There was a time when we could look at Joe Dante as the undisputed king of the genre comedy, in particular when it came to mining laughs out of worn-out horror tropes. Who doesn't love Gremlins? Some are even partial to the far more comedic sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch. But Dante hasn't been able to hit his stride in awhile, and unfortunately his latest film Burying the Ex is a lazy and uninspired attempt to recapture the old magic.
Basically riffing on the same ideas seen in last year's Life After Beth, Dante's film stars Anton Yelchin, who seems to be attracted to exactly these kinds of horror-con romps, as Max, an average guy who works in a horror novelty shop. He's also got an insanely hot girlfriend in Evelyn (Ashley Greene), an insufferable environmentalist and super-vegan (has she seen Hungry Hearts? She should.) who demands his unwavering attention and loyalty. She's actually not that bad at first, but when they move in together she ramps up the possessiveness to scary levels, even going so far as to rage out at Olivia (Alexandra Daddario), the sexy and quirky girl at the ice cream parlor specializing in...wait for it...novelty horror flavors. It's like she and Max were meant to be together or something. But that can't be because he's sworn to Evelyn they'll be together forever, and somehow a magical devil locket took that oath a little too seriously.
When Max realizes it isn't going to work out with Evelyn, he's encouraged to break-up with her by his sloppy (yet inexplicably good with the ladies) half-brother Travis (Oliver Cooper). But before he can do it, she's splattered by a bus while crossing the street to meet him. Ignoring that the CG blood splatter looks incredibly cheap, the scene is perhaps funnier than it was intended to be due to Max's look of mixed surprise/grief/elation. Naturally, Max moves on and *shocker* there's Olivia who loves EVERYTHING he's in to. Down-to-earth, into horror and other geeky stuff, looks like Alexandra Daddario...who wouldn't love this girl? But just as they're about to find happiness, Evelyn re-emerges as a frisky zombie and moves back into their home like nothing ever happened. Did I mention she's incredibly frisky for an undead chick? The bulk of the film is Max finding new ways to avoid sex with his rotting zombie of an ex.
There are enough charming elements that you'll wish the rest of the film was better. Yelchin is the perfect everyman for a goofball horror world like this, which may be why he's been at the center of similar films like Odd Thomas and Fright Night. He's great every time he's paired up with Daddario, who gives Olivia a nervous yet sexually aggressive energy that is a lot of fun. Greene is also good as the shrewish Evelyn, although the make-up as her flesh begins to rot is laughably cheap. Actually, the whole thing looks low-rent, and it's not enough of an excuse anymore to claim a modest production budget. We're talking sub TV movie quality here. But the biggest problem is that there isn't a lick of inventiveness anywhere. That extends from the cookie-cutter characters to the lousy horror-inspired pop culture references which never sound the least bit natural. It's like the screenplay was written by someone desperately trying to sound hip. That the script leaves a few key plot points unresolved and unclear (a key character's death is unexplained, another's return is similarly mysterious) only speaks to how shoddy this whole production was, despite the game efforts of the cast. All of that said, Burying the Ex is pretty harmless and means well. It just isn't creative enough to make you forget about better twists on the zombie genre like Warm Bodies and Shaun of the Dead.
Rating: 2 out of 5
