BURYING THE EX is a disappointing outing for director Joe Dante, someone whose older films I enjoy very much indeed. This one's Dante on autopilot; it contains the usual in-jokes, references, old movies playing on television sets, Dick Miller cameos and the like, but the main material is cookie-cutter dumb and there's no real love for the material. It's another teen-style comedy that strives to make fun out of the whole zombie premise, and it simply isn't very successful.

I can only blame the writer for creating such a cast of self-absorbed slackers, from Anton Yelchin's tiresome lead to Alexandra Daddario's airhead love interest and the guy playing the annoying half-brother. The less said about Ashley Greene's overacting the better; let's just say it grates after a few moments. Elsewhere, this is full of the usual dumb, unfunny jokes, gross-out humour and join-the-dots plotting. Dante deserves better.

Joe Dante's glory days seem to be several decades ago as he never really managed to top Gremlins. Maybe his films were too reverential to horror films that influenced him and had too many actors from his stock company popping up in cameos.

Max (Anton Yelchin) is in an unhappy relationship with Evelyn (Ashley Greene) his volatile girlfriend. A devil genie idol grants them a wish in a twisted way as they are bound to be together forever. Unfortunately when Evelyn is run over by a bus she comes back from the dead as a zombie still wanting to be with Max.

In the meantime Max has moved on with hip ice cream shop owner Olivia (Alexandra Daddario) who has an immediate attraction to him. Max needs to stop Evelyn, his half brother helps out but Evelyn then gets a lust for brains.

This is a romantic zombie horror-comedy. Its a low budget B film from a director who once made better and bigger budget films with full studio backing.

Dante has his trademark touches such as having Dick Miller around as the oldest cop on duty and there are old horror film clips featuring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

It is fast paced but uneven film . Outside of the two female leads it is let down by Yelchin who is not good enough as the male lead. It is surprisingly to see him look so old with receding hair even though he was only in his mid 20s. I think he struggled with the material and just turned up for the pay cheque and delivered a so-so performance.

Max (Anton Yelchin) works in a Halloween store and has as his life goal to open his own shop. His girlfriend is hot and green ( Ashley Greene). Except for the great sex, they have nothing in common. After she dies, she apparently comes back to life because of a "monkey paw" type device he has in the shop. Meanwhile Max has met Olivia (Alexandra Daddario) who knows monster speak and is clearly Max's soulmate.

There are a number of comedy zombie films out there and various zombie spoofs. This one didn't seem to bring any originality to the table. The characters were not that strong and dialogue wasn't running on all cylinders. While the film made me smile from time to time, Joe Dante couldn't pull it off.

Guide: F-bomb, Male butt nudity. Implied sex