Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)

Episode 106, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd:  Hello. Welcome to another episode of 2 Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd

Craig:  and I’m Craig.

Todd:  It’s our last day of requests for this month, November being request month this year, and, this one comes from Jordan, loyal listener Jordan, who’s actually guested on our show. Yep. Yep. Her request was The Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, a 2015 film directed by none other than Christopher Landon, Michael Landon’s son, who also shares a writing credit in this along with, 2 women, Emmy Mochizuki and Carrie Lee Wilson. Now the the Carrie Lee Wilson and Emmy Mochizuki don’t actually have much to their to their names besides this. They’ve done, some TV shows, and some things like that. Christopher Landon, however, decided to go the screenwriting route, and he’s written quite several horror movies and directed a few too. I think the parent several of the paranormal activity, sequels. I think he was also the writer of Disturbia as well. None of which I’ve ever seen before. This is the first film I think of his I’ve ever seen. And this is the also the first time I’d seen it. Craig, how about you? Have you seen this one before?

Craig:  Yeah. I think I read about this movie when it was being made, and, so when it came out, I rented it and watched it, and I just remembered thinking that it was a lot of fun, you know, really entertaining. And so when Jordan brought it up, I thought it would be a fun one to do. We haven’t done something kinda funny like this for a while, so

Todd:  I thought we’d give it a go. Yeah. And it is. I mean, that’s kinda how I would sum up. It is a fun movie. It’s not without its problems. And on on honestly, like, there are parts of it that I think I was clearly not the target audience for this film. And at times, this seemed like it didn’t know whether it wanted to be a horror movie or a sex comedy, I think. And, I have to say at times it rubbed me the wrong way because of it. But, I think that’s just my personal taste, to be honest. You know?

Craig:  Yeah. See. And I think I think I’m a 14 year old boy at heart, so I think that it it it it worked for me. I mean, it’s the the humor is low brow and and, corny, but it made me laugh.

Todd:  Well, it starts out with a I think it’s a janitor in what seems to be the CDC or something like that. I think we later find out it’s like a biotech industry of some kind, who’s jamming out to Iggy Azalea and he happens into a room with a guy who’s working on something, obviously, a serious scientist. The, serious scientist goes out into the hallway to get a bag of tick Takis from the machine. And while he’s struggling with that, the guy inside pokes around a little too much and comes across a body. This scene, I think, really just sets the tone for the film. That’s Yeah. Yeah. He he comes across his body even after the guy said, don’t touch anything. Of course, he goes in and starts touching things. And there’s this Todd, looks like it’s dead, but it’s still hooked up to a machine and alive. And then he trips, after the body jolts a little bit and falls all over the equipment and that, starts things, going a little haywire. The equipment makes his heart flat line or whatever, and so he freaks out. He jumps on top of this, what we’ve later learned as a zombie, and tries to give it CPR.

Craig:  And I

Todd:  think we all knew where this was going from the beginning. Right. He dumps Tic Tacs into his mouth because his mouth is super gross before, you know, he goes down to do that. And then as he’s doing chest compressions on this thing, his hands go right into it. Like, his his whole chest cavity just caves in and this and the zombie at this point also comes alive and, takes this guy out while the man in the hallway is still working with his arm in the machine now trying to free the taquitos, that are stuck in there. Zombie janitor kid then comes out and gets him Todd. And that that sets the tone for the rest of the movie. These are the kind of jokes we’re gonna get. Like you said, it’s really low brow, but, you know, I I have I’m fine with low brow humor. It doesn’t bother me so much. Sometimes I really dig it. This movie was part and parcel more or less all lowbrow humor. Yeah. And shit is, I think. But with a lot of good zombie stuff in it. You know? I mean, I gotta say that much about it.

Craig:  Well, and it ends up being a movie about teenage boys. And, you know, when like I said, I don’t know that I ever really progressed all that far beyond that. Maybe that has something to do with why I’m perpetually in high school. You know, like, that’s, who I have chosen to spend my life with as high school kids. And so the the humor is just kind of funny. And that opening scene, I think, like you said, just really sets the tone. It’s it’s really goofy. You know, this janitor’s really goofy. He’s really, like, just jamming out to this music. He’s, like, putting his nipple up against the window trying to tease the scientist, and it’s all just really goofy humor. But then, like you said, it gets to the zombie stuff, and and we get, good zombie, you know, gore and and violence. And, and and that then sustains throughout the rest of the movie. This movie in tone is somewhat similar to a lot of other movies. You know? It’s it’s kind of similar to, Cooties, which we talked about where there was a zombie outbreak in an elementary school. It’s, reminiscent of Zombieland, in some places. I don’t know if if it’s quite as clever as, Zombieland, but it it tries, and I think it’s a a pretty decent effort. The next thing that we cut to is this scouting promotional video, which is super hokey, and and it stars scout leader Rogers, who ends up being the scout leader in the movie and is who’s played by David Koechner, who people would recognize. I mean, he’s been in everything, but, he was yeah. He was in The Office. He was in Anchorman. He was the goofy uncle in Krampus. And, it it looks like he’s doing this recruiting thing, but really the only people who are watching are these 3 boys. And I say boys, they’re I I would guess, what, like 17, 16, 17?

Todd:  Mhmm. Yeah.

Craig:  They they drive, so they’re they’re old enough to drive.

Todd:  But they’re And they’re entering their junior year. Right? They’re in their sophomore year entering their junior year.

