‘Zombieland: Double Tap’ Review: Glorious Mockery of Woke Hipsters

My apologies in advance for this late Zomblieland: Double Tap review. I got sick the day of its release, and it would be another ten day before I mustered the energy to venture forth.

So why review it now, why bother? Well, our founder, Andrew Breitbart, felt it was important to talk about the things we like, and I absolutely loved Double Tap and feel a sense of duty to spread the word.

First I’m am going to pat myself on the back.

Although I will probably die old and alone surrounded only by the canned goods in my Doomsday bunker, if an obituary is ever written about me, one sentence you will not read is, John Nolte lived and breathed on the cutting edge of pop culture. Sorry, no. I don’t play video games, don’t listen to music, don’t watch sports, don’t read fiction; I do watch the same 25 or so TV shows in constant rotation, and my taste in movies ranges from sex & violence to violence & sex.

But I was way-way-way ahead of y’all on two cultural phenomenons: flannel and zombies.

In 1984, I was the lone video clerk pushing The Mighty George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead.

In 1985, I was one of two guys in the theater soaking up The Mighty George Romero’s Day of the Dead.

In 1985, I was the only guy in the balcony of that downtown theater enjoying the hell out of Return of the Living Dead.

In 1990, it was just me and the wife cheering Tom Savini’s superb Night of the Living Dead remake.

It took the world 20 years to catch up to me, and because I’m no snob, I’m happy for the company. And because I’m no purist, there’s a lot of new stuff for me to enjoy — for instance, the original Zombieland in 2009, which is a fine piece of entertainment.

Screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wenick are back, as is director Ruben Fleischer, as is the original cast (Bill Murray appears in two post-credit scenes), and they have made Double Tap into something very special, and that specialness has nothing to do with zombies.

The original Zombieland was basically about how a wily hipster (Jesse Eisenberg) could survive a Zombie Apocalypse; a culture clash buddy flick with Woody Harrelson’s redneck, and then a fractured family tale once Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin signed on.

Double Tap bravely hands the movie over to Harrelson’s unapologetic redneck Tallahassee, and pits this wonderfully-realized character right up against a commune of woke hipsters. The results are not just hilarious, they are liberating and fresh.

My God, this repressive woke culture is so stifling and repressive, so to watch a movie bravely take the side of an Elvis-loving, monster truck-driving, cowboy boot-wearing Southern boy who gives his surrogate daughter a firearm for Christmas — what a great time at the movies.

I don’t want to give away all the jokes and plot points, but this is a movie that effectively mocks gun control, hippies, hyper-sensitivity, the absurdity of pacifism, woke-hipster-posers, drum circles, and complaints about cultural appropriation.

With a massive Hope poster hanging over a White House fireplace (the apocalypse hit while Barry was president — yet another failure of his), even Barack Obama’s famous vanity is fair game.

I’m gunna give you a little taste… Someone sings Kumbaya my Buddha… These idiots melt their guns into peace symbols… When Tallahassee asks a hipster if he’s ready to fight, the pajama boy responds with “Yes! Against sexism, poverty, and social injustice!”

Yes, it’s the anti-Walking Dead — which also takes a hit.

At 88-minutes, the story movies like quicksilver, there are a ton of laughs, and the addition of Rosario Dawson’s Nevada and Madison, a dumber-than-dumb blonde (another PC no-no) is just perfect. Zoey Deutch is nothing short of brilliant as Madison, able to turn lines that were already funny into something amazing.

Zombieland: Double Tap’s heart and values are all in the right place, and what we have here is the first movie in forever to effectively mock the far-left. I can’t wait to see it again.

You are gunna have a great time.

 

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