Scout's Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse: Film Review

Scout's Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse: Film Review

Cast: Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan, Sarah Dumont, David Koechner
Director: Christopher Landon

The fact there are four writers on this film and it's still not on par should tell you all you need to know about Scout's Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse, an occasionally gore-filled comedy that's more miss than hit.

Aimed purely at teenage boys who are on the cusp of obsessing about breasts, its three protagonists are members of a scout troop, headed up by Anchorman star David Koechner's Dolly Parton obsessed leader Scout Leader Rodgers.

This trio consists of level-headed Ben (Mud star Tye Sheridan), the crass sex-obsessed and party wannabe Carter (Miller) and chubby lisper and long term scout Augie (Morgan). Heading out on their final camping trip together, they find a zombie apocalypse on their doorstep. Their only initial guide to surviving the hordes of the undead and the bitey brigade is cocktail waitress Denise (Dumont, who's bedecked in a tank top and cut off jeans throughout) but soon, the trio has to rely on their scouting skills to try and save the day.

To say that Scout's Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse aims for low-hanging fruit is an obvious understatement.

It's not setting out to change the world, merely to try and offer some laughs, but to be frank, it fails to deliver a lot of that for the majority of the time. It's only in the last 20 minutes that the film finally embraces the silliness of its premise and gorges on the energy it's been so lacking in throughout.

There's a vein of obvious raunchiness throughout that Landon has tried to throw in with the bro-bonding and friends dynamic - and that element will certainly appeal to the tittering teens whose comic bones will be amused by (to give an example, the strip club in town is called Lawrence of Alabia). But there's far too little of anything in Scout's Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse to give it a real edge or stand out above fare of a similar nature. And it's no Shaun of The Dead either, lacking any level of sophistication - despite how much Sheridan delivers on a cliched character trope.

The film has some reasonably amusing moments - the promise of zombie cats delivers, another of the undead wears a YOLO shirt, a half smashed glass driven into a head delivers a pouring spout of blood and an escape sequence involving a trampoline finds the lowest common denominator - but Scout's Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse is an entirely forgettable film the moment it's over.

Solid camaraderie and a Three Amigos bond give Scout's Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse the heart the undead are missing, but frankly, due to missing laughs and an uncertainty to dive in and be as stupid as it clearly wants to be,this adolescent fantasy piece that objectifies women throughout never really comes to life until the end - and it's too late by then.

Lord Baden Powell would turn in his grave.

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