Craig:  Yep. Right. And it’s, these 3 kids who are gonna be the central characters of the movie, Auggie played by Joey Morgan, Carter played by Logan Miller, and Ben played by Ty Sheridan. And Auggie is kind of the big, kind of nerdy one. I mean, you know, he seems like a nice kid, but he’s not stereotypically good looking, and he’s the one who’s really into scouts. And then Carter is kind of the one who has clearly grown out of this, is is way more into or interested in, you know, kind of teenage rebellion. And then Ben, who kind of falls in the middle. Ben’s kind of, the nice, semi popular kid. And, arguably, I guess, Ben and kinda being the main character. But it’s just these these three guys who we’re led to believe have been best friends since, they were little kids, and they’ve been in scouts together since, they were little kids. And I guess this night kinda marks a big night because Auggie is going to be getting his Condor badge, which I assume is the equivalent of kind of the eagle badge in, the boy scouts. And so, they’re gonna be camping out to celebrate this. But we find out that Ben and Carter, have kind of been plotting behind the scenes, and they’re trying to figure out how they’re going to tell Auggie that they’re gonna be quitting scouts. They kind of feel like, they’ve outgrown it.

Todd:  Yeah. And it’s kind of a pathetic little scout troop. It’s just the 3 of them quite literally. Yeah. I don’t know if it’s if it’s if it’s, like, the rest of the scouts have gone on to other things and it’s just these 3 who stuck it with it all this time or if the impression is that, you know, they’re over enthusiastic scout leader Rogers just hasn’t been able to recruit anybody else, but these 3. I mean, they’re the ones who show up in the recruitment video that presumably he plays all the time. So, you know, either way, it’s just these 3 guys in this scouting troop. So it’s it’s a little sad to begin with, but that also, you know, this this sort of thing is inevitable. Right? Some of them are gonna wanna move on, and that’s gonna be awkward because it’s only 3 of them.

Craig:  Yeah. Well, and I get the sense that that’s fairly typical, you know, and and real life. Oh, for sure. Lots of little lots of little boys are are in scouts, but they kinda, you know, people drop off as time goes on. And it’s really only the most dedicated who really stick with it, and and very few people actually get the Eagle Scout, which I I I wanna just say I I find very admirable. It’s something that’s not easy to do, and it does take a lot of time and dedication. And, you know, good old Augie, you know, he’s he’s clearly put in his time, and he’s gonna do this. But the other the other 2 are are getting more interested in other things like girls. Come on. You’ve had fun.

Clip:  Had fun. Okay. Past tense, Had. And now I am ready to move on. I mean, you realize it’s gonna be junior year next year. I mean, you know what that means. Right?

Craig:  Todd thinking about college?

Clip:  We start thinking about pussy, Ben. Come on. Junior year is when all the girls become slugs. Oh, really? Yes. And if we’re sitting here in these scout uniforms, it’s gonna be the male version of a chastity belt, Ben.

Craig:  So, you know, priorities, come on.

Todd:  It was It’s pretty funny. I’d say it’s about 10 minutes into this movie that I realized this was basically gonna be cooties mixed with American pie, you know. Yeah. And that’s basically how it goes this whole time. It’s Carter and and it plays with a little bit and mixes the zombies in with it a little bit and and really goes out of its way sometimes to make a lot of these sex jokes in the midst of all this trauma and this turmoil still, you know, oh, I get to see some boobies, you know, is kind of

Craig:  a Right.

Todd:  Right. Suddenly stops in his tracks, you know, kinda thing. So that’s that’s the kinda movie it is. Carter and Ben are driving, and they hit a deer. And I just have to say, like, this is the best deer accident you could possibly hope for. It does Right. It does almost no damage to the car even though they hit this deer just flats flat on, in the middle of the road. And, and the only thing that happens is the tire’s flat, so they have to change it. And as they’re changing this flat tire, Up drives another car with the other characters we’re gonna see in the movie. 1 of them is Carter’s sister sister, who we learned Ben has a serious crush on, and she’s super sweet to him. And then there’s a jerk, of course, because there has to be guy, named Jeff who is

Craig:  Yeah. Her Played by Patrick Schwarzenegger.

Todd:  No way. Yeah. I didn’t even realize that. Oh, my gosh. So he’s the on again off again boyfriend of Kendall who is a Carter sister. And then there’s another girl in there named Chloe. And so they’re all chatting and Chloe, Carter’s trying to hit on Chloe. In the meantime, Ben is queuing it up with Kendall. And at some point, Kendall mentions, well, looks like the car, the deer got off better than the car. And he’s like, what do you mean? And she turns and it’s and it’s gone. And the deer’s gone. They think, oh, that’s strange. And, in the meantime, car it turns out that as this other group speeds away, Carter comes back and says, yeah. We got you won’t believe what happened. We got invited to the super secret senior party for the year. So this sets up kind of our main conflict between the main characters aside from the zombies, is the sub conflict between them. This is the same night that they’re supposed to do the campout with Auggie so that he can get his badge. But who they can’t pass up this opportunity to be invited to this super secret seniors party where for sure Carter’s gonna get laid, you know, 15 times over.

Craig:  Right.

Todd:  So that becomes sort of the second, central conflict between those three people that causes some drama and some group dynamics there.

Craig:  Well, and the the plan is that and it’s Carter’s plan, you know, Ben kind of feels bad about it, you know, he wants to be a good friend. He’s like, we can’t miss this thing and Carter’s like, well, we’ll we’ll go to the campout and then when scout leader Rogers and Auggie fall asleep, we’ll just sneak out and we’ll come back before morning so they’ll never even know we were gone. They drive up to Carter’s house and we meet his grouchy neighbor, missus Fielder, who’s played by Cloris Leachman. And

Todd:  Yeah. You can’t

Craig:  you can’t go you can’t go wrong with Cloris Leachman. Of course not. Cloris Leachman is hilarious. And, knowing that this is a zombie movie, you know, you’re just just waiting. Like, come on, zombie clashing.

