SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE opens with a janitor (Blake Anderson, Comedy Central’s WORKAHOLICS) using his mop as both a microphone and potential mate. Not long after, he stumbles across a lab. It’s there that a seemingly dead body attacks him. And that, in short, is how the latest cinematic zombie apocalypse begins.
Meanwhile, high school sophomores Ben (Tye Sheridan, who will play Cyclops in the upcoming X-MEN: APOCALYPSE), Carter (Logan Miller, Matt Sobel’s TAKE ME TO THE RIVER) and Augie (Joey Foster, in his debut) are trying to scrounge up new members for their scout group. Ben and Carter are prepared to move on so they can get the sort of girlfriends that have eluded them. This includes taking advantage of going to an upperclassmen party, which the Condor Badge-bound Augie would never condone.
In their quest to score some beer for the shindig, Ben and Carter enlist Denise (Sarah Dumont, who had a small role in the flawlessly titled BAD ASS 2: BADASSES), a local cocktail waitress (read: stripper) with a set of legs that must make her a popular attraction. She makes a fitting addition to the team once she saves the boys from a zombie, a qualification that must be a pre-requisite for taking off your top for dollar bills.
From there, the movie is filled with the sort of gags that one would think came directly from the mind of a middle school boy. The movie is riddled with dumb clichés, from underclassmen trying to land some tail and have “the night of their lives” to, well, suburban zombies, which is as worn out as Augie’s khakis. At times, it seems like the goal was to compile inane scenes from bad movies (and the occasional good one, like SUPERBAD) and throw them on paper.
When the blood comes, it’s in buckets, which will either delight or gross out the viewer. Here are two examples: a scout ranger (David Koechner in a simple enough role) dukes it out with an undead deer, finishing it off with a knife to the eyeball; a zombified stripper twirls on a pole, turning upside and letting her neck spew blood on a patron. If that’s for you, feel free to skip past the toilet humor, the grand finale of which finds a bird going to the bathroom on Koechner’s head.
Director Christopher B. Landon (2010’s BURNING PALMS, 2014’s PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES) and his fellow screenwriters (yes, it took three adults to come up with this material) make good on the movie’s title, but that might not be saying a whole lot. Scouts, check. Zombie apocalypse, check. Cleverness, not so much.
BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: 2.39:1 in 1080p with MPEG-4 AVC codec. Details and colors are strong and accurate.
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; French 5.1 Dolby Digital; Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital; Portuguese 5.1 Dobly Digital. Subtitles in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. The dialogue and sound effects come through without any significant flaw.
Scouts Guide to Filmmaking (29:34): This featurette looks at the origins, story, characters, effects and more.
The Zombie Makeup FX Handbook (5:37): The makeup effects are covered.
Undead Movement Guidelines: Zombie Choreography (5:12): This piece looks at choreographer Mark Steger’s work on the movie and with its 200+ zombies.
Uniforms and You: Costume Design (5:11): Costume designer Marylou Lim discusses her contributions.
Deleted Scenes (2:36): There are two here, which can be viewed separately or as a whole. They are: “Extended Scouting Video” and “Pharmacy.”
DVD
UltraViolet