intent. However, its strictly classic Eisenberg shtick that does not feel too different from his usual output. Emma Stone looks nothing short of bored throughout and is given only a small amount of material to work with in a sarcastic back and forth with newcomer Zoey Deutch as Madison that grates more than it entertains, and a tiny amount of laughably bad material to develop with her and Eisbengerg's character that leads to nothing.
Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee arguably has most of the film’s time in terms of development but fails to travel or converse into anything with substance, especially his on-screen relationship with Abigail Breslin, who is not only absent from the title credit screen with her co-stars but is mostly absent from the entire project on the whole. Given a redundant story arc as ultra conventional and wooden as they come, Breslin — an academy award-nominated actor bare in mind — is given absolutely nothing to provide in the entire feature that evolves or deepens the development of all four characters.
It looks and sounds equally as sub-par as the rest of the film. The cinematography by Chung-hoon Chung is terrible throughout, always overly tight without much flexibility condensing the picture into a claustrophobic experience with the film crying out for some wide angles to show scope. Composer David Sardy also fails to enlighten or inject any layers of audible prowess with a score that bumbles along with no imagination or atmosphere. All in all, making an already blunderous sequel all the more disappointing and flat.
Zombieland: Double Tap is released October 18, 2019.
