Zombieland: Double Tap – 2019
Despite a raft of friendly “You won’t like it,” warnings, the type of movies I’m most willing to chance are those campy, preposterous, outrageous films that hit the big screen on $5 Tuesdays. With that shameless criteria, Fandango, take me away! Destination Tallahassee (redneck Woody Harrelson), Columbus (nerdy Jesse Eisenberg), Wichita (unflappable Emma Stone), Little Rock (lonely Abigail Breslin) and Madison (airhead Zoey Deutch). The national countryside is a swath of decay and rubble starting with the abandoned White House that our ragtag Zombie hunters claim as their personal amusement park home. So long as Honest Abe’s portrait is covered, preventing a judgmental leer at the squatting interlopers, life in and around the Oval Office is a playful, wacky romp. But fault lines crack the casa blanca merriment, fracture the relationship marryment and disrupt the foursome’s fidelity, launching a Rule #2 Double Tap cross-country rescue mission. From Maryland to Graceland to Babylon, a weaponless haven for peacenik hippies, this thoroughly entertaining zombie demolition derby rollicks and rolls along ramshackle highways for 99 minutes of absurd hilarity. Ten years after the 2009 original, this stellar alumni cast clearly relish their divergent roles and their full throttle enthusiasm easily reeled me in. A weekday discount matinee is also guaranteed to reel in a smattering of odd ducks who beat a retreat from the streets and find temporary respite in a theater. My matinee bonus was a back row of untethered young men who served as my de facto laugh track, helping me decipher and interpret the onscreen dialogue and action just like I was a Zombieland insider. Unfortunately one of the raucous group was so inebriated from his steady stream of bar orders that when the house lights came up, his pals were following Rule #29, The Buddy System, in an all-together-now lounger extraction effort. Good luck with that. He was stuck under his tray. So, to my doubting cohort of friends, surprise! I actually liked this playful, zany, zombie apocalypse flick. Go on now and enjoy your own discount matinee fun! Just remember to follow the rules, #32 Check the Back Seats for Zombies, #4 Buckle Up, and most importantly Rule #32: Enjoy the Little Things, this movie being one.
