“Zombieland: Double Tap” a comedically rewarding sequel with a strong cast./

Sequel benefits from comedic skill of its strong cast

Some movies are lucky in the way they ’re remembered. “Zombieland” (2009) was a zombiemovie satire, but mainly it just was a zombie movie with laughs. Yet it ’s remembered today as almost entirely funny, while the zombie battles contained in it have faded. You could say it ’s remembered for what was distinct about it and forgotten for everything that was routine.

Well now, 10 years later, there’s “Zombieland: Double Tap,” and it ’s the ideal sequel. Think of it not as a sequel to the original movie, but as a sequel to the legend of the original movie. There are zombies — there have to be zombies — but they are fewer, and the gross-out visuals are at a minimum. “Double Tap” is a straight-up comedy, and it ’s funny from start to finish.

At the same time, the peril that the zombies represent is still felt. Every time someone gets into a fight with a zombie, a viewer’s eyes go right to the zombie’s mouth. We don’t want any of our people getting bitten.

So it ’s 10 years later, and the gang is still together. They shoot their way into the White House and find it abandoned but wellstocked, and so they set up there. But there are tensions. Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) is a young woman now and would like to meet a guy, but there are no guys to meet. Wichita (Emma Stone) feels suffocated by Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg ), who wants to get married. And Tallahassee ( Woody Harrelson), who sees himself as the boss, is getting on everyone’s ner ves.

Harrelson deser ves special praise for never hinting at the comic intelligence that guides his performances. If he’s playing someone a little bit stupid, he becomes a little bit stupid, and never winks at the audience from inside the character. And he’s exuberant. He’s constantly putting out and going extreme, letting himself look foolish, while defining, with the size of his performance, the movie’s big scale.

He might make it all look fun, and as easy as breathing, but this is actual work, requiring thought, energ y and inspiration, and not everyone can do it. If others could, more would.

Jesse’s Eisenberg ’s nervous and cerebral style is well-paired with Harrelson. Stone and Breslin do well in their capacity as comic straight women, and the movie gets an additional comedy boost from Zoey Deutch as Madison, an airhead who takes an immediate liking to Columbus (presumably the only young man still alive). There’s a lot of comedic skill on that screen.

One of the funny conceits of “Double Tap” is that Madison might not be bright, and yet she’s not as silly as the rest of them think. There’s one especially smart bit in which she starts riffing on the taxi industry, and says that it would be better if private individuals just gave each other rides, which could be ordered over the Internet. The others just look at each other and roll their eyes.

Ruben Fleischer, who directed the original, is back for a second time, and he has a precise handle on the movie’s tone, while the screenplay ( by Dave Callaham, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick) has an appealing looseness and freedom about it. They allow themselves to come up with zany ideas — a hippie poseur who pretends “Like a Rolling Stone” is his own composition, a pair of fellow sur vivors (Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch) who are doppelgangers for Tallahassee and Columbus, and a ridiculous pacifist commune for sur vivors practicing nonviolence even as the zombie hordes swarm.

Anyway, “Zombieland: Double Tap” is pure fun and worth seeing if you want to laugh. But here’s a thought: The notion of monsters that attack, that are fairly weak and yet can fatally infect with the slightest bite — that seems metaphorical, but of what, I don’t know. Somebody should do a study to see if there’s a pattern between what’s happening in the world when these movies come in swarms. It might be interesting.