Todd:  Come on. It’s funny. She’s mean, and she’s angry about them, like, leaving the, like, trash can in her yard. You know, just your stereotypical neighbor, but she also happens to be the crazy cat lady

Craig:  too. Right. Right. And you you you meet her for all of, like, 5 seconds. So you know that this is just a setup for her to come back later, which, of course, it is, and it’s it’s pretty hilarious when she does come back. Then we see, scout leader Rogers, trekking through the woods and he gets attacked by the zombie deer, but he uses his trusty lucky pocket knife to fight off the zombie deer, but then he’s immediately also attacked by the scientist from the opening clip, and so we know that he’s a goner.

Todd:  I have to say, like, at this point, this movie is pretty typical, Like, the script is not super unique. I mean, yeah, it’s got it’s got the scouts in it, but it’s pretty derivative. It has all of what you expected a teen movie. You know, the dorky friends who’ve got, you know, their their bond together, but they’re, you know, that’s being tested. You have the hot girl that, the one guy’s lusting after. You have the other, the super horny guy, you have the nerdy guy, you have the jerk, you know, who’s the hot girl is currently entangled with. And honestly, even by the end of this movie, all this plays out exactly as it would play out in any other film as well. So So, it’s predictable in that way. I guess the only twist here is the zombies are there.

Craig:  Well, yeah. But but you’re right. I mean, if this were just a teen sex comedy, like, if you took out all of the zombies, things really would all probably play out the same way. You know? Like, you know the cute guy is gonna get the girl in the end. You know, like, you know you know there’s gonna be lots of boob jokes and stuff. You know? And and that’s how it plays out. But I have to say that’s one of the reasons that I like this movie is because I think that it melds those 2 genres so well. And, frankly, zom the the zombie genre is is not my favorite genre in horror. I watch it all the time, but you’ve seen 1 zombie movie, you’ve kinda seen them all, really. I mean, there’s not a whole lot you can do with it. You know, I know that there have been, you know, like, 28 Days Later, you know, kinda came up with the fast zombies. And so, like, you know, there’s there’s different approaches. I’m not saying they’re all exactly the same, but a zombie movie is a zombie movie. Well And

Todd:  They all have the same stakes. You know. Yeah. Right. It’s always the same conceit. It’s the world is gonna be overrun by them. Right? And so we’re all trying to escape them and stop them from overrunning the world. It’s sort of like how every, superhero movie is exactly the same. Right? The the world’s always in danger of the universe.

Craig:  Right. And and this one, I, you know, I think it does a good job of putting these 2 kinda genres together, the teenage sex comedy. And it’s got the best of both worlds, I guess, is what I’m saying. It it kinda it freshens up the zombie formula for me enough that, it’s it’s entertaining.

Todd:  It’s got a lot of unique elements that I haven’t seen in other zombie movies, and that’s really what you gotta do. Right? I mean, that’s that’s the challenge of anyone who’s doing a zombie movie now is how are you gonna make some unique kills? How are you gonna play around with the zombies? And with the comedy, you have even more leeway to go in directions that, other zombie movies haven’t gone yet, and there’s plenty of that in this movie too. Yeah.

Craig:  And I I like some of the things that they did that you don’t I mean, it’s not like you never see this, like, you know, the zombie deer. Usually in zombie movies, it’s the people who are infected. You know, you’ve seen Evil Dead. You’ve seen, you know, like, the zombie deer head and stuff, so it’s not like these are entirely unique things, but, unique enough that, it it stands out a little bit. The the 2 boys, Carter and Ben, end up going to a convenience store because they wanna have somebody buy them beer and and car Carter gives money to this crazy homeless guy out front who then goes in and Stereo acts crazy.

Todd:  Stereotypical drunk homeless man. I I have to say, I thought this whole scene was rather silly, and I have to knock down the movie a few pegs. I mean, I I’m fine with suspension of disbelief, and in comedies, things are wild and raucous, but there was nothing realistic about this scene whatsoever. I I think think I mean, come on, man. They give this this obviously overacting, almost a fantasy stereotypical homeless crack head who just goes inside, and it’s all super loopy and like pulling random things off the shelf and piling them on, and I’m like, oh, okay, I guess this is supposed to be funny. And then he runs in and starts arguing with this guy, which, in front of the shop owner, you know, blows his cover completely. At this point, this this woman walks by, from across the street where there’s a strip club, and the strip club’s name is Lawrence of a labia.

Craig:  Then I was laughing. I was talking about this. Oh, gosh. Yeah. It is so funny. And I was talking about this last night, and I was trying so hard to come up with the name of the strip, Giant Knight, because I thought it was so funny that I was like, I think it was something like elabian knights. Like, that works too. But, no, Lawrence of Arabia is is pretty darn good. That’s so funny. And, yeah, they they they see this girl, Denise.

Clip:  Costume party?

Craig:  No. I’m a scout.

Clip:  Like an actual scout?

Craig:  Yeah. Well, we gotta camp out tonight. So you you work across the street?

Clip:  Yep. My my son.

Todd:  Yeah. I

Craig:  mean, never been in, but I hear it’s nice. It’s got a good Yelp review.

Clip:  What? Nothing. You’re just you’re really cute.

Craig:  I don’t recognize this girl. Her name is Sarah Dumont, but, she’s she’s gorgeous. I mean, she’s she’s tall and beautiful and, just looks like a badass and he ties her strap with, like, a scout knot knot. And, she’s kind of impressed with him, or or at least grateful for his help. And so, she’s like, you guys are such amateurs. Just give me a second. And she goes inside and she gets the money from the crackhead and she buys them beer and so, like, she’s, you know, obviously, she’s gonna be the cool badass girl who is, gonna help them up later, and she does. I think she’s my favorite character. I mean, it doesn’t hurt that she’s really pretty to look at, but, she just she plays the tough girl who takes no nonsense, who, you know, she’s not a damsel in distress. She can hold her own, and, she’s a cool character.

Todd:  Yeah. She’s like Rose McGowan from Planet Terror or something like that in

Craig:  this Yeah.

