They'd End Up Calling Me "Chicago"

Film: Zombieland: Double Tap
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on the new portable.

A sequel to Zombieland was inevitable. I’m most surprised, in fact, that it took a decade to get there. The original film quickly became a favorite of a lot of people. While generally standard zombie fare in terms of the action, it gave us characters that were a lot of fun, a specific character who was like a Max Brooks character come to life, and, of course, one of the great cameo appearances in film history. And thus, Zombieland: Double Tap, which even plays into the appeal of the first movie in its name.

So, we’re back with the same quartet of characters. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) have decided to move into the White House, and spend their time using American treasures for their own entertainment and letting Tallahassee spend time in the Oval Office, possibly with greater skill than we have at current. Little Rock is restless, though, and wants people her own age. When Columbus proposes to Wichita using the Hope Diamond, it becomes enough impetus for the sisters to hit the road. They leave, taking Tallahassee’s modified presidential limo, now equipped with a roof-mounted mini-gun.

Columbus Has Red on Him

Film: Zombieland; Shaun of the Dead
Format: DVDs from personal collection on basement television.

As mentioned recently, I collected a bunch of movies to watch during the stay-at-home order. It was more than 50 movies from my collection and from libraries. I’m nearing the end of that initial stack of movies and realized that there were two that would make a great double feature: Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead. I mean, how often do you get to watch two genuinely classic zombie comedies together? Other than every day, I suppose—I do own them both. Anyway, it seemed like a great opportunity for a double, and I hadn’t done one of those in quite some time.

Zombieland in many ways is the American answer to Shaun of the Dead in that it’s clearly a zombie movie and clearly a comedy. The two are otherwise vastly different; Zombieland is an entirely American movie in every aspect of it. The character archetypes are fully American, the storyline, the goals of these characters, all of them scream that this was a film meant to very much be America’s response to the British film.