Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse ? 4 out of 5
The bright side of having a girlfriend who is obsessed with
horror films and zombies means that when films like Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse become a must-see.
Additionally, having your anniversary on Halloween means that part of
the celebration of your time together is going to a haunted house and treating
yourself to whatever horror movie is currently at the local cinema. Originally, we were going to see Goosebumps
because I thought the film looked fun and I love Jack Black but no sooner than
when we made our plans, she saw a trailer for this film. Well, my love for Jack Black is quickly
trumped by the love for my girlfriend and we ended up seeing a little zombie
comedy. My expectations weren?t high but
I was completely surprised by this one.
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| Broken Road Productions/Paramount Pictures Surprised like a shotgun blast to the face. |
Ben (Tye Sheridan), Carter (Logan Miller) and Augie (Joey
Morgan) are lifelong friends and all members of the scouts. Sadly, Ben and Carter are growing out of
their love for the scouts and want out because of the impact it has on their
social lives; however, Augie is still all-in and is even going to get a major
badge during a camping trip and looks to one day be like just like their scout
leader (David Koechner). Ben and Carter
plan to sneak out at night and hit a party where Carter?s sister and Ben?s love
interest (Halston Sage) is attending.
However, the friends soon realize that while they were in the woods, a
zombie outbreak hit the city and the undead are shuffling around to eat human
flesh. Using all their scouts skills and
with the help of a strip club cocktail waitress named Denise (Sarah Dumont),
the boys plan on saving the day and kicking some undead ass.
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| Broken Road Productions/Paramount Pictures Their extensive knowledge of knots shall save the day! |
Going into the film, a part of me thought this film was
going to be a cheap zombie film that was all fluff and no substance. I imagined weak gore effects, bad makeup,
barely passable acting and a story that had no real depth to them and was
littered with characters that were one-dimensional and were most likely around
for no other reason than to be a tally in the body count. I was 100% wrong on every single account. Instead, this movie is a blast of a dark
comedy that is filled with great acting, fun characters and unrelenting laughs.
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| Broken Road Productions/Paramount Pictures Damn, all those old folks who claim kids are shitty because of their phones and their love of selfies are right! Wait, the kid isn't the zombie here... Hmmm...Selfies save lives kids. |
Right off the bat, the feature starts with a killer way to
establish the outbreak and it does so with an extremely hilarious sequence that
pretty much sets the bar for the comedy you?ll get for the rest of the
movie. Workaholics? Blake Anderson comes
into play here as a janitor at a biological research facility and he ends up,
through some comedic shenanigans, causing a zombie to get loose. After this moment, the film pretty much never
lets up on the quality gags and it makes for a film that is unrelentingly
funny. Granted, there were times when
some of the jokes were a little too juvenile as they went the gross-out route
and even threw in some sophomoric dick jokes (or, in this case, zombie dick). Occasionally, these scenes feel overly
familiar and, often, seem like they were lifted from other zombie films but
adjusted a bit by adding in some juvenile humor but even when they went with
this formula it was still funny and far better than what you usually see when
comedy goes this way.
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| Broken Road Productions/Paramount Pictures I'm sure he's alright. |
As far as the acting department this
film is no slouch. In past reviews for
Mud and Joe, I sang the praises of one Tye Sheridan and he brings a new angle
to his acting ability with this one as he has to juggle being a tad comedic as
well as being the more serious character because he?s the one who gets the girl
(shut up, that?s not a spoiler. You
pretty much know it from the get go because it?s just basic and common story
telling.) Logan Miller does a tremendous
job at being the over-stimulated, sex-driven perv-ball of a character but does
it to the point he?s funny and likable and never gets to be annoying?a real
risk with this type of character. Joey Morgan is
just charming as hell as Augie and really just comes off as a likable
character that I found myself quickly investing in and cheering for. Additional, the rest of the cast really nails
their parts and their portion of the production to create a film that is extremely
well balanced in not just the acting department but also in the character wing
thanks to great writing. Finally, the
three main boys all have a really pronounce and definite chemistry and it makes
for their conflict about the scouts and how it is ingrained in their friendship
believable and really created the right amount of drama that mixed perfectly
with all the laughs.
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| Broken Road Productions/Paramount Pictures Jesus, that's some badasses right there. |
My complaints for the film are very minor and didn?t really
hurt my score or my experience. There is
a few times where the editing got choppy and I wasn?t that wowed by the
performance of Sarah Dumont but, aside from this, the film is beyond
solid. I already mentioned how funny the
film is (there?s a great running gag with David Koechner?s character) but the
film also uses music very effectively to create slick and hip sequences and the
film actually brings in some killer action sequences that really paints the
boys as some Boy Scout badasses!
However, there is one thing about the film?that?s not necessarily a
complaint?that bothered me.
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| Broken Road Productions/Paramount Pictures And that one thing is that hair piece. Wait, no it isn't. Ah, just read the next paragraph. |
SGttZA really showed me how spoiled I?ve become thanks to
The Walking Dead. I?ve been a fan of
zombies since I was barely a tween thanks to my father showing me Night of the
Living Dead but it was The Walking Dead and Greg Nicotero?s way of how zombies
behave that really made me obsessed on a new level with the undead. Due to this man?s attention and
the show?s detail, they?ve set the bar on how zombies should act and when I go
back and watch old films and productions that aren?t TWD, I have a hard time
watching the extras essentially flopping around with seemingly no direction or
consideration of how a creature that is, for all intents and purposes, a
walking corpse supposed to act. I?m not saying that the
zombies in SGttZA are bad but they?re nowhere near the level of attempted realism
that I am now used to. Hell, now six
seasons into The Walking Dead has made it hard for me to accept the lumbering,
cheap Frankenstein monster gaits of the zombies in Romero?s zombie films. So, saying that the zombies move and act
poorly isn?t really a commentary on the cast or the production but rather a
comment on my own artificial standards that have been crafted by one of my
favorite shows. So, if any zombies from
this film are reading this (you?re probably not), you did your job fine
(especially for a dark comedy), I?ve just had the zombies in The Walking Dead
become my default setting for the undead.
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| Broken Road Productions/Paramount Pictures Then again, The Walking Dead doesn't have zombie cats... |
I may have walked in a little skeptical with Scouts Guide tothe Zombie Apocalypse but I walked out still chuckling to myself over what I
saw. To say it was better than what I
was expecting is putting it lightly because too many zombie films are cheap and
are often thrown together with little regard for quality. Since the genre of zombie fic is so popular
right now, we are bombarded with hundreds of films, comics, books and puppet
shows (I?m guessing, I don?t see many zombie puppet shows) attempting to cash
in on the craze. This film could have
easily been one of those disasters but it was far more entertaining than that
and, instead, was crafted with great gags and played out with a fantastic cast!
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