Those pesky zombies are back, and this time it’s up to a trio of Boy Scouts—and a stripper, because strippers—to save their town from complete destruction. It’s Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, a Zombieland wannabe that evokes a few laughs but ultimately lacks much bite.

Scouts Guide follows the same recipe used for most zombie movies, but the ingredients are a mixed bag. The concept, going by the title alone, is a good one—a Boy Scout troop uses its various skills to defeat a legion of zombies—but the end result is what happens when you hire the writers whose only other credit is the awful Raven Symone-starring College Road Trip, or the guy who wrote several of the Paranormal Activity movies, scary films that didn’t exactly boast Oscar-winning screenplays. Scouts Guide misfires from the first second: the Boy Scout troop actually consists of just three scouts, all of whom are way too old to be scouts. Further, the scouts rarely use their “scout skills” to do much of anything, which means…

…that Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse offers nothing new to the genre.

What we’re left with is a run-of-the-mill zombie flick that still offers some decent gore, a couple cute actresses and a mildly zany plot that will keep you entertained, albeit underwhelmed. Scouts Guide does land a few zingers—a zombie penis scene is, shall we say, unique—and offers a semi-pleasing climax.

Still, with so much good zombie fare to choose from these days, Scouts Guide needed more meat to chew on, a little more flavor to spice things up.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.