Todd:  Yeah. The next thing we get basically is a montage at the campsite. They all join up with Auggie, and there’s a musical montage of putting up tents and roasting marsh mallows and having fun and whatnot.

Craig:  Of course, you know, they talk about where is scout leader Rogers, and Auggie’s like, well, he’s never late, so I have a feeling he’s just, like, testing me, like, this is my test to get my, badge or whatever. But this whole scene, even though it’s really short, is actually really sweet and that’s another thing that I think that this movie does well is establishing that these guys really are friends. They they may be growing up and they may be kind of growing apart a little bit because, you know, sometimes when you grow up you the friends that you had when you were little, you have different interests, whatever, but, they clearly they clearly have history, and and they have a close bond and it’s kind of cute. And Carter’s got, you know, this thing where he takes selfies with everything, like he took a selfie with the dead deer when they hit it, and he takes a selfie with Auggie when he hits him in the head with, the marshmallow. And that’s just kind of a running gag throughout. Like, later on, he’s taking selfies with the zombies and stuff. But I like that. And, you know, I I really like buddy movies and especially when movies can, really make me believe that the characters share these kinds of bonds. I’m a real sucker for that, you know. It’s like, I think that it’s very eighties, you know, movies like Stand by Me and The Goonies and Monster Squad, you know, where where these kids, their strength ends up lying in their friendships. And and so I appreciated that that they took the time to kind of establish that because then moving forward, these guys have to kinda look out for one another and, it’s cute. Yeah.

Todd:  And it’s convincing. You’re absolutely right. It is convincing. And Auggie and Ben share a scene, and I thought this was gonna be significant in some way, where, they talk about they mentioned Auggie’s dad, and I guess Auggie’s dad died. And, and they just have, more or less, it’s just a generic tender moment. It’s really there’s nothing gonna be about Auggie not having a father that comes along later. What this is is really to establish and solidify in our minds that bond between Auggie and Ben and how much Ben actually cares for Auggie. Because when it comes time for Carter to wake up Ben to leave, Ben doesn’t really wanna go. He’s really not he he didn’t really wanna go to the senior party in the first place. Again, Carter’s priority is the women and all that stuff, and he’s Ben’s really I mean, he’s he’s I think he just has a sight set for Carter’s sister, quite honestly.

Craig:  Yeah.

Todd:  Yeah. And so he’s yeah. But but he cares a lot about Auggie and he seems Todd care about his feelings more. And that comes into play later on in the film as well. But they end up leaving and they’re trying to find this party And we get to see a little bit of the party, and I don’t know, man. This must be what a senior party is like in Deerfield, California. Like, in my school, people would all get together at somebody’s house or something

Craig:  like that. But this is like Right.

Todd:  Giant rave with professionally installed lights, professional DJs in what looks to be like an abandoned swimming pool, indoor swimming pool or something Uh-huh. Out in the middle of nowhere. It’s pretty it’s pretty funny.

Craig:  Yeah. And, like, I I went to some pretty good raves, I think, in college, but nothing compared to this. Like, this looks like what I what I would have liked if you were a celebrity and you were going to a rave in Hollywood. Like, that’s what Yeah. Like, wall to wall, gorgeous people, like, dancing and making out, like, flashing lights everywhere. I mean, I I would definitely skip the Boy Scout campout to go to this party.

Todd:  Well, I was thinking, especially later on when, you know, the fact that this is a super secret party, so Todd, but apparently all of the people there, the seniors who were there, like, know about it. I thought, now this doesn’t work because all the vendors that had to come in and set up the lights, and set up the sound system, all that stuff, They got paid. They would know that this was going on.

Craig:  Oh, no. Carter and Ben leave, and they find the scoutmaster’s knife. And, when they they turn on the car and they turn on the headlights, Auggie is standing right there. Like, so they’re obviously caught and they have kind of this, confrontation.

Clip:  Thought we were best friends. We we are best friends. We were coming back. Really? After your party? You you know about that? Everybody knows about the senior party, Carter. Even a loser like me.

Craig:  Oh, you don’t say that.

Clip:  Why not? That’s what you guys think.

Craig:  Oh, wait. We don’t think you’re a loser.

Clip:  Ben, just just tell him. Carter, no. Yeah. Tell me, Ben. Come on. Say it. We’re quitting scouts, Auggie. Okay. It was fun when we were kids. We we have to grow up, man. Auggie, we’re still gonna be best friends. Go to your party.

Craig:  Carter and Ben end up leaving, and they they they start driving through town, and they can’t get any radio signal and and we’ve already seen that their cell phones aren’t working quite right. I thought that, again, that was another thing. I liked this movie period, but another thing that I liked about it was kind of the slow realization of what was going on like, you know, there was the the hint with the deer going away and, then all, you know, like then they can’t get any radio signal. What’s going on? And like they’re driving through town and all of the town looks deserted. So they don’t know what’s going on right away and they stop in front of that same convenience store where they were before and Ben notices that the door, to the convenience store is smashed and he thinks that’s weird, but then Carter realizes that the bouncer from Lawrence of Arabia is, not standing in front of the door anymore. And he’s like, this is our shot. You know, the bouncer’s gone. We gotta get in there. So they go in and In their scout uniforms. Yeah. I mean, in the scout uniforms that they’re in are like the scout uniforms that 5 year olds wear, like like the khaki shorts and, like, oh gosh. It’s and and the, you know, the little neckerchief, like, it’s so cute or whatever. But then they go into the strip club, and I just I thought this was hilarious. I I just loved it.

Todd:  Yeah. The strip club’s entirely empty, but the music’s playing. This the the lights are going, and Ben sits down. I don’t know what he was expecting. I think he was just sits down in front of an empty pole in the middle of an empty room, and, sure enough, a stripper comes out and walks down and does a bit of a pole dance in front of him, but as we can figure out by this point, it’s a zombie stripper.

