Me and My Mates vs. the Zombie Apocalypse – Review

I’m not just a fan of horror, I’m a fan of entertainment in general. Film, music, magic, comedy: all of these genres of entertainment and more. In fact, when I was a child I wanted to be a stand-up comic. Plans didn’t quite pan out, so here I am. Being a zombie film fan and a stand-up comedy fan, I was excited to learn of Me and My Mates vs the Zombie Apocalypse. It stars one of my favorite stand-up comics, Jim Jeffries. I thought to myself, “Yes! Shaun of the Dead meets Jim Jeffries’ vulgar Australian comedy!” Boy, was I wrong…

Me and My Mates vs The Zombie Apocalypse centers around two Australian tradesmen, Joel (Jim Jeffries) and Darryl (Alex Williamson), who take refuge within the telephone exchange they work at. A third tradesman named Roy (Greg Fleet) arrives with his 19-year-old daughter, Emma (Adele Vuko). Emma’s boyfriend Lachlan (Andy Trieu) and his friend Ryan (Matt Popp), both apprentices at the exchange, soon find and join them.

The opening credits and the first act seemed promising. The Australian rock song playing over apocalyptic chaos set the tone for a fun zombie flick. Jeffries and Williamson had some funny banter between them, especially the bit about Roy’s undead wife being in the way of the beer. It was after about 10 to 15 minutes in that I began to lose interest.

While I’m sure Jeffries – along with the other two tradesmen who are also comics – ad-libbed a bit, none of them were actually a credited writer. The story and script were penned by Declan Shrubb. This is Shrubb’s first full-length feature, and his inexperience is quite present throughout. The story isn’t very concrete. The dialogue is simple when comedy isn’t being delivered, and even the comedy is subpar. Jeffries is funny, but the platform of a zombie apocalypse doesn’t allow him to flourish like he does on stage or in his short-lived TV show Legit.

I was pleasantly surprised by the gore. There aren’t many gory scenes, but the scenes that do have it don’t disappoint. One scene, in particular, is a fun throwback to George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead involving a zombie hoard. This is something that Me and My Mates does alright with – throwbacks and paying homage to classic zombie movies.

Final thoughts:

I was bummed after watching this film. I went in with high expectations for two reasons: Jim Jeffries and zombies. Perhaps if I just scrolled through the TV stations and found it, I might have been slightly more pleased with it. I can’t recommend it for anyone, except maybe an Australian doomsday prepper. However, I won’t tell anyone not to see it. That’s just not my style. So if you feel like you may enjoy this more than I did, then go for it. As for me, I’ll stick with Jeffries’ stand-up specials and The Walking Dead.