Zombieland: Double Tap

First Hit: There are some wonderfully funny moments in this zombie spoof.

Ten years after the original Zombieland, the same characters are back, older, wiser, and ready to take on the ever-evolving zombies. To this end, the team talks about the three different types of zombies, but then they learn about the high powered zombies.

Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Columbus (Jessie Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) are still roaming the eastern part of the United States, taking what they want, living where they want, and killing all the Zombies that come their way.

The women are struggling with the men. Little Rock is feeling out of sorts because she’s running around with adults, and she would like to find people her own age. Wichita is feeling pressured by Columbus to get married. Adding to the women’s misery, Tallahassee thinks he’s the boss of this motley crew and spends most of his time tinkering with The Beast, the Gatling gun protected car.

Deciding to take residence in the White House, things come to a head. Little Rock and Wichita steal The Beast and leave a cryptic note for the men saying “so long.”

Wichita and Little Rock run into a young hippy they call Berkeley (Avan Jogia), who is a pacifist guitar-playing guy looking for Babylon. A place he says, where no guns allowed, and the compound is walled off to protect the residents from the zombies.

Columbus runs into Madison (Zoey Deutch) at a mall that he and Tallahassee are pilfering. She’s a dumb blonde who has been living in a freezer that keeps her safe from the zombies. She goes back to the White House with him and seduces him.

Little Rock leaves her sister Wichita to run off with Berkeley in search of Graceland and then maybe Babylon. Alone, Wichita comes back to the White House to ask Tallahassee and Columbus to help her find her younger sister. But as soon as she gets there, she confronts Columbus for sleeping with Madison so quickly after she had left.

Deciding to stay together, they head out to find Little Rock, fearing she’s making a mistake. The journey has them killing lots of zombies on their way to Graceland, thinking that is where Little Rock was headed. After seeing Graceland empty, they find the church of Elvis and find Nevada (Rosario Dawson) running the joint, alone. Ready to rest before heading out again, The Beast is run over and crushed by a monster truck driven by Albuquerque (Luke Wilson) and Flagstaff (Thomas Middleditch).

With Albuquerque and Flagstaff acting just like Tallahassee and Columbus, respectively, there are moments of great full-throated laughs through the one-ups-man-ship of these four guys. The back and forth is priceless.

The theme of this film is outrageous fun through gags and props. Some of the accessories are; The Beast, the suburban van, the motorhome, Babylon (pronounced by Madison as “Baby lon”), and who killed Bill Murray. Murray is shown in the opening minutes of the ending credits, stay for this. Even Elvis gets his due in this film.

Harrelson is hilarious. He uses sincere looks while going through his mood swings. But the underlying smirk of amusement and self-deprecating humor makes his performance thoroughly enjoyable. Eisenberg was excellent as the semi-cautious list-making member of this crew. Stone is terrific as Eisenberg’s love interest and older sister to Little Rock. Breslin has physically changed more than anyone of the other actors in this crew because she was very young in the original film. She carried her scenes with strength. Deutch was so much fun as the dumb blonde. She made this role work exceptionally well, and I enjoyed her as an addition to this team. Dawson was beautiful as the proprietor of the church of Elvis. Wilson and Middleditch were great as memes of Harrelson and Eisenberg respectively. The swagger of Wilson and the nerdiness of Middleditch were correctly done. Jogla, as Berkeley, the hippie, was OK. I just didn’t think he brought the same level of humor and fun to his role. Murray, in the credits, was excellent. Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Dave Callahan wrote a fun script. They didn’t try to make it too close to the first film and just let the fun be expressed in this one. Ruben Fleischer did an excellent job of directing this film with a loose fun-filled feel while keeping the story logical and moving.

Overall: This film was a great follow-up to the original.

Flower

First Hit: The acting lifts this bizarre storyline to funny, engaging and entertaining levels.

Before seeing this film, I was hard pressed to think that it would be well acted and funny. Why? The first scene has a young seventeen-year-old girl giving oral sex to a police officer, then blackmailing him for money so that she can bail her father out of jail.

We learn that Erica (Zoey Deutch) has been doing this often because the bail is over $15,000. She has two friends, Kala (Dylan Gelula) and Claudine (Maya Eshet), that assist by videotaping the oral sex events. This is how they blackmail the offenders.

What makes it funny is the matter of fact, open, and deliberate way the engagements are talked about and happen.

Erica has an odd and permissive relationship with her mother Laurie (Kathryn Hahn). Laurie is desperate for a relationship and finds Dale (Eric Edelstein) who also has an overweight son Luke (Joey Morgan) about Erica’s age. However, Luke has been in rehab for over a year because of opiates.

When Luke gets out of the rehab he stays with Laurie, Dale, and Erica. He’s a sad soul and clearly troubled. Erica does her best to engage him including offering oral sex. "It's not like we're related" and "I'm an expert at oral sex." The way these lines are delivered are priceless.

What we discover is that Luke hides his feelings and emotions through eating and drugs because he indicates he was sexually assaulted by Will Jordan (Adam Scott) a grade school teacher.

Erica, Kala, Claudine and Luke set out to expose Will and in this way, get some revenge for Luke and blackmail Will for money that Erica can use to get her father out of jail.