Craig:  Right. Right. When she comes up, she’s lit from the back, and so you can’t tell that there’s anything wrong with her. And it’s it’s it’s actually very sexy. And, you know, here’s cute little innocent Ben sitting down at the end of the runway. And she comes down and she dances for him for a second, and it looks like she’s gonna kinda like, she’s reaching out like she’s gonna bite him but in a seductive way. And that’s when Carter sits down, and Ben even says something like, dude, something wrong with her. Look at her chest. Look all over her. No. No. That’s makeup, dummy. It’s a jungle theme. And then and then she sprays the blood out, like it’s like when she goes upside down on the pole and, like, leans her head back, like, her neck splits open and sprays blood all over Carter just like he’s just covered in blood and and then the zombie bouncer shows up and, chases them around and it’s pretty scary. But then Denise, badass Denise shows up and and saves the day and rescues them and they get the heck out of there.

Todd:  They come out and, run for the car and they have basically, it looks like half the town starts running towards them all of a sudden. And, as they try to get out of of there, the the spare tire on the car comes falling off because they did a really poor job, I guess, of installing it the first time. And they literally changed the tire again while Denise is trying to hold off the rest of the this zombie horde coming towards them basically with her shotgun. And they they managed to do it, and they speed out of there. In the meantime, Auggie has gone by Roger’s, house. I guess, you know, at this point he’s done camping, and he’s looking for him. Himself. And and the joke here is that this scout master has a thing for Dolly Parton, and his whole house is completely decked out in Dolly Parton memorabilia. I mean, from the curtains to the bed sheets. Even has, like, a Dolly Parton pinball machine in the living room. And, and then he goes in and eat some Todd, and then, oh, stomach starts rumbling, so he’s gotta take a crap. And so, again, you get more of this fart jokes, poop jokes. You know, this again, it’s just not my kind of movie, you know. I

Craig:  and and I thought that you I knew watching this that that is kind of how you would feel about it. I just think it’s funny. I mean, even the whole Dolly Parton thing where the whole house is just like there’s a Dolly Parton bust and they’re like That’s hilarious. Life-sized cutouts of her and and paintings and, like, it’s just ridiculous. Like, it’s it’s really stupid, but I just thought

Todd:  it was hilarious.

Craig:  I like that part. And, yeah, like, you know, Auggie sits down and is taking a crap and, like, he smells his own crap and is like, oh. And so, like, he there’s a window directly behind him and he opens it, and a zombie’s, like, creeping up behind him as he’s, like, wiping his butt and stuff. Like, it’s totally it’s so juvenile. Oh, yeah. But so am I, apparently, because I I just thought it was it was really funny. Todd doesn’t pretend to be anything that it’s not. No. For sure. Like, it it it it takes that that lame juvenile humor and it just runs with it and sometimes movies try to be super super clever and I just kinda roll my eyes like, oh, I get it. You’re super super clever. And and this one’s just like, nope. We’re just gonna go for poop jokes and boob jokes and and I’m I’m I’m

Todd:  down with that. I’m Todd with it. For sure.

Craig:  There are a cup when you said when you said earlier that there were some parts that you were, like that you just, you know, kinda couldn’t tolerate. Immediately, there was one part that came to mind, which we haven’t gotten to.

Todd:  I think I know

Craig:  what you were talking about. But You know what?

Todd:  Oh, yeah.

Craig:  I I just thought it was so funny.

Todd:  We’ll get to that part, and, we’ll talk about that that part as it were.

Craig:  Oh, and then okay. So so what’s his name? The the scout leader shows up, and of course, Auggie quickly realizes that he’s a zombie and they fight, but, like, when they’re fighting, Auggie, like, trips over the CD player and so it comes on and so this whole zombie fight is soundtracked to Dolly Parton’s 95, which I know. That’s so funny.

Todd:  That was funny. I mean, there were I’m not saying everything in here was totally juvenile. You know, some of it was really funny and clever, but then what does he do? Like, the bust of Dolly Parton falls down on him, and he uses the bust as a weapon, and and it turns out so he holds the bust up, and then the zombie goes face first into the bust of the bust. Like Oh, great.

Craig:  Like motorboats. Motorboats, the bust. I oh my god.

Todd:  You know? Oh Todd.

Craig:  That’s that’s that’s not even as bad as when we get back to Chloris Leachman. That was a part I didn’t even really understand, but we’ll we’ll get there. Yeah. Oh, man. So, anyway, so Auggie, you know, uses, like, a can of wd40 and a lighter Todd torch Rogers and then he ties them all up. And then we get back to the other boys who are now teamed up with Denise and I guess they go Todd, like, the community center or the police station.

Todd:  I guess it’s the police station. It’s the sheriff’s office.

Craig:  Yeah. And there’s a sign that says all evacuation buses have have departed. So they’re gonna go back to the car, but the car is surrounded by zombies, so they end up running into the police station and there’s a zombie cop in there and then the whole zombie horde gets in there and so they end up locking themselves in a jail cell and it’s one of those jail cells that I really believe only exists in movies and television shows where, you know, it’s just like a cage in the middle of, like, the sheriff’s office or whatever. Literal cage. Yeah. But I I again, I really liked this. I thought that it was kind of a, you know, a a clever little twist that they’re just in this cage and the zombies are, like, reaching in trying to get them and so they just kind of have Todd huddle in the middle where the zombies can’t get them. And, eventually, they’re, like, bored, and they’re just hanging out and talking. And the zombies are all around, and Carter’s, like, taking selfies with the the zombies. It was just I thought it was I thought it was funny. They have a, like, they have a little heart to heart in there. Like, it’s cute.

Todd:  It’s it saw that coming a mile away too. Again, it’s one of these parts of the movies they gotta get gotta somehow give them a break so they could sit Todd, have their heart to heart, and move the characters along a little bit before they get back into the action. But, yeah, they do that and, have a discussion about Auggie and, basically, Denise is their conscience, you know. Denise is the one who’s

Craig:  Yeah.

