“Epic Movie”

Kal Penn
Adam Campbell
Jennifer Collidge
Jayma Mays
Faune Chambers
Crispin Glovers
Tony Cox
Hector Jimenez
Darrell Hammond
Carmen Electra
Jim Piddock
Fred Willard

Unrated           93min           2007

From two of the six writers of “Scary Movie” comes a spoof on epic movies.

“Epic Movie” must have had the same two of six writers of “Scary Movie”. These guys should give up while they are ahead. They are diluting the spoof genre. This movie is even more of a mess than “Date Movie”. They take so many elements from so many movies that after a while it becomes a confusing mess.

It’s like they wrote this film on the fly. They told one film plot and then just started throwing in film after film on top of it. If you shovel enough crap on funny, you end up with a pile of crap. It tries too hard to be funny and comes off as boring.

The spectrum of the films that “Epic Movie” hits on is just that epic; they are taking elements from the X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean, Chronicles of Narnia, and Willy Wonka. One minutes its one film then it goes off into a tangent of another film coming back to the original and not making it worth the audiences’ time. This is not a pretty picture. It has too many different movies to make it funny.

The writers even address this fact in the movie. This one is way over the top, too tongue in cheek; they pushed the button a little too far with this one. It’s getting to the point that the ‘two of the six’ writers of “Scary Movie” are crying out somebody please help me. Please let the genre rest its beginning to get like the horror films of the eighties.

“Epic Movie” is full of many special features. There is an audio commentary with the writers and directors, a breaking wind commentary. There are several featurettes. There is also a music video for “Lazy Pirate”, outtakes, and alternate endings. The are movie previews for “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”, “Date Movie”, and “Reno 911: Miami”.

I give it 1/5 Gs.

“Date Movie”

Alyson Hannigan
Adam Campbell
Jennifer Coolidge
Tony Cox
Lil Jon
Carmen Electra
Sophie Monk
Marie Matiko
Judah Friedlander
Josh Meyers
Fred Willard
Eddie Griffin

Unrated           85min           2006

From two of the six writers of Scary Movie comes a spoof on romantic comedies.

“Date Movie” has it moments but with so many spoofs coming out so rapidly the spoofing genre is a little worn out. Alyson Hannigan does a great job with the overly tongue in cheek script. It does hit on many of the classic moments from romantic movies.

“Date Movie” has it definite funny moments but its trying too hard to be funny. The two of the six writer of “Scary Movie” should stop and take an inventory. They took many classic moments and clashed them together trying to make the funny. So did and others did not; I think at this point they are just writing anything that is funny to them and filming it.

Alyson Hannigan is by far the standout in this crowd followed by Eddie Griffin. She has a handle on any comedy and work well with in the genre. Eddie Griffin is a mesh of several characters that do not fit together but he makes them work with his comedic style. I would like to see straighter comedic performances from him.

It does its job to bastardize several classic moments in romantic film history. Some worked for the comedic turn, others did not, and so should have been left alone. They tried to hit you with every moment at once. Two of the six writers should add a third to balance them out.

“Date Movie” is full of special features. There are several commentaries. There are many featurettes and the standard deleted and extended scenes. There movie previews for “Grandma’s Boy”, “The Omen”, “Trust the Man”, and “Thank You for Smoking”.

I give 1/5 Gs.