1. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
2. Zombieland (2009)
3. Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Technically this is a parody of George A. Romero's Dead series. You have this guy named Shaun whose working a dead end job. He ends up getting a small group together to take on undead. There's some rememberable zombie kills. Bill Nighy is in it but he doesn't have the usual presence he has in other movies he's in.
I liked a cricket bat of all things gets used on zombies. The previous movie I seen a cricket bat got used to beat someone up was in the original TMNT movie by Casey Jones. There's rememberable characters with Ed ends up being my favorite. I felt this was a decent parody movie that holds up amazingly well. Even now people still wants anything zombies out there.
Shaun of the Dead helped made a few actors more famous. Indirectly, the two guys starring in this also made a weird franchise set up. Yeah which also includes Hot Fuzz and The World's End in the Three Flavours Cornetto, I didn't write this stuff lol. Which already helps it stands out more than expected. The gore itself is very satisfying.
What's even crazier is this came out the same year as Dawn of the Dead remake, another great zombie movie. Personally, I'm a bigger fan of the original version myself just in case anyone wanted to know. I will say this, Shaun of the Dead just isn't a fun time. It actually brought light to something as unpleasant as zombies which is tricky to do.
I do recommend watching this movie, there's just something about this. You gotta watch it or you can't stop rewatching it in some cases because it's so well made. Most horror comedy movies focuses on the comedy while this one focuses more on the horror elements. I still say this is one of the best parody horror movies I ever seen.
Zombieland (2009)
Now here's another funny zombie movie people loves with a passion. Enough to eventually get a sequel years later. Zombieland heavily plays off the zombie apocalypse from the very beginning of it's story. We get some information about how life was like prior. The casts quickly steals the show with Tallahassee being my favorite played by Woody Harrelson.
Slowly the group gets together but it isn't perfect. The sisters are more selfish while the smart guy ends up being like a brother to Tallahassee. Of course, what zombie movie is perfect without a notable popular location. In this case, Pacific Playland is an amusement park. I do like they do follow their own rules.
They eventually come together in the end like a family. I should mention Amber Heard is in the movie. Look I'm not a fan of hers especially after what came out through court. I just wanted to point her out because she already got much ugliness coming her way, she doesn't need me doing the same. For the record, I'm a huge Johnny Depp fan I'm glad he won all three counts of his case.
Back to the review, Zombieland is another fun time. You see these people traveling through locations. One of my favorite scenes happens by accident. They ended up destroying up a store for fun. Honestly, seeing that Bill Murray cameo first time caught me off guard. He's one of my favorite comedians of all time.
Not to mention both he and Harrelson previously starred in another personal comedy movie of mine, Kingpin. To me, it's the most entertaining comedy sports movie. Yes that does include the likes of Caddyshack & Happy Gilmore, which I also enjoyed a lot. You kinda feel sorry for Murray's death, he only wanted to have a good time.
Zombieland is a more serious tone from Shaun of the Dead. At the same time, they do not hold back on the jokes. I strongly felt this movie has everything it needed to quickly became a timeless classic in it's own right. I highly recommend you check this one out. Trust me, you will be sorry to miss out on all the fun.
Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)
Let me ask a question is everyone noticing a lot of movie sequels are taking notably longer to come out? We waited ten years for this to happen. I will be honest, last night was my first time actually watching the movie. I do think it's a solid follow up but I had two notable issues. They introduced this stereotype dumb blond chick character.
Now if she was in the movie briefly, I would've been fine with her. But no she's in a notable amount of the movie. Which also affects some of the humor going on too. I just didn't care for the character, I even hope she got swarmed by zombies. Spoiler alert, that never happens so I had to deal with it. At least she's no longer a member of the group.
My other issue could be seen being a rather small thing. I wanted more Bill Murray flashback portion, it was surprisingly well done. They joked about doing an third live action Garfield movie. Which never happened in real life, same goes here because of zombies. Murray also a bad ass during this mid credits scene.
They even had an outtake of this later into the credits. I really enjoyed that scene in the movie. In all honestly, I had a lot of favorite moments in the movie. This one hands down was one I easily could rewatch more than most of those moments. They also introduced two copy cat characters to Columbus & Tallahassee.
Who later turned into particular zombie types because they didn't alert the other survivors they got bitten until it got forced out. Of course, someone out there loves Elvis. Harrelson did a similar Elvis impression to land him a job. I do like most members of the group have lovers except for the youngest. In her defense, she was seeing this rip off musician up til a point late into the movie.
Zombieland: Double Tap continues with the rules. The same rules that kept them alive for so long. We now know the most selfish member is one of the sisters. They act more like a family in this too. I still think this had funnier moments than the original movie. Despite my main issues with the movie, they did a great job keeping it entertaining.
I do like some of the other people's zombie kills they cut away to show off. My favorite starts off like this guy is around mannequins he alerts them to those. Then he uses a device to cause the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa to kill them. I haven't seen anything like that before. It was very unexpected method to kill zombies with but he pulled it off.
I would say for a decade long wait, it quickly made up for that. This just isn't a decent sequel but a rather refreshing one at that. I would say one of the funniest zombie movies, then again I also could say that about the other funny zombie movies I'm reviewing here lol. This movie stands out in a way you may be surprised due to the time gap both in real life as well in the story.
I also need to mention at one point, they clear out the outside of another famous location. The White House, yes they got to stay there earlier in the movie. I already knew this movie was going to be wackier but in a great way. I would say it somehow ended up being better than the original, not something I was expecting.
I know that's difficult to imagine because I didn't necessary point out flaws with the previous movie. Sometimes, doing everything else even better helps a notable amount. I would say this just isn't a fun time, you really should watch this with other people. This is a great popcorn movie with everything considered.
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