Todd:  Trying to tell them, you know, again, it’s that stereotypical thing. The badass street smart girl who’s seeing it all

Craig:  The hard of gold.

Todd:  Now yeah. And also, like, wiser than anybody else because of it. Right? Tells them that they need to how could they do that to their friend? Then they use Carter’s condoms to get out of jail. Like, just I’m just telling you, man.

Craig:  Carter Okay. I’ll give you yeah. I’ll give you that one. That one was pretty silly. They fly they fly fish with the condoms. That was really Successfully.

Todd:  Quite literally that was reaching. I’m sorry. But that was it was reaching in 2 senses.

Craig:  Yeah. I’ll I’ll give you that one. I’ll give you that one. The movie’s not realistic at all. Like, everybody always shows up exactly when they should. And and so, you know, Auggie shows up at this point, and he distracts the zombies to, get them out. There’s some silly slapstick comedy about, like, you know, they they they successfully fly fish the keys with the condoms, but then Auggie comes in and like kicks the keys into a hole or something, but he gets them out and they go running off and they’re being chased by all these zombies and, they go through this fence or, like, a gate or something and they they close the gate, but they close the gate just after they’ve seen this female cop before, and she’s this female when before she was a zombie, and it’s this female cop with these huge boobs and when when they close the gate, it’s like she got through, but her shirt got caught on the gate, so her shirt just rips open and these huge zombie boobs come flopping out and, like, it goes to slow mo to show these boobs just kinda, like, bouncing in the wind, and, like, Carter’s face is just, like, you know, he’s huge and wide eyed, and it’s just it’s kind of a long shot just on these giant boobs. And then Carter’s just everybody else is running and Carter is just kind of standing there looking at them and then they’re like, come on, Carter. And just real quick before he runs off, he just grabs her boobs and, like, squeezes them for a second, and and then he starts running off with them and he’s like, I felt them. I felt them. I don’t think they were real.

Todd:  Oh, it’s

Craig:  so juvenile. It’s so 13 year old boy, and it oh, I just thought it was so funny. I laughed. Giant zombie boobs.

Todd:  Yeah. Well, I don’t know. Does the car break down or they just stop? I can’t remember what why they encounter that Britney Spears singing zombie in the middle of the road.

Craig:  Yeah. The it’s the same it’s the crack head from the convenience store, but now he’s a zombie and this, you know, it’s hit and miss, you know. I I like silly, stupid humor, but this part, they probably coulda cut out. I I I don’t even really under I don’t really get it. Like Yeah. They they confront this crackhead zombie and Auggie, like, is like, oh, it’s just like in the wild when you face animal, you have to intimidate them. So he starts trying to, like, yell at the zombie and then the zombie starts mimicking him And then he notices that the zombie is wearing a Britney Spears t shirt, so he starts singing hit me baby one more time to it and the zombie starts singing it. And so then, like, it’s like a hit me baby one more time sing along for a minute. Yeah. Oh, okay. And then a hot black soldier shows up.

Todd:  Yeah. That’s right.

Craig:  Out of nowhere and kills that zombie and takes them off, and and he’s only there for a second. And it basically, he’s only there so that we can find out that at 3 AM, they are gonna bomb the whole town. The military is gonna bomb the whole Todd. But the boys, instead of wanting to get away, they want to get to the senior party because they they say, so you’ve evacuated the whole town? And and the soldier’s like, yeah. We’ve evacuated the whole town. And they’re like, even the people at the party, and the soldier’s like, what party?

Todd:  You know, I understand they’d had to do this, and this is just we’re gonna go with it, but I just wanna point out how ridiculous this is. Sure. This whole town got evacuated in a matter of a few hours, and that all of the parents of the hundreds of kids that are at this party just left without them. Nobody knew or cared, enough to, yeah, find out where these kids were.

Craig:  And, well, yeah. And I mean, as as no. You’re absolutely right. It is. And and that’s the other thing too. Like, if you want to enjoy this movie, you’re gonna have to get over the fact that the script is really contrived. Like, so it because they don’t know where the party is, but Carter remembers that his sister, Kendall, writes everything in her journal. So he’s positive that she would have written where it is in her journal. So they’ve got to go back to his house to find her diary, and so they do and that’s where they, of course, then encounter zombie, Cloris Leachman.

Todd:  Oh, man. That was crazy. She’s still peering out of her window at the neighbors like she was before, and Right. But she’s a zombie now. And while they’re looking for the diary, she comes over and breaks into the house. And, as they’re fighting with her, I guess, they knock her dentures out. And so Yeah. At one point, she’s overcome Carter, and she’s super strong. Like, she’s it’s that’s part of the the humor of this that really works, I think, is that this old lady, because she’s a zombie, of course, like, has a super so she’s throwing these kids around. And as she gets cartered Todd down on the sofa, I guess, has pulled his pants down in the struggle and bites his butt. And I thought, oh my gosh. Carter’s gonna die. I didn’t expect that. But because her dentures were knocked out earlier, all that Carter says is, It’s

Craig:  so gross and so stupid. Like like, she is just face deep in his butt crack. It’s just ridiculous. So then the the zombies are all coming for them and they’re up in Kendall’s room. And the only way that they can get out is there’s a trampoline underneath the window, and they’re like, we can jump out on the trampoline and jump over the 10 foot wall to next door.

Todd:  I have to say the trampoline scene was cool. The notion, like, he leans out the window and they find and there’s a zombie that’s been bouncing on the trampoline the entire time, and he comes up and grabs him and starts to pull him out. And they have to pull, you know, Ben back in. I thought that was a really neat idea, you know, to have this sort of trampoline be their means of escape, but also be, a bear you know, a way that the zombies are getting to them. That was unique. You know, like I said like we said earlier, you gotta find these unique things to do with the zombie genre. And being a comedy, they have a little more leeway and so, of course, throwing a trampoline and zombies on a trampoline was was entertaining.

