Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)

Ten years is a long time to wait for a sequel, and somewhere in that gap, whatever made the original so special seems to have got lost in transit. I had a great time with Zombieland. It was sharp, it was funny, it had a genuinely fresh energy at a moment when the zombie genre was starting to feel very tired. So coming back to this world with the same cast, the same director, and presumably a decent budget should have felt like a reunion worth having. Instead, Zombieland: Double Tap feels more like bumping into an old mate who's lost a bit of their spark. Not unpleasant, just a bit flat.

The returning four still have chemistry, that much is undeniable. You can tell these people actually like each other, and that warmth bleeds through even when the script gives them nothing particularly interesting to do. The problem is the script gives them very little that's interesting to do. New characters are wheeled in, take up screen time, and then sort of hover around without ever properly landing. There's a sense that someone decided more equals better, when actually what made the first film work was its tight, scrappy focus.

Woody Harrelson is still the MVP, obviously. He could sleepwalk through this kind of material and still be the most watchable person on screen, and here he's clearly giving it something even when the film around him isn't earning it. There are moments where he gets a good line, delivers it with that loose, grinning ease he has, and you catch a glimpse of what this could have been. Then the scene ends and you're back in the bloat.

Because bloated is the word. The pacing is all over the place. It lurches between set pieces without much connective tissue, and the new characters feel like they've been added to tick boxes rather than because anyone had a genuinely exciting idea for them. Comedy sequels live and die by escalation, and the best ones find ways to raise the stakes while deepening what you already loved. This one mostly just raises the volume.

To be fair to it, the zombie kills are creative. The effects are slicker than the original, and some of the action sequences are legitimately well put together. The cameos are goofy fun in the way that only a film with this much goodwill can get away with. And it's watchable. I want to be clear about that, because "watchable" sounds like faint praise but I mean it genuinely: this isn't a bad film, it's just a mediocre one. There's a difference, and it matters. You won't be bored, exactly. You just won't be particularly engaged either.

It reminded me a bit of how I felt about Venom, actually. Films that are easy enough to sit through, where you can see the pieces of something enjoyable scattered around, but where the whole never quite adds up to what it should. You finish them and shrug, and that shrug is its own kind of verdict.

If you loved the original and you're curious, sure, give it a watch. The cast alone makes it worth an evening. But go in with your expectations calibrated properly. This isn't a worthy follow-up so much as a reasonable way to revisit characters you like, set to a script that never quite finds its footing. The charm is dulled. The energy that felt so fresh first time round has settled into something comfortable and a little too safe.

Two and a half stars.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 2019  | Watched: 2025-07-20

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Where to watch

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