Zomebieland 2: Double Tap ★★
THE difference between 2009’s Zombieland and its sequel a decade later can be summed up in the Bill Murray cameos.
In the original film Murray’s cameo was a stroke of genius, very funny and slotted perfectly into the overall narrative.
On the other hand, his post-credits cameo in Zombieland 2: Double Tap is pointless, unfunny and bears no relationship to the story.
And that almost equates to the entire sequel which doesn’t do anything other than re-visit the same characters and introduce a couple of new ones.
It’s a film created with little thought other than making enough money to warrant a third outing. Like so many sequels these days it is built on familiarity and repetition.
When we meet the survivors from the original film – Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) – they seems to have been simnply spinning their wheels for I’m not sure how long the passage of time is meant to be.
Columbus wants to marry Wichita but she doesn’t see much point in a post-apocalyptic world mainly populated by walking dead and Little Rock is bored and wants to move on.
After 10-15 minutes of average dialogue and over-acting by all four actors, the two women do indeed move on in the dead of night. Columbus’s reaction to the woman he has just proposed to leaving withut notice is to sleep with the very next woman who comes along.
Her name is Madison, played by Australian Zoey Deutch, and she may be the most annoying character I have seen in a film for some years.
Anyway, eventually everyone joins up again, there are reconciliations and a big fight with more computer generated yet still unrealistic blood and gore effects.
This film should have been much better considering the cast, which also includes Luke Wilson and Rosario Dawson, and the facts it has a reasonable director and writers whose previous credits include the two Deadpool movies.
Unfortunately not only does the script fail but the cast seem to know it and react accordingly.