Scout's Honor

I don't know why I keep going for the zombie comedies, but I queued up Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015).

It starts in the usual way: A scientist working with monkeys, a janitor lets the zombie virus loose. All it needed was "Bela Lugosi's Dead" on the soundtrack (instead of Iggy Azalea?). 

Then we meet our protagonists: Three young teenaged Boy Scouts and their scout master, trying to recruit an AV geek at high school. They fail - these three are the troop. To summarize:

• Tye Sheridan (Cyclops) is the nice normal one
• Logan Miller is the sarcastic bad boy of the bunch - he doesn't really care about scouting
• Joey Morgan is the fat one - he is totally into scouting

These three have been friends since childhood, and since Morgan's dad died a few years ago, the other two have been supporting him by sticking with scouting. Tonight, Morgan is going to be promoted to Buzzard at a campout for the three of them and the scout master. On the way to the campground, they hit a deer, then meet Miller's cute sister, some of her cute senior friends and their douchey boyfriends. They don't even notice that the dead deer gets up and runs away. Miller gets the address for the secret Seniors Party from one of them, and he wants to ditch Morgan for the party after he falls asleep.

They stop at a liquor store across from a strip club and try to find someone to buy some beer for the party. Sarah Dumont, a stripper from across the street comes by and Sheridan fixes the strap of her handbag, using his scouting skills. She takes a liking to him.

They get to the campground and find Morgan all set up. The scout master isn't around, because the zombie deer bit him. Late that night, Sheridan and Miller try to sneak out, but Morgan catches them and is very disappointed.

The two boys happen to stop by the strip club, and notice that the bouncer is gone. They don't notice that everyone else seems to be gone. They sneak in to the club and find it empty except one zombie stripper - Miller thinks it's just makeup until she attacks them. Fortunately, Dumont saves them with a shotgun. At last, our leads have figured out that there are zombies, and they go on the run with Dumont.

So, kind of a slow buildup, but it's kind of fun if you like the kids. They are ~15-16, still young enough to have fun goofing around at the campout. But Miller is kind of an Evil Ed type, Morgan is a bit of a sad sack, and Sheridan, just a regular kid, figuring out where he fits in the world (and secretly nursing a crush on Miller's sister). 

As for the zombie stuff, a lot of it is based on other movies. Even the dead deer coming back to life was in Train to Busan. It's a horror comedy, comes with the territory. 

All in all, this wasn't great - maybe not even good. You could see that the director was going for old-style young friends confront monsters movie, and almost succeeding. But I don't think this will be considered a cult classic like Monster Squad in another 15 years.