Film Reviews

Epic Movie

• Rating:
• Director: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer.
• Starring: Jennifer Coolidge, Crispin Glover, Carmen Electra, David Carradine.
• Details: US / 86mins (15A).

** Preview ** Having no preview screening for a movie never augers well, but even if there was a screening, I'd be hard pushed to drag myself out of bed for this. Friedberg and Seltzer have given us the Scary Movie franchise, Spy Hard and Date Movie - none of which were a laugh riot - but it's not the jokes that were poor in their previous outings; the biggest problem parodies like this have is that it's redundant in the era of Youtube, where skits and movie-referenced gags are ten-a-penny. A spoof can work if it's clever, as Shaun Of The Dead will testify, but these parodies are bottom feeders, revelling in the lowest of the low humour that throws everything at the screen in the hope of some of it will stick. With Epic Movie parodying X-Men, The Da Vinci Code, Nacho Libre, Narnia, Snakes On A Plane, Superman Returns, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Pirates Of The Caribbean, maybe Friedberg and Seltzer should look up what an epic movie actually is - they may find out that it's none of the above. And we still have their Scary Movie 5 to look forward to next year. Can't wait.

Review by Gavin Burke