Zombie Town

Many reviewers state one has to be in the 'demographic' or target range to 'get' this flick... huey! I'm a man of a certain age and love a great kids/young adult flick! I've watched many series 'targeted' for young adults and wholeheartedly loved the watch.. I watched it 2x, just in case my mood had any effect on my perspective.. Nope, it was still a stinker.. If it were 'intended' for younger viewers, the 2 main teen characters apparently weren't told or even given direction.. their performances were phoned in and just bland. I'd also have to argue and/or point out that Disney and Pixar flicks are 'intended' for young audiences, yet appeal to a much larger audience. So that defense of this flick is imo indefensible. I'd argue the production just didn't know what they wanted the film to be. It wasn't straight enough to be ironically funny, it wasn't wonkie enough to be campy, it didn't even have the bones to be carried by Akroyd and Chase. There will be some that look at it differently or see something the rest of us don't, so if you're unsure what lot you fall into You'll know within a few minutes whether it's for you or not..

This is a really bad movie. It's hilarious to me how unlikable the main character is. He is totally pretentious and thinks he's better than everyone around him. This movie did the whole "nerd" gets the girl routine except he's not a nerd hes a jerk. But I've never seen it done in such a poorly done way before. The person who is supposed to be the "jerk" is actually more likable than the so called protagonist.

The rest of the movie is a tax write off. I don't mind Goosebumps I remember those fondly from back in the day. I knew to expect a childish movie but this isn't a childish movie its just a horrible movie. I can't imagine what they paid the few big names actors who are in this movie.

Usually its a meme when they say highschoolers look 30. For some strange reason in the 90s they loved casting people way too old to play highschoolers. But this movie actually does that here in 2023. LOL both the leads are actually going to turn 30 next year and are playing kids in highschool. It makes it that much worse.

The absolute greatest part of this movie is in the post credits where Dan Aykroyd gives a little goodbye speech to the cast at the finish of production. It's funny because you can just tell he knows how cringe it is that he is giving props to the makers of this movie.

Seriously, it was too childish for adults, yet too adult for children. It can't even decide what kind of film it even wants to be. One moment it's taking the story seriously enough to be a charming cohesive film and the next it's complete bereft of any smarts and is cringe to the max. It was baaaad. If it wasn't for those charming moments, there would have been nothing to save this film from being one of the worst ever made.

Next, lets talk about the Goosebumps vibes this film liberally uses to mask it's awfulness. I get that R L Stine created this story, but you either go full on Goosebumps and make it completely kid friendly without the swearing and blood, or ditch that all together. Felt like a cheap knock off in the end, and further confused me as to why this film exists.

I'm not even going to waste my time complaining about the fact that everybody who's supposed to be a teenager looks like they're in their 40s, including the actual teenagers. Embarrassing.

My last comments on this film will be that it is far too long. This honestly would've worked better as a special Goosebumps tv movie on Hulu or something like that. Not that it would make it anything above average, but easier to swallow than what we got. Literally, when I heard the main character say "Let's go back to the bike shop!" I almost shouted "WHAT FOR, TO WASTE MORE OF OUR TIME?!?!" at the screen.

Overall, I couldn't recommend this one. Even for those looking for a nostalgic trip into the Goosebumps days, it's still terrible. This film makes even the worst episodes look like Oscars material.

½ a simple zombie out of 5.

Even in my adult age, I still enjoy family Halloween flics. There are plenty of cheesy fun low budget family Halloween films out there that can have a certain charm to them. This really doesn't have too much of anything. I can handle 2nd rate teen acting but this gives off bad Disney channel vibes. The score is generic and overall makes the movie feel like a bad Nickelodeon movie. I was hoping some of the older cast was going to make it tolerable but they're written terribly and you can tell it was just a paycheck for them. It's a once watch and forget about it after. It's overall boring lacking any real substance. Your kids may dig it, but I'm even sure they'll be bored.

Not horrible, not good, just kind of an okay movie, which has two former great comedians in the movie. Chevy Chase and Dan Akroyd used to be comedy legends and make great films, this was more of a paycheck movie for them.

The other actors are okay, once again not horrible, not good, there is a story there but it has no pacing, no great set designs, nothing original.

So why watch this movie, if you like zombie movies, then there are a lot worse movies you can watch. This is not a movie you will be thinking about for the next week, it is a "I have two hours to waste and I love zombie movies" type of movie.