I'll be perfectly honest. When I first heard a sequel to zombieland was coming out, I didn't want to believe it. After 10 years after the first film, it sounded too risky whether it would be worth the wait but how wrong was I.
This is by far the funniest film I have seen this year. The one liners are cleverly scripted and performed, the comic reactions are perfectly timed and the physical comedy is spot on. Ruben Fleischer finds so many brilliant ways to make us laugh with so many standouts.
However this film would never have worked if it weren't for the original cast from the first film. After 10 years it's a worry if the cast can bring us the same characters we remember but there's no worries necessary. It's doesn't even feel like 10 years afterwards. They are just as funny, charismatic and memorable as they were before. Woody Harrelson is the big standout with his over the top reactions and as I stated above, his one liners are the best. It's very easy to forget Harrelson can do comedy after all the films he's done.
There's are some nice newcomers as well. On paper, Zoey Deutch as the annoying dumb blonde Madison should, well, be very annoying and unbearable and when I first saw her, I wasn't sure if I'd like her but by the end of the film, I loved her. She also has some funny one liners and even though she's a very exaggerated dumb blonde, somehow that's what makes her even more brilliant and also makes her another standout. Rosario Dawson is another good newcomer as a fearless woman not afraid to stand up for herself but she doesn't much screentime as we'd hope.
What this film does with the zombies is also really good. Now I saw the first film 5 or 6 years ago so I could be wrong but when I remember the zombies, they're all entirely the same as dangerously mindless creatures with some humorous features. In this film, some are dangerous, some are clever and some are very dumb which also provides us with some entertaining and creative action sequences.
However I was disappointed with some parts of the film. First the newcomers were a big missed opportunity. Zoey Deutch got the screentime she deserved but Rosario Dawson clearly should have had much more screentime. All together, I would estimate she had around 15-20 minutes of screentime. Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch only had around 5 minutes of screentime and it's so clear these two had so much potential. In fact I felt maybe they could have done a spin-off with these four newcomers as a different version of the the 4 main characters.
I was also disappointed Abigail breslin wasn't in this film as much. She was only in it a little for the first act, spent the second act driving in a car and even though she had a big role in the 3rd act, she didn't really get that much to do. That frustrated me quite a bit.
There's also an underdeveloped sub plot in the middle of the film that's hinted but doesn't go anywhere like the writers forgot all about it which is disappointing as that could have provided some good laughter.
Overall this is definitely a worthy sequel which is definitely the funniest film of the year with some standout moments, great action and a fantastic script but just has some missed opportunities with the newcomers.
⭐⭐⭐
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