Enjoy this Monday with Mildred!

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

This light hearted zom com begins with a janitor lip synching a pop song while dirty dancing with his mop.  Unfortunately he gets a little too close to one of the experiments in the lab because darn it, I liked him. Pop music is a definite part of the background in this tale of boy scouts versus the world, and zombies, because the story revolves around several young and pretty teenagers who discover themselves surrounded one night by the walking, and running, and tool-using dead.

The prologue is a touch slow to be hilarious, and the gags were predictable but I still enjoyed it. The movie as a whole is too careful and slow in the action and comedy scenes, with one exception, to be a really good film. They also sometimes play with the zombie gore to an uncomfortable point. Still, it’s a big studio production and I like the idea that a place like Paramount will greenlight a silly (and it is silly) zombie movie because that denotes another step toward genre respectability.

The story is standard nerd boy loves cute cool girl and hits all the notes you expect with that, and it also uses the zombie tropes correctly.  Ben, who has been a scout for a long time is torn between quitting with fellow scout and boy slut Carter, but he doesn’t want to hurt Augie’s feelings. Scouting is Augie’s life and he makes eagle scouts seem lame.  A zombie infestation growing out of the lab incident is background to the social commentary which is all about friendship, loyalty, and duty. There is a fun mall sequence and clever zombie kills. In an extended cameo Cloris Leachman plays a pastiche of herself but since she’s always hilarious that’s okay.

The zombies are fast and good fighters. They’re also able to pole dance, search bathroom stalls and sing cool Brittany Spears songs. I decided this was okay for me because it reminded me of the Romero zombie “types”, and it was funny.

The film also is a paean to the classic Porkys with quite a bit of sexual humor, which probably goes too far for some people.  Because I’m a moronic twelve year old boy at heart I did laugh out loud at the zombie wiener joke that made CFR scowl when I described it.  There were several really clever zombie kills, but Hollywood struck again in choosing a weapon for one of the scouts.  A weed eater will not take off a zombie head.  If they did I would be missing both my feet by now.  If you put a BLADE on it, sure, but the whirling plastic string of death just made me flinch.

CFR* would like, I’m sure, the fact that the boy scouts are saved by the savvy and ferocious cocktail waitress Denise, who also teaches them a lot about bravery and growing up. What I liked the most about her was how matter-of-fact everyone was about how tough she is. There was not one moment of the “but I’m the man” crap before settling in to “letting” her “help”.  They rely on her from the start, which I enjoyed very much.

Scouts Guide is a fun movie that may or may not have several hilarious moments for you, depending on your tolerance for juvenile sex jokes, though the timing is off just enough to lessen the impact of a lot of the humor and action. I recommend this if you think you can handle zombie junk jokes and treating gore humorously.

LINKS:

• Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse – IMDB
• Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse – Official Site
• Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse – Wikipedia

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse Official Trailer #1 (2015) – Tye Sheridan Movie HD

*CFR: In Addition: Yup.