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Friday, August 21, 2015

Burying the Ex Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Allie Schembra
Directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins, The ‘Burbs), Burying the Ex stars Anton Yelchin (Star Trek franchise, Odd Thomas), Ashley Greene (Twilight franchise), Alexandra Daddario (San Andreas, “True Detective”) and Oliver Cooper (Project X). It seemed like a great idea when all-around nice guy Max (Yelchin) and his beautiful girlfriend, Evelyn (Greene) moved in together. But when Evelyn turns out to be a controlling, manipulative nightmare, Max knows it’s time to call it quits. There’s just one problem: he’s terrified of breaking up with her. Fate steps in when Evelyn is the victim of a fatal, freak accident, leaving Max single and ready to mingle. Just as Max is thinking about moving on with what could be his dream girl, Olivia (Daddario) – Evelyn has returned from the grave and is determined to get her boyfriend back...even if that means transforming him into one of the undead.
Film (2 1/2 out of 5 stars)
Max’s vegan, environmentalist girlfriend, Evelyn, is quite overbearing. She doesn’t even live with him and she has banned Max’s brother from his apartment, removed all food that’s not vegan and harshly judges people for their life choices. When Max asks her to move in with him, she immediately redecorates, and makes life even more difficult for Max, who only wants to save enough money to open his own horror supply store. After a short time, Max finally decides to break up with Evelyn, and asks her to meet him at the park. Only, she doesn’t make it. As she crosses the street to meet up with him, Evelyn is killed in a freak accident. Max is understandably devastated and falls into a deep depression. Eventually, he stars going out into the world again and goes to a movie where he runs into a girl he briefly met when he and Evelyn went into her ice cream shop. Max and Olivia hang out and have a great night together, but when Max returns home, he finds that Evelyn has fulfilled her promise to never leave him and has risen from the dead and returned to him.

Max doesn’t quite know what to do – he can’t leave Evelyn alone, but wants to date Olivia. Evelyn decides she wants to go out and they go to a club where Evelyn gets sloppy drink. As she’s bent over getting sick in the alley way, Olivia and her friends walk by and Olivia stops to talk to Max. Max plays off that Evelyn is just a friend and Olivia asks him to the movies at Forest Lawn Cemetery. Max tells Evelyn he’ll be working late and meets Olivia instead. When he arrives home the next morning, Evelyn interrogates him and tells him they will be together forever, even if it means she has to kill him and make him like her. This is when Max realizes the only way to rid himself of Evelyn for good is to kill her, Zombie style.

Burying the Ex reminded me so much of My Boyfriend’s Back, but opposite. Instead of the boyfriend dying and coming back to life, it’s the girlfriend. It wasn’t a bad movie, it just wasn’t that memorable. I like Anton Yelchin and Ashley Greene, so I liked the movie a little more than most people probably would have. The acting isn’t bad and the dialogue is average; the actors did the best they could with what they were given. I am a little disappointed in Ashley Greene, though. After having such a significant role in the Twilight franchise, I’d have thought she’d be much bigger now than she is. I liked that this was a movie I could put on and do stuff around the house while watching. It’s not a “thinking movie,” but entertaining just the same. While the story is pretty basic and combines a typical rom-com movie with a zombie movie, it’s still fun to watch the characters and see how the story progresses.
Video (3 out of 5 stars)
Presented in 1080p high-definition widescreen, Burying the Ex’s picture was average. It was nothing spectacular or to write home about. The colors were accurate and there were no visible issues with the picture. I did like the choice in color for the apartment. The bright green really popped and looked nice. While I’m sure the Blu-ray’s picture was better than the DVD’s, I wasn’t feeling all that excited about it.
Audio (3 out of 5 stars)
The DTS-HD master audio for Burying the Ex was good. The volume was even and dialogue was easily heard and understood. I liked listening to the movie. There’s not a lot to think about, it’s not super dialogue-driven, but it all worked really well together. The background track was good and not overpowering and it was easy to listen to.
Extras (0 out of 5 stars)
There are no special features on this disc.
Summary (2 out of 5 stars)
Burying the Ex was a cute movie. The lack of special features was disappointing because I would have like to have seen some behind-the-scenes shots of the movie, or a gag reel. While it’s not a movie I will watch over and over again, it is a cute “put it on in the background and get stuff done around the house” movie. I’ll keep it on the shelf for just those moments. The story isn’t hard to follow, so if you have some time to kill, you could always just turn it on.

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