Zombieland is still a fun place to hang out.

Zombieland: Double Tap took long enough to get here. I mean, damn! Ten years? That's beyond an eternity in pop culture years. Whole cinematic universes have been spawned and died out since the original Z-Land flick came out in 2009. The world got along alright all that time without a Z-Land sequel. 

On top of that, large expanses of time between sequels hasn't necessarily been a good thing for franchise films. Think Independence Day: Resurgence or Blues Brothers 2000. So, here we have Zombieland: Double Tap, a least six years later than would have been optimal. Does this flick still pack a zombified punch?

Double Tap opens with a couple sequences designed to re-integrate into the world and tone of the film, with a voice-over from Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), a sequence of slo-mo violence and gore and a classic Metallica tune blasting on the soundtrack. We're rapidly brought up to speed: It's been ten years, zombies have evolved into several different species with varying levels of intelligence and our quartet of heroes from the first film have coalesced into a family. 

Those family bonds are strained when Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) take off. Columbus and Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) plod along on their own until they run across Madison (Zoey Deutch) in a shopping mall and Wichita returns with a story of Little Rock running off with a hippie peacenik.  She convinces Columbus and Tallahassee to come along on a road trip to find Little Rock, complete with pit stops for mayhem and comedy.

Double Tap is nowhere as fresh or briskly-paced as its predecessor but it's still a Zombieland flick. It's funny, hilariously funny in spots. The zombie encounters are still gooey and gory and occasionally really clever. There's still heart and the relationships still work. 

The new elements work pretty well, too. Especially the characters of Madison and Nevada (Rosario Dawson). Deutch's Madison is absolutely perfect, frequently cracking you up with her air-headed mallbrat delivery and the way she contrasts with the likes of Tallahassee and Wichita. Dawson's Nevada is sexy, badass and deserves her own movie. She's that compelling.

Oh, and keep an eye out for a pair of characters that mirror Columbus and Tallahassee. They're a riot.

Beyond that, there's not much new. That's fine because plenty of what's help over from the first flick is still a blast. The four leads are still fantastic, and Harrelson really shines in this one. What really drives Double Tap is the way the personalities of the character bounce off one another. Though the relationships have deepened and changed, there are still plenty of sparks. 

The film also makes a number of clever, funny callbacks to the first Z-Land. Often, these are subtle and don't distract from Double Tap or pop you out of the story. They're just a bit of spice to make to the whole brew a little tastier. 

Throw in some funny stuff at a hippie commune that also serves as commentary on why Millennials and Gen-xers need each other, a lot of bloody zombie kills and the greatest mid-credits scene I've ever seen, and you've got a movie that puts a smile on your face without asking you to think too hard. It's a pretty great way to spend an hour-and-a-half.