Craig:  Yeah. It was funny. And, apparently, it was inspired by some video game, one that I’d never heard of, but, apparently, that was an escape route in some video game, so they used it. And then, you know, it was. Like you said, it’s it’s not something you’ve seen a 100 times, which is nice, in a zombie movie. We’ve I I forgot. I skipped over the part where, again, we we have to take a moment for characters to have a heart to heart, and, Ben and Denise have a heart to heart where she’s trying to get him to man up and, like, she finds out that he’s got a crush on Kendall.

Clip:  Don’t take this the wrong way, but you have to man up. Yeah. But I suck at being that guy. I’m not assertive like that. Kiss me.

Craig:  What?

Clip:  Don’t what me. Just do it. Kiss me.

Craig:  Are are you serious?

Clip:  Yeah. I’m serious. I saw you checking out my ass earlier. I know you wanna do it. Just kiss me. No.

Craig:  I wasn’t. Ben.

Clip:  Okay. For a second, I did. Kiss me.

Craig:  And they do, and it’s cute. And she’s like, pretty good. You know? Next time you see Kendall, just lay that on her, and, everything will be cool.

Todd:  Terrible advice, by the way.

Craig:  Right. Right. That that’s that’s exactly what girls want, you know, to walk up

Todd:  to them. Walk straight up to them. Yep.

Craig:  Right. But so everybody else jumps out the window, but Ben is the last one. And right at the last second, the the diary falls out of a drawer or something, and the zombies are coming in, but he grabs the diary. He goes to jump out of the window, but, like, I feel like the zombies kind of grab him, so he kind of loses his bearings and he turns around and he just grabs onto the first thing he can grab onto. He realizes then when he’s, like, dangling there on the ledge that he’s holding on to this old zombie’s dick.

Todd:  And it’s stretching Yeah. As he’s leaning out the window.

Craig:  Carter’s like, hold on to that cock, Ben. And then Ben falls out of the window, and it’s like a a shot for shot remake of when Hans Gruber falls out of the building at the end of Die Hard. It’s slow motion. It’s

Todd:  Except if Hans Gruber had a ripped off, zombie dick in his hand as he was doing it. Right. And and I have to say I have to say, Craig, as as much as I know this is the scene you were talking about, by the way, that I would I would have an opinion about. And as much as this is, like, super juvenile, by now, I knew what kind of movie this was. I was on board with it, and I was even thinking again the same lines. Well, I’ve never seen this before, so I gotta give him that kind of credit. I mean, I don’t know if anybody else would have the guts to do this, but but then they just go the extra mile. And as soon as he’s at the other side of the fence, he tosses the dick back over the fence, and it lands in another zombie’s mouth.

Craig:  Of course it

Todd:  does. Like, come on. Really?

Craig:  This The only other place it could have landed would have been between the zombie cop’s boobs. That would have been the only other

Todd:  No. It wouldn’t have been the only other place. There are, like, maybe 4 options there, to be honest. But, like, I’m like, did this I mean, I know the script was written for 12 year olds, but it was it written by 12 year olds as well? Maybe. Come on.

Clip:  Oh, god.

Craig:  It’s funny.

Todd:  It does go the extra mile.

Craig:  So so then they end up in Cloris Leachman’s house, and I this was hilarious to me because there’s a moment with Cloris Leachman’s zombie cats, the zombie cats attack, And they’re like, you know, they’re these cheap looking it just looks like like one of them is crawling up Auggie’s back. And and I can just imagine that there was just somebody behind him, like, holding this stuffed thing, like, and it’s, like, shakingly comes up behind his back. It’s like

Todd:  It’s not the best effect in the world.

Craig:  No. But but they they they run away, and Denise goes off like she’s gonna go get help. And then the 3 boys go to the party. And that’s where the big kinda final showdown, takes place. There’s there’s a gross zombie eating out a girl gag and that’s how the the zombie plague spreads in the party and then it’s just pandemonium. And and I guess I skipped 1st because they’re boys well, not Boy Scouts. Excuse me. Because they’re scouts, you know, they’re prepared. So they go to the hardware store, and they totally arm up with, like, all these badass homemade weapons. Like, they do something with a weed whacker, and they’ve got nail guns and all kinds of stuff. And so they just are armed to the teeth with all this stuff, and then they go to the party and that’s where the final, showdown is.

Todd:  It’s a lot like from Dust till Dawn actually. That was the first thing that came to mind. It was like From Dusk till Dawn and also Peter Jackson’s movie Dead Alive, where it’s just a complete zombie slaughter with the with power tools. And and that was cool. It was actually really neat scene, I thought. Really well shot. It really seemed big. And these guys come in and they save the day. Ben ends up rescuing Kendall. They end up evacuating the whole building, but the building’s still filled with zombies, and so they tie off the door and the 3 of them go upstairs. They’re gonna have to find an alternate route because they wanna save the rest of the people from the zombies. So they go upstairs and there’s no other way out. And so that’s when Auggie reveals that he’s also made a bomb. And I think and, Carter says, what are you, the Taliban? Because that’s kinda what they’re gonna have to do. They just and they come to the the decision quite easily, that they’re all just gonna blow themselves up along with the zombies to save, to save the rest of the group. And they have a heart to heart moment here where, you know, everybody kinda comes clean. And then, right at the last minute

Craig:  It’s cute. I like I I my I thought it was really cute. Like, they’re trying to get the bomb started, but the the lighter won’t work. And so Auggie Auggie is trying to light it with, you know, a flint Yeah. Like a scout. And Carter turns to Ben and says, would it be totally lame if I held your hand right now? And Ben’s like, no. And so they hold hands. I mean, it’s a silly, stupid little gag, but it’s cute. You know? Yeah. They’re friends. It’s a it’s a scary moment. But, of course, everything works out fine.

