credit: www.amazon.com
Director:
Aaron Seltzer
Cast:
Alyson Hannigan …. Julia Jones
Adam Campbell …. Grant Funkyerdoder
Tony Cox …. Hitch
Fred Willard …. Bernie Funkyerdoder
Eddie Griffin …. Frank Jones
Sophie Monk …. AndyMarie Matiko
Judah Friedlander …. Nicky
Carmen Electra …. Anne
Valery M. Ortiz …. Jell-O
Tom Lenk …. Frodo Baggins
Scott Bridges …. Sam
Tom Fitzpatrick …. Galdalf
Josh Meyers …. Napoleon/Wedding Crasher
Nadia Dina Ariqat …. Britney Spears Look-A-Like
Nick Steele …. Kevin Federline Look-A-Like
Edward Moss …. Michael Jackson Look-A-Like
Jasen Salvatore …. Ben Stiller
Lil’ Jon …. Himself
20th Century Fox presents Date Movie. Written by Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer Running Time: 84 minutes. Not Rated
The Movie:
There’s really no point to say more about the plot than girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy back. So instead, here’s a list of SOME of the movies they “parody”:
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Along Came Polly, Meet The Fockers, Meet The Parents, Revenge of The Sith, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, My Best Friends Wedding, Shallow Hal, Pretty Woman, Lord Of The Rings, What Women Want, Kill Bill, Dodgeball, Hitch, Hugh Grant (pick a movie), The Wedding Planner, Say Anything, Bend It Like Beckham, Rize!, Napoleon Dynamite, Wedding Crashers, King Kong, ‘The Bachelor’, ‘Pimp My Ride’ and probably about a million other movies and TV shows.
While most of this movie is uninspired garbage there are a few choice moments:
1) When boy is proposing to girl in the jewelry store, Frodo, Sam, and Gandalf come in and Frodo pawns the ring for 50 bucks. “C’mon, lets go get some weed and hobbit hookers” Frodo says and they leave.
2) When parodying that scene from My Best Friend’s Wedding when they all sing that stupid song, Lil’ Jon shows and, well, does what Lil’ Jon does.
3) The scene where they beat up the bum… wait no….
4) The scene where the cat is crapping on the toilet for way longer than it should… wait that’s not funny either….
There are two parts to parody. Make fun of something and make it funny. They make fun of plenty of things in this movie (or at least attempt to), but hardly any of it is actually funny. And half the time it seems like they just copied and pasted the scenes right out of those movies. That’s not parody, that’s plagiarism.
And, advertising, “2 of the 6 writers from Scary Movie”… not a good idea.
STORY: 1/10
ACTING: 3/10
LOOK/FEEL: 1/10
ORIGINALITY: 1/10
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 2/10
TOTAL POINTS: 8/50
FINAL SCORE: 1.5/10
Date Movie takes a stab at some of the greatest romantic comedies like… Kill Bill… uh…
The DVD:
The Video:
The film is presented in Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1. For such a crappy movie it looks just fine.
The Audio:
This film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. (also has Spanish and French audio tracks)
Special Features:
This DVD tries to make up for the suckiness of the film with WAY TOO MANY special features. Seriously, who needs 3 different audio tracks for this film?
12 Deleted/Extended/Alternate Scenes: More extended scenes than anything. And the footage added it pretty worthless. No left out gems here.
Andy’s Poolside Extended Dailies (yes, she’s in a bikini): While listed as a separate special feature this is included with the extended scenes.
Audio Commentary By Writer/Director Aaron Seltzer and Writer Jason Friedberg: Uh… guys… this isn’t a serious movie… and it really doesn’t warrant a serious commentary. It’s really sad how serious these guys are. Plus Fox beeps out tons of references to stuff, which is really annoying. Like “We modeled her apartment after ‘beep’.” Why can’t we know whose apartment hers was modeled after? Also, these guys liken themselves to the Farrelly Brothers and Coen Brothers. Uh… in their words, “You’re not going to get what you pay for.”
Audio Commentary with Stars Alyson Hannigan, Adam Campbell, Sophie Monk & More!: They mention in the beginning there are certain things they are not allowed to talk about. Not a good way to start a commentary. But the blame for that falls on Fox, they need to lighten up. The actors make fun of this a bit. You get the impression that the actors had a great time making this film but overall this is a boring audio track. No real insight.
On Dating Featurette: The stars of the film talk about their personal dating experiences. Completely pointless and stupid.
Outrageous “Anti-Commentary” by Film Critics Scott Foundas and Bob Strauss: This had the potential to be good. The makers of the DVD should have had the guts to get to critics that hated this movie so they would just tear it apart. These guys guiltily admit that they enjoyed the film more than they should have and complement the film just as much as they insult it. The best comment: about Brokeback Mountain. “…that’s one movie that isn’t parodied in this, and how the hell did they miss that one?” They do point out that too many scenes are more copied than parodied and therefore lacks the humor (didn’t I say that?). They also mention that they aren’t allowed to mention by name any of the films parodied. What the hell is Fox’s problem?
Fox Movie Channel Presents: Making A Spoof – Includes The “Secret” Diary Of A Noted Film Director: An extended feature spoofing the Peter Jackson Diaries for King Kong. Not amazing, but funnier than anything in the actual movie.
Gag Reel: Probably the worst gag reel I’ve ever seen.
Set-Top Game: Andy’s Cherry Surprise: A stupid game where you answer a question and Andy pulls a different cherry stem design out of her mouth. This makes sense if you’ve seen the movie… I guess…
Fun With Casting Audition Tapes: Really not all that fun, it’s really sad to see the things they made the cast of this crew do to get in the film.
The Quickie: Date Movie in Six Minutes: I HIGHLY recommend this. It’s just as funny as the movie and it’s only 6 minutes long. Will save you a lot of time and you’ll be just as entertained.
Optional Laugh Track: You too can have the DVD tell you what’s funny and when to laugh. Note: it’s not even synced up that well.
Romantic TV Screensavers: Footage of a beach and a fire place for your TV.
The Hard Sell: All the trailers for the film. All these trailers put together almost makes the whole movie.
Score: 4/10
