At the beginning of the year, my wife and I decided that we'd like to watch more movies. There are 52 weeks in a year, 2 of us, and 26 letters in the alphabet. What better way to choose some movies than to go alphabetically? The only rule: Where possible, it should be a movie that one or more of us had never seen before. Oh, and ideally it should be part of one of the copious online streaming services we're already subscribed to, because why bother paying for a rental when we're not short of options?
Incidentally, if anyone from the big online streaming service providers is reading this (your Notfluxes or your Prims, for example), please make it easier to search for/sort movies alphabetically. Thanks.
Also, fair warning: There may well be movies that appear on this list that you'll find hard to believe I haven't seen before. It happens.
Previous letters are here: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Stars: Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg
Synopsis via IMDB: Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and 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.
The first Zombieland was one of those movies that I went into not really knowing what to expect, only to find a really entertaining movie underneath it all. When I spotted the sequel on Netflix's catalogue, at around the W mark in my alphabetical odyssey, I decided to park it for later revisiting (though I didn't translate that into putting it on my list, which in hindsight seems daft).
In short, I'm pleased I did. Zombieland: Double Tap offers more of the same winning formula, so if you like the first movie then you'll likely find plenty to enjoy here. The main cast returns, and there are some new faces with a mix of personalities. There are some famous faces in among the new cast as well, and some entertaining callbacks for fans of the first. There's a post-credit scene that's well worth your time if you like the first movie as well.
The movie is stylish, looks great and is good for a fair few laughs. The cast does a great job, and the soundtrack is excellent. I don't know what else to say about it. Well worth giving a go.
If you're reading this, then I did it! 2021's Movie Night Roundup is complete, and I managed to get through the entire alphabet. I'll put together a little retrospective in the New Year, but while I've enjoyed the experience of watching more films overall, I will not use this format so heavily again. Still, 42 new movies on my list this year met the criteria and I watched a ton of new to me movies as a result so it's not all bad. Also, I joined Letterboxd so that was nice.
Did you enjoy the roundup, and indeed the roundup? Let me know! If you have thoughts on the movies chosen and their respective writeups above, you know where to find me. Maybe you don't, but there are buttons everywhere to make that happen. Comments, Twitter, you name it. Moreover, if you want to make use of this movie night format, bearing in mind you're a few weeks in and might have to double up to get up to speed, feel free to do the same - I'd love to know what you chose too!
Rob Wade
Rob Wade blogs about stuff he likes. Whether it's video games or geek media for Emotionally14 or writing about speculative theories for future films on Talk Star Wars, the focus has always been on the stuff that brings the most pleasure to his life within media.
Rob is the editor of Emotionally14, and showrunner of the E14 podcasts "The Crazy Train", "The E14 Gamecast" and "Talk Star Wars", as well as the host and guest of a number of pieces on E14's Youtube channel over the years.
