Zombieland: Double Tap (2019) 🧟‍♀️🎢

10 years later… and not much to show for it.


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Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

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Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

After a decade-long wait, Zombieland: Double Tap tries to pick up right where the original left off. Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock are still roaming zombie-infested America, bickering like an oddball family. The “joke” is that not much has changed — and that’s exactly the problem.

Sure, we get some new survivors, a trip to Graceland, and some new “types” of zombies, but the heart, freshness, and energy of the first film just aren’t here. Instead, it feels like a road trip sequel stuck in neutral, hoping we’ll laugh at recycled gags and accept that ten years later, these characters haven’t grown an inch.


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Character Rundown

Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) – Still narrating, still neurotic, but somehow even less charming this time. His rules pop back in, but the magic’s worn off.

Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) – The saving grace, again. He’s still wild, still a zombie-killing machine, but now suddenly obsessed with Elvis (??), which feels more like a random quirk than an organic part of his character.

Wichita (Emma Stone) – She’s back, but mostly to recycle the same push-pull dynamic with Columbus.

Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) – The film bizarrely sidelines her by having her run off with some hippie stoner named Berkeley. It’s less a subplot and more a way to keep her out of the group for 45 minutes.

Madison (Zoey Deutch) – The “dumb blonde” trope cranked to 11. She’s designed to be grating comic relief, but she crosses the line into outright irritating. A parody of a parody.

Nevada (Rosario Dawson) – Runs an Elvis shrine motel and feels like she walked in from another movie entirely.

Albuquerque & Flagstaff (Luke Wilson & Thomas Middleditch) – The doppelgangers of Tallahassee and Columbus. Fun gag for about five minutes… then overstays its welcome.



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Pacing / Episode Flow

Here’s the problem: the first film was tight, short, and sharp. This one is bloated. The middle act — with the doppelganger gag, the hippie subplot, and the Elvis detour — drags like a zombie missing both legs. It feels padded to get to feature-length, with long stretches where the laughs die out completely.


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Pros ✅

Woody Harrelson still carries the film as Tallahassee. Every time he’s on screen, the energy spikes.

The doppelganger gag is mildly funny the first few minutes.

Rosario Dawson is solid, even if her character is underwritten.

Some creative zombie kills (though nothing as iconic as the first).



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Cons ❌

Ten years later and zero character growth. These people still act like strangers, not a family.

New zombie “variants” (Homer, Hawking, Ninja, T-800) are introduced but go nowhere.

Little Rock’s storyline with the hippie is a waste of time.

Madison’s allergic-reaction “fake-out infection” scene insults the audience’s intelligence.

Tallahassee’s sudden Elvis obsession comes out of nowhere and feels forced.

Middle act drags hard — it feels like the movie itself is bored.

Con – The Self-Aware but Not Self-Funny Joke
There’s one gag in the Double Tap red-band trailer that sums up why the sequel stumbles so hard with its humor. Tallahassee fires off his iconic line: “Time to nut up or shut up.” Then his doppelgänger smugly shoots back: “That phrase is very 2009.”

Oh. Ha ha. Get it? Because the first Zombieland came out in 2009. Get it? We’re ten years late to the sequel. Aren’t we clever?

Except… no. Pointing out your own irrelevance doesn’t magically make you relevant again. It doesn’t land as satire, it lands like the writers winking at the audience while admitting they’ve got nothing fresh to say. It’s a self-own packaged as a joke. Instead of laughing, you’re reminded how long it’s been and how little the film has progressed in a decade.

Final kicker:
If your sequel’s best punchline is “Hey, remember when we used to be funny ten years ago?” …then maybe you shouldn’t have waited ten years to make the movie.

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Final Thoughts

The original Zombieland was lightning in a bottle. This sequel feels like someone shaking the empty bottle and hoping sparks fly again. It’s not awful, but it’s wildly forgettable. The best part of the movie is still Tallahassee, but one great character can’t carry a whole film when the rest is a reheated plate of decade-old leftovers.


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Rating ⭐

6/10


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Spoiler Warning 🚨

Full spoilers ahead.


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Spoilers 🩸

The film opens with a meta gag about “new zombie variants” — Homers (dumb ones), Hawkings (smart ones), Ninjas (sneaky ones), and T-800s (tough ones). It’s kind of fun for five minutes, but then the movie forgets about them until the finale.

The group settles into the White House for a while, but things quickly fall apart when Little Rock decides she’s tired of being treated like a kid and runs off with a stoner named Berkeley. Wichita bails too, leaving Columbus and Tallahassee stuck with Madison — a bubblegum-voiced, dumb-as-bricks blonde who somehow survived this long. She’s funny for maybe two lines before becoming unbearable.

The road trip drags on. Columbus and Tallahassee meet their “mirror images” in Albuquerque and Flagstaff, who are basically carbon-copy parodies of them. The joke works briefly but goes on way too long before they inevitably die.

Meanwhile, Madison starts showing signs of infection — vomiting, swelling, general zombie vibes. Columbus takes her outside in the woods, gun in hand, to put her down. We’re meant to feel the tension, but then the film yanks the rug with, “Surprise! She’s not infected, she’s just allergic to nuts!” Right. Because nothing says hilarious like playing your audience for idiots.

Tallahassee suddenly reveals his obsession with Elvis, which leads the crew to Graceland and Nevada, Rosario Dawson’s motel-running survivor. It’s not bad, but it feels random — Elvis was never part of Tallahassee’s character before, so it comes across like the writers just tossed darts at a board of quirky ideas.

The climax brings everyone together at a hippie commune, where zombies swarm and our crew has to mount a defense. They trap the zombies in a giant pit using fireworks and explosions. It’s flashy, but compared to the carnival showdown in the first film, it feels less clever and more generic.

By the end, the “family” is reunited, Madison is inexplicably still alive, and Little Rock ditches her hippie boyfriend. Columbus gets his girl, Tallahassee gets his makeshift family back, and the movie pretends like all that dragging in the middle act didn’t happen.

Tallahassee still comes out the best character — funny, tough, tragic, and full of heart. But the rest of the movie? It’s as empty as an abandoned amusement park after the apocalypse.