When we get to the end, we find out the truth and the characters find out their own truth.

The events and the way this story unfolds is amusing and quirky. The characters are odd, believable, and fun.

Deutch is excellent. Her laissez faire yet intelligent approach to getting through her life was amazing. I loved watching her be this character on the screen. Morgan was wonderful as the young man attempting to do right at the detriment of his own health. Gelula and Eshet were perfect as the supportive friends. They wonderfully added to this comedic adventure. Hahn was wonderful and the supportive yet exasperated lonely mother. Edelstein was good as the new man in Laurie’s life. Scott was strong as the accused former teacher who loves bowling.  Alex McAulay and Matt Spicer wrote a funny and engaging script. Max Winkler did a wonderful job of making this film work.

Overall: I was pleasantly surprised at the acting and the funny bits in this film.

Why Him?

First Hit:  A couple of out loud funny bits but in the end there is nothing there.

At best, this was a mediocre film. The concept of a wild youngish video game internet programmer making it big and falling in love with a young pretty smart Stanford girl from the Midwest is not too far fetched and could have been fun. The premise is that she wants her conservative family to meet him for the first time during the holidays and that this is where the fireworks and comedy are supposed to happen.

This premise had potential but where did it fail. For me, first and foremost was the poor writing. From the beginning Laird Mayhew’s (James Franco) character was poorly based and thoughtlessly conceived. Why make him hang around shirtless most of the time? What is the point of this? How many young game, internet developers and entrepreneurs do you hear about that hang out with only their loose pants on. Yes, they might wear hoodies and baggy clothing but shirtless is not the Silicon Valley style so this was missed completely. Second saying “fuck” 3 times in almost every sentence is not only off putting but unneeded to denote edginess. Lastly, the overdone staging and home filled with stupid art (some of it Franco’s own) including a preserved buffalo submerged in its own urine tries to make the case that young rich entrepreneurs have a interesting appreciation of art.

All this is the writers’ fault. The writers didn’t want to look for subtle or interesting ways to create comedic exchanges, everything here is overt, in your face and hammer like: Things like the art which was uninteresting. The overdone characters like Gustav (Keegan-Michael Key) who is Laird’s gentlemen’s gentlemen. The sets with programmers doing little in every room in the house. The helicopter landing in the middle of the street in front of Flemings’ home – just isn’t going to happen or be allowed. All of these things were overtly stupid just like Laird’s tattoo of the Fleming family on his back. All this and more made up the lack of thoughtful intelligent comedy.

Although the cast with Bryan Cranston (as Stephanie’s father Ned Fleming), Zoey Deutch (as Stephanie), Megan Mullally (as Stephanie’s mother Barb Fleming), Griffin Gluck (as Stephanie’s brother Scotty) and Franco was strong, every scene appeared to be approached like a tidal wave which was the real failing of this film.

Franco’s character was overdone and overbearing to make him at all believable. Cranston was as good as he could be with his given script. Deutch was solid enough but the script let her down. Muallally was OK and I will continue to repeat myself the script was her downfall. Gluck was OK as the son who wanted to come out of the shadows. Key was OK as the together person behind a unhinged Laird. Jonah Hill, John Hamburg, and Ian Helfer wrote this insipid mindless script. While Hamburg made the script worse with overdone scenes that were obvious and telegraphed.

Overall:  This film is a waste of money and time and will probably not be profitable.

Everybody Wants Some!!

First Hit:  The music was to die for and the story grew on me as it evolved.

This film takes place over 3 – 4 days by following Jake (Blake Jenner) arriving on a Friday afternoon at an unnamed Texas University to take up residency in the baseball team’s campus home provided by a school sponsor and ending on the following Monday.

As with most Richard Linklater films, dialog and time period is clearly identified. When Jake gets in his car and drives off to the university he turns up the stereo in the vintage Oldsmobile 442 to blast out The Knack’s “My Sharona”. This perfectly sets the tone for the film.

Other music includes Blondie, Van Halen, The Cars, and Cheap Trick. As a jock hanging out with other jocks there is a perception about his intellectual capabilities. However, as the film points out a couple of times, each sub-group of people have their own ranges of intelligence and abilities. It reflects what is true in society. In other words, jocks are not all stupid.

That said, without any structure to their lives over the weekend they attend multiple parties, go to multiple nightclubs, and because they’re in college multiple types of pranks are pulled on each other. But in the end, you see these disparate personalities coming together in cohesive groups on their way to learning more about who they are.

Jenner was well cast as the young freshman baseball jock who is thoughtful. His quiet and inclusive ways made him very likeable. Justin Street (as Jay), Ryan Guzman (as Roper), Tyler Hoechlin (as McReynolds), Wyatt Russell (as Willoughby), Glen Powell (as Finnegan), Temple Baker (as Plummer), J. Quinton Johnson (as Dale), and Will Brittain (as Beuter) we’re all wonderful as the primary members of the baseball team. Each brought a strong and unique personality. Zoey Deutch as Beverly, Jay’s love interest, was very strong and an interesting character. Linklater wrote a very strong script with dialogue that really worked and his direction was spot on, especially the detail of in the scenes.

Overall:  This was a wonderful slice of life film that has deeper meaning.