Dir.
Jason Friedberg/Aaron Seltzer, 2006, US, 86 mins
Cast: Kal Penn, Adam Campbell, Jennifer Coolidge, Jayma
Mays
Review by Matthew Rodgers
The relative success of the Scary Movie
franchise that has generated three sequels, 100s of millions
of dollars, but very, very few laughs has meant that every
film, genre, and franchise is subject to lampooning. Epic
Movie is from the makers of last year's abomination Date
Movie and that small nugget of information should be enough
to tell you what to expect from it. To reduce this review
to a base level that the fans of such films would understand,
it is complete and utter rubbish.
Attempting to spoof everything from
Willy Wonka (featuring George McFly himself – Crispin Glover – in
a barrel scraping performance), Borat and Superman Returns
the film fails in the most fundamental law of comedy; to
make people laugh. It is noticeable that in the brief running
time, little over an hour even though it feels epic in duration,
Jason Friedburg and Aaron Seltzer's movie fails to raise
even a snigger from its scattershot sub-Naked Gun comedy.
The performers are all non-entities, which would ordinarily
benefit a movie that requires the scene-for-scene character
metamorphosis that they go through but each are bereft of
personality or acting ability so they are stiff in whatever
guise they use. Someone that should know better is sometime
Christopher Guest alumni and Stifler's mom from American
Pie, Jennifer Coolidge (Best in Show, For Your Consideration)
who slums it as the 'white bitch' in the main plot thread
that parodies The Chronicles of Narnia to tumbleweed-inducing
effect.
Highlights, if I can abuse the adjective for a moment, are
the closing credits for the obvious reason that it is the
end. The lowlights are the attempted hilarity that comes
in the form of an over familiar MTV cribs routine, an opening
that is actually on a par with the film it is spoofing The
Da Vinci Code, a half decent Jack Sparrow impression, an
X-Men mutant academy sequence with a near naked Carmen Electra
(what else is she good for?), and any movie that resorts
to bestiality for it's laughs (put it this way, Mr Beaver
has a whole new outlook on life that C.S. Lewis wouldn't
have approved of). It should be confined to the Razzie nominations
list.
The fact that Epic Movie opened at number one at the top
of the US Box Office with $20M is the only positive spin
that can be put on the movie, but this ridiculous success
will surely mean a deluge of replica rotters of ever decreasing
quality. To paraphrase the movie poster, Epic Movie is epically
bad.
|
