Daniel Vigilante
Sandra 1
Michael ItaliaMovie: Meet the Spartans
Movie Review
From writers/producers/directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (“Date Movie”, “Epic Movie”), comes another wannabe comedy that has you scratching your head, wondering ‘somebody is actually letting these guys make another movie?’ And more worrying still, ‘somebody is actually endorsing this as a legitimate feature film?’
Using the film “300” as the basis for their latest spoof, the film makes no apologies for its bad taste and cheap jokes, and we get this from the opening ‘joke’: a baby Shrek looking for some nipple action who then spews up everywhere. And that’s the whole comedy ethos in a nutshell right there: spoofs on other films, tit jokes and mucus. If you left after the opening 30 seconds, you can rest assured that you didn’t miss anything.
The only audience that I can image this stuff may appeal to, or even those who might shrug ‘yeah, it was pretty funny’ are teenage American boys, to dumb to think for themselves, and too inundated with popular culture to have any other reference point; but I have a suspicion that even this niche market will think it an insult to their intelligence.
And forgive me if I’ve just gone on a rant without explicating the plot or giving any indication as to what actually happens in the film, but I’ve taken this liberty as a given, considering this is exactly what happens in the film. Nothing! Just mindless tangents that grossly deviate from what is a wretched excuse for a plot. So is that even a divergent? If you are naked, can you get more undressed? No. The tangents are nothing but skit-styled jokes with a very vague relation to antecedent scenes, and usually no relation whatsoever to the movie’s theme.
The only little (and I mean minuscule) amount of credit I can give to this film is that it in many ways spits right back the rubbish that proliferates commercial society and popular culture. Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, America’s Next Top Model, Deal or No Deal, as well as the celebrity obsessed culture of trashy magazines (note: this all gets adapted for Australian audiences) all have their parodies. Britney, Paris and Lindsay are household names that don’t even need a surname to confirm which identity we are talking about, and it wouldn’t take David Stratton to guess whether these ‘stars’ are featured in this film.
But one has to question whether this is a clever and humorous way to critique American pop culture, or if it is exactly a part of the problem; that other favourite American pastime: making trash for the masses for sake of a buck? The fact that this opened in top spot at the US box office in its opening weekend, one can safely assume it’s the latter. And considering Australia generally follows their lead, expect the cinemas packed on February 28.
From writers/producers/directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (“Date Movie”, “Epic Movie”), comes another wannabe comedy that has you scratching your head, wondering ‘somebody is actually letting these guys make another movie?’ And more worrying still, ‘somebody is actually endorsing this as a legitimate feature film?’
The only audience that I can image this stuff may appeal to, or even those who might shrug ‘yeah, it was pretty funny’ are teenage American boys, to dumb to think for themselves, and too inundated with popular culture to have any other reference point; but I have a suspicion that even this niche market will think it an insult to their intelligence.
And forgive me if I’ve just gone on a rant without explicating the plot or giving any indication as to what actually happens in the film, but I’ve taken this liberty as a given, considering this is exactly what happens in the film. Nothing! Just mindless tangents that grossly deviate from what is a wretched excuse for a plot. So is that even a divergent? If you are naked, can you get more undressed? No. The tangents are nothing but skit-styled jokes with a very vague relation to antecedent scenes, and usually no relation whatsoever to the movie’s theme.
But one has to question whether this is a clever and humorous way to critique American pop culture, or if it is exactly a part of the problem; that other favourite American pastime: making trash for the masses for sake of a buck? The fact that this opened in top spot at the US box office in its opening weekend, one can safely assume it’s the latter. And considering Australia generally follows their lead, expect the cinemas packed on February 28.
