ViewGuide

Created Nov 05, 2019 08:01AM PST • Edited Nov 07, 2019 05:39PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   zLand: Double Tap has moments of comic brilliance, but goes on a bit long, jumping the zombie shark. Happily, it hits a surprise new peak post-credits. Stick around, zombie comedy fans. Who you gonna call?

   This success is no surprise. After all, Ruben Fleischer has reunited the cast from zLand 1. That, plus the terrific addition of Zoey Deutch in a Legally Blonde role, makes a great cast greater, excesses forgiven.

   Bottom line: zLand 2 clocks in at a respectable Very Good, just as zLand 1 did. Note also that zLand 2 is much edgier and more farcical than the merely edgy and farcical zLand 1. Zombie junkies gotta have more.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Great Stars Reunite

   • Woody Harrelson: solid per usual
   • Jesse Eisenberg: nicely neurotic
   • Emma Stone: dry comedienne
   • Abigail Breslin: No longer kiddo cute

   Major New Star

   Zoey Deutch can have an entire career playing dumb blondes after crushing the one she plays in zLand 2. Since she’s apparently neither dumb or blonde, she can also act, which makes her an incipient moviestar.

   Bit Players are also great.

   • Rosario Dawson owns an Elvis-themed motel.
   • Avan Jogia as Berkeley, a pacifist
   • Luke Wilson & Thomas Middleditch as doppelgängers of Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg
   • Who you gonna call?
   • Al Roker, Grace Randolph, Josh Horowitz & Lili Estefan cameo as doppelgängers of themselves

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Really Great 4.5

   Zoey Deutch — a star is born

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5

    3 dozen stuntmen

15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 3.3

17. Sex Titillating 2.5

18. Violence Savage 4.0

19. Rudeness Profane 3.5

21. Reality

    Supernatural 4.0

    At an rFactor of 4X and true to the Double Tap part of its title, Zombieland 2 is way more farcical than the original Zombieland, to which I assigned an rFactor of 3X.

22. Circumstantial Fantasy 4.1

23. Biological Fantasy 5.0

    Nevermind the obvious biological fantasy of zombies, what about Woody Harrelson’s character not making a move on Zoey Deutch’s blonde hottie after a decade of not being with a woman? I mean, duh.

24. Physical Surreal 3.0