First Trailer for ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP

Despite the fact it feels like we should have maybe received a sequel to Zombieland five or six years ago I remember feeling so bowled over by that first original feature to capitalize on the popularity of Walking Dead that I'm just happy they were able to get everyone back together for a sequel at all. This includes director Ruben Fleischer who made such a strong feature debut with the original Zombieland that I'm always optimistic his next film might deliver on that promise even if everything since has yielded fair to middling results. And while it's kind of crazy Zombieland: Double Tap exists in today's world given the caliber of the cast and the fact Emma Stone had seemingly resigned from broad comedies it's nice to see the ole' gang back together and each of them at least appear to be having a good time. In this decade-later follow-up (though it still remains to be seen if it's been a decade in the world of the movie as well) Jesse Eisenberg's Columbus, Woody Harrelson's Tallahasse, Stone's Wichita, and Abigail Breslin's Little Rock move to the American heartland as they face off against evolved zombies, fellow survivors, and the growing pains of the snarky makeshift family. While this new trailer largely looks like more of the same in a new setting it's kind of hard to expect anything more than that from a ten year-later sequel set around a zombie apocalypse. More importantly is the fact Fleischer and screenwriters Dave Callaham (Wonder Woman 1984) along with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Zombieland, Deadpool, Deadpool 2) seem to have been creatively invested in the property and have come up with a few gags that appear to deliver in the same way as the gags from the first while not relying on throwbacks to jokes from that first film. That said, Bill Murray is on the cast list for this thing along with Dan Aykroyd, so make of that what you will. More than anything though, I'll go into Zombieland 2 with the hope of simply having a good time with some old friends; I'm not expecting this thing to break any new ground or even be the funniest film I see all year, but if it has a good time with a premise and cast who we know can deliver as much then the wait will have been well worth it. Zombieland: Double Tap also stars Zoey Deutch, Rosario Dawson, Luke Wilson, Thomas Middleditch, Avan Jogia and opens on October 18th, 2019.

WHY HIM? Review

John Hamburg hasn't directed a feature film since 2009, but that film was I Love You, Man. Seven years and several television directing gigs later and Hamburg has delivered Why Him? Personally, I love I Love You, Man. It has become one of those reliable movies you can put on at any given time and are guaranteed to laugh and enjoy while having the added bonus of intelligently breaking down the barriers of masculinity and the weird culture surrounding male friendships. This automatically sets up an expectation that the follow-up won't be nearly as good, especially based on the rather outlandish trailers we received for Why Him? The thing is, it wasn't that I Love You, Man had a more seasoned or credible screenwriter, but in fact Hamburg himself seemingly had a lot to do with both screenplays with his co-writer on Why Him? admittedly having more promising if not limited previous works on his resume whereas Hamburg's co-writer on I Love You, Man, Larry Levin, has such credits as Doctor Dolittle and Dr. Dolittle 2 to his name. Of course, comedy does and doesn't have a lot to do with the writing as the funniest jokes in the world can be written down, but if they don't have the right people to execute them they'll still fall as flat as the worst types of jokes. What is on the paper provides only a basis for the type of comedy hoping to be obtained as well as a launching pad for talented comedians and improvisational actors to take the material to new heights. And so, it isn't that I Love You, Man necessarily had better writing going for it, but rather that it was a novel premise that thrived on the chemistry and appeal of its two stars. Why Him? doesn't necessarily have as interesting a dynamic at its core and its stars aren't nearly as charming as Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, but that doesn't automatically render the film a failure on the comedic front. By all accounts, Why Him? is a perfectly accessible broad if not rather crude comedy that utilizes said broadness to relate to whole families in Middle America, teenagers, and older parents that walk into the film because the trailers featured a scenario familiar to them or because they saw the guy from Breaking Bad being funny. Why Him? is a perfect example of why mainstream comedies both work on certain levels and why they can easily fail on so many others. Though it may not garner me much credibility I rather enjoyed Why Him? to the point I'm not grumpy enough to get mad at a movie for failing to be as introspective about the dynamics it means to document while instead making up for such a lack of substance with easy laughs.

EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! Review

"There's a party down on the corner, do you want to go? They got rhythm, a little blues, and a whole lot of soul. I don't care what you've got to say,  you're comin' with me anyway. We're not here for a long time, we're here for a good time." So go the words of Huey Lewis and the News' 2001 song "We're Not Here for a Long Time (We're Here for a Good Time)" and while Richard Linklater's latest film takes its name from the more appropriate Van Halen track from 1980 the writer/director is echoing the same sentiments as Lewis and his News were in their song. One of the many characters in Linklater's entertaining ensemble even throws out the familiar saying at a moment when we're discovering the drastic steps he's taken to recapture his more idyllic past. An idyllic past is mostly what Everybody Wants Some!! is really about, though. The ability to escape and live in an existence, at least for a period of time, that feels like the perfect mix of being care-free and celebrating that freedom by partying as consistently as possible. This window of unattached existence is what Linklater seems to have deduced brings out the most natural form of who we are meant to be as human beings. In experiencing this type of freedom by simply existing we are allowed to pine for that period of time the rest of our lives as most will go on to conform with the societal structures expected of them. Thus, our idyllic past is created with the key being it must remain that idyllic high point without any attempt to recreate such memories because we all know real, genuine fun can't be commonplace. It can't happen every night and the same thrills remain intact. If humans were to live forever as the characters in Everybody Wants Some!! do over the course of this three-day weekend we'd likely live half as long and grow tired of the emptiness drinking and promiscuous sex with many anonymous partners would eventually bring. And so, what Linklater is slyly conveying is that of a cherished time in his own life; memories that inform the man he is today with the added acknowledgment that it can't last forever, but it's beyond critical to drink in when that time arrives.