Movie 122: Burying The Ex

Starring: Anton Yelchin, Ashley Green, Alexandra Daddario, Oliver Cooper.

Director: Joe Dante.

First of all I'm glad to see Joe Dante releasing some new work.  Dante probably is the master of the horror-comedy(The Howling being probably his only real straight horror film, and an excellent film) in a lot of ways, and is one of the last of the "Masters of Horror" team that dominated the seventies and eighties that are still working with any regularity.  Secondly, Anton Yelchin is a modern favorite of mine, especially after the stellar Odd Thomas(one of three horror comedies that made me tear up to date, along with Shawn Of The Dead and The Final Girls) so I have some modestly high hopes for this.  Ashley Green is another actress who I feel like hasn't exactly found her feet yet, but maybe this will get here somewhere.  I admire anyone who seems to stick with the horror genre as long as she appears to.  

This certainly feels like it's going to be fun.  The music is very Ed Wood, with that old Universal Pictures feel, and the opening credits were very energetic.  Anton stars as Max, who is in a serious relationship with environmentalist, sexually conservative, grown-up and a little severe Evelyn who is rather upset at Max's Brother (or, Half-Brother, as both Max and Evelyn reminds the guy) using their house for threesomes.   Max works at a halloween botique shop, which is kinda cool and has his own business plan for one of his own.  I'd love to own a horror shop.  I wonder if there's a market for that outside of Halloween.  Max is also forced to greet and say goodbye by saying "Go To Hell" which is actually funnier than it sounds.

Holy crap, Max and Evelyn have sex while watching Hammer Horror Movies.  That's, like, my dream relationship right there.

Unfortunately, she's super vegan and has a tendency to yell at other people about it.  So...she's not great.  Max clearly has way more in common with the girl at the ice cream store-who knows about the General Mills Monster Cereals-which upsets Evelyn who goes on a rampage about vegan stuff, but she's really upset about other stuff.  But Evelyn, despite being severe and a bit jealous and...maybe a little unstable, is actually kind of charming.  Oh, snap, she completely redecorated his house.  And destroyed his imported horror movie posters.  She's crazy.

Oh, shit...just as Max was about to break it off with Evelyn, she's hit by a bus.  That...oh, that really sucks.  Anton sells it really excellently, and then they smoothly add in "Song for Zula" by Phosphorescent(also used excellently in Amazing Spider-Man 2) over a funeral/time-lapse montage.  Nicely done.  The movie does a pretty realistic and interesting rendition of what would likely happen to someone in Max's situation: survivors guilt, depression, pre-occupation with the idea that if he had stuck things out with her things may have worked out.  It's brief, but it's intelligent.

Max runs into Olivia (the ice cream girl) at the cinema, where it's revealed that they both like the same art-house horror filmmaker.  Olivia seems really rad.  It doesn't take a genius to see where this movie is going (well, between the title, knowing this is a horror comedy and all).  Not sure why Max doesn't tell Olivia outright that Evelyn died, but...might be a mood killer.  But, Olivia does take him to a cemetery, so I think she may have been able to handle that.  But you gotta love a girl who starts doing Night Of The Living Dead bits in a cemetery.  Olivia may be the girl of my dreams.

It's a cute, endearing first date.  Anton and Alexandra have good chemistry.  Olivia takes off, Max goes home and now there's Evelyn, returned from the dead.  Leads to a great scene with some excellent acting from Greene and an awesome exchange:

Max: How are you back?
Evelyn: True love conquers all.

Max: ...that doesn't...make any...sense...

There is obviously going to be a lot of fun coming from Ashley Greene here.  She's fully aware of her status as the undead, and that should be a blast to explore.  So far, the movie seems to want to focus on Max's conflicted nature: there's his guilt and maybe some genuine affection which makes him continue to deal with Evenlyn(despite his terror and confusion), but also his wanting Olivia(who has quickly been sidelined, despite her charisma).  Of course, Max now wants to break up with her again...which hopefully will bring Olivia back into things.  Greene is on fire, though, and giving an extraordinary performance.  Her Zombie makeup is pretty great, too.

Olivia catches on to at least the ex girlfriend part of Max and Evelyn and she gives an excellent ultimatum to Max: he can be with her and meet her for a horror flick, or it was nice knowing each other.  It's a nice bit of feminist agency for Olivia, and it makes me happy to see her unwilling to deal with Max's issues.

Now, of course, Max has to figure out a way to re-kill Evelyn if he wants to be with Olivia.  Max is a strong character-we feel for him and like him, I really want him and Olivia to be together-and Anton is full of charisma.  We finally get some (albeit restrained and largely off screen) horror violenc when Max's Half Brother goes after Evelyn...the scene is nicely juxtaposed with Max and Olivia having sex.  It's well done.

I cannot say enough about the makeup job done on Ashley Greene.  It's really extraordinary.  She's a pretty solid villain, especially as she decends into full-on monster.  Unfortunately, for all of the solid performances and sense of fun, the movie isn't all that funny or scary.  It's charming, sure, but it's not as engaging as it probably should be.

Yay!  Mr.Futterman from Gremlins!  Well, the actor is named Dick Miller and he's fantastic.

Now we're getting to the climax: Evelyn goes after Olivia and kidnaps her, leading Max into a hostage situation...but it goes to an emotional breakup scene...it's very uneven.  The whole script has been.  Final combat scene being accompanied by surf rock is weird...I dunno.  This ending has been really kind of lackluster.  Bummer.

Final Thoughts: The cast is excellent, the movie has a lot of charm and a sense of fun.  It's pretty well paced.  Unfortunately, it isn't terribly funny, exciting or scary.  The script and story is uneven and probably should have been...well, given more action.  More stuff to do.  But it IS charming, even if it's a fairly shallow and without a lot of real personality.  Great makeup effects.  

Final Rating: Three Stars.  Coulda been a whole lot better.  But it gets by on charm and strong performances.