Burying The Ex

It's a lot of fun, and Dante's heart is palpably in it.

Even masters have their off days ... and Dante's new picture, "Burying The Ex," seems to have been made over the course of quite a few of them.

Dante has always been at least as much of a comedian as a monster fan, and the film has plenty of gruesome dark humor about embalming fluid and rigor mortis.

The freedom of the director's best work is missing.

"Burying the Ex" is a genre-mashing low for Dante.

How did the guy who made "Gremlins" and "The Howling" direct this cheap-looking, sophomoric, unfunny dreck?

Even though Burying the Ex shambles through the motions like an actual zombie, it inherently has a good spirit and is trying so desperately to entertain. And that's more than can say about a lot of other horror films...

...one can't help but wonder what drew folks like Yelchin and Dante to such substandard, subpar material.

A modest return-to-form [for Joe Dante].

"Burying the Ex" may not be a breakthrough along the lines of "Gremlins," but it is a cheerily macabre lark and a welcome fresh entry to Dante's oeuvre.

Joe Dante has gifted the world great cinematic treats, such as creature feature Gremlins, sci-fi comedy adventure Innerspace, and the love letter to the cinema, Matinee. Alas, Burying the Ex will not be thought of with such reverence in the future.

For Dante's reputation, it would be best that the movie should itself be buried without an identifying headstone.