Todd:  Yeah. Denise comes in at the last minute, pops open something in the corner, which turns out to be like a garbage chute. And, she’s like, hey. What are you guys doing up here? Get your asses out here already. And so they all jump out, slide out the garbage chute just as the building you know, Auggie manages to light it, the fuse and dives out, and they all get out just as the building is exploding. And that’s the end. I mean, there’s the again, exactly what you’d think. They all kinda make up at the end. Ben ends up walking up to Auggie’s sister and plants the big kiss on her, which, of course, is hugely successful, and, you know, go to credits basically.

Craig:  Yeah. That’s pretty much it. I mean, the military shows up and it seems like they’ve got everything under control.

Todd:  I guess they decided they’re not they’re not gonna bomb it after all. That kinda goes by the wayside.

Craig:  When they when they first get out of the building that the dance was in, they encounter the camp master again and they blow him up, but then, you know, you get the happy ending with Ben getting the girl and all that good stuff. And then there are the credits and the credits are really funny because the first part of the credits play over all of the selfies that, Carter has taken throughout the movie in addition to many, many pictures that he didn’t actually take, but it’s it’s funny. And then there’s just a, like, a mid credits scene where it, you know, is panning up to this building that the final explosion is at, and you just see scout master Roger’s head, and it’s just like, the end.

Todd:  Oh my gosh. Yeah. If you’re not gonna come up with something clever for a post Craig scene, you really shouldn’t do one at all.

Craig:  I don’t know. It made me chuckle. It made me chuckle. I I don’t know. I gotta say, I thought this movie was just it was fun and, like, it’s an hour and a half long. It’s not too long and it’s it’s really fast paced. I mean, there it doesn’t lag at all. You know, there are things going on all the time. As far as zombie movies go, it’s not the goriest one I’ve ever seen, but there’s a good amount of gore. The zombies look good. They look really good. You know, they look like, you know, good zombies from a good zombie movie. There’s violence. There’s scares. I like the humor. I can totally see how the humor would be off putting to probably a lot of people because it is really lowbrow. It’s really juvenile, but, if you if you like movies like American Pie or even like John Hughes movies, I I think that the humor works. It just I I don’t love it. It’s not like it’s my favorite movie or even one of my favorite movies, but just for entertainment value, I I think it’s it’s good. I I would recommend it.

Todd:  I recommend it Todd, and I have to say I had fun watching it too. And I I’m going back and listening to my comments, thinking about my comments now, and I probably sound to our listeners like my dad, you know? Like, I don’t know. This humor is just a little too low brow for me. I just need to make it clear that I enjoy a good sex comedy. I don’t mind low I sometimes, I enjoy lowbrow, and I don’t mind if it goes kinda crazy. But I guess maybe in that case, I want my movies a little compartmentalized. And when you combine the super low brow, super juvenile stuff with this zombie movie that I just wasn’t expecting, you know, and maybe Todd because it’s it’s got Boy Scouts in it, you know, and I guess I just had a different expectation for this film going in. Then it just came across to me as a little misogynistic, you know, in the watching of it. And, you know, in retrospect, having watched it now and having talked about it, they probably sat down and said, hey, why don’t we take a teen sex comedy and combine it with the zombie movie, you know. Right. And that was that was probably the conceit from the very beginning. I just don’t and and maybe it’s because we’ve had, like, Shaun of the Dead and Zombie Land and a lot of these other movies that have followed it or or shortly come before it. I just it didn’t work for me. You know? It just it was just a little off. It was a little off putting. I don’t know. But that’s just, you know, honestly, it’s just my personal opinion. I think other people just like you are are are just gonna think it’s fine. It’s totally my personal opinion.

Craig:  Yeah. Well, and I mean, that’s the thing. Like, it it does I mean, it’s only got a 46% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. You know, critics didn’t love it. It’s it’s not like this I I don’t know if it has any kind of cult following. I’ve certainly not seen anything about it. I think it’s something that’s kind of flown under the radar. I guess kind of the last thing that I would wanna say about it is part of the reason that I liked it is because I thought that the actors did a really good job. I mean, I I I really liked these characters. I found the characters to be really endearing. Endearing. All 3 of the boys, even Carter who was kinda supposed to be the jackass of the group. The dynamic between the 3 boys and then you get Denise in there too who’s really cool. I I just I I really liked the characters, you know, I liked spending time with them. They didn’t get on my nerves. I I wasn’t hoping that they would die. You know? Like,

Todd:  I think

Craig:  that was a big part of why I liked it was the performance of the main characters. Had it been poorly acted, then I think I would have just rolled my eyes and said this is dumb. But, I found the main characters really endearing, and I think that was a big part of why I liked it.

Todd:  I can see that. I think for me, just compared to we have so many other movies almost exactly like this, You know? Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland. You know, I can rattle them off. And so I think the fact that they are so funny and those other ones are just so clever, that almost feels like another movie following in its footsteps or in the same genre has a lot to to look up to. And this one kind of took a different route and went extremely lowbrow. And maybe that’s just why I I knock it down and kind of consider more of a middling movie than, you know, than the others. But again

Craig:  Oh, and I I agree with you all. I don’t think it’s, yeah, I don’t think it’s as good as those movies, but I still like it. Cool.

Todd:  And it was fun talking about it.

Craig:  It was.

Todd:  Well, thank you again for listening to another episode. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. You can find us on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, anywhere you find your favorite podcast. We’re also on Facebook. We have a page there. You could like us. You could let us know, what you thought of this movie and also recommend other movies for us to do. We are done with request month now. We’re gonna be moving into, as is our tradition every year, some holiday themed movies for December, coming into the new year of 2018. Also, we have written movie reviews that go up every Thursday on our website. Until next week, I’m Todd. And I’m Craig. With 2 Guys and a Chainsaw.