Ravid

NATM was not as bad as it looked. It actually skewered some movie cliches (the slow clap) and had funny scenes in it. Its no Airplane! or even Naked Gun 33 1/3 but its not terrible either. Date Movie looks like if you mated Mad TV and Family Guy, then dumbed it down a few notches.

wergo

I was planning to go see this, aware that it wasn't gonna be any good, just to drool over Alyson Hannigan. (I pretty much loathed the 'American Pie' movies for their content, but thought they were kinda worth watching just 'cause of Willow's presence) From what I've seen by the reviews, most the of jokes aren't even sexual, just gross-out.

Is there ANYTHING in this film (and, no, I'm not talking wit or intelligence or competent directing and/or writing) that would make a certified Aly-luster shell out $10 for it? Or does it even fail in the "shallow motivation" field as well?

matome

Well, Alyson does look good in this when she's not in the fat suit, but other than that there's no other redeeming factor. You're probably better off throwing Buffy back in the DVD player.

The Antipodean

And yet, of course, this will be #1 at the box office this weekend. Maybe I'm just old and cranky, but man, it just sees like the teen audience will lap up whatever crap is shoveled at them lately. Why back in my day... oh well.

mndtrp

I wasn't very amused by the Scary Movies, so this didn't appeal to me at all.

Nice review, though.

matrixrok9

Well said, OP. What's the point of trying to parody Napoleon Dynamite or Meet The Fockers? It's not like those movies were serious, they were comedies.

Seantn

Just by watching the commercials, I saw that they weren't spoofing, they were 'imitating', and that's supposed to be funny?

They had a guy looking like Napoleon Dynamite saying "No, I won't marry you...Gosh!".

That was the joke. That's...it. So we're supposed to laugh because they found a guy who acts like Napoleon Dynamite. Oh, and his shirt says "Don't Vote for Pedro". Haaaa. The hilarity of it all.

Matthew Chmiel

To tell you the truth, I don't know what the creators had in mind other than to put out a 75 minute flaming pile of shit and make millions off of it.

awmurray

There is no way in hell this is the worst movie of '06. Don't forget Uwe Boll has at least one movie coming out this year. Plus the F13 prequel and TCM prequel. And possible a young Hannibal prequel. All of those have good potential to claim the prize.

Matthew Chmiel

Did you see this film? Yeah, that's what I thought.

At least Boll's Bloodrayne had female nudity. If the TCM, F13, and Hannibal prequel all have female nudity in them, they're automatically better than Date Movie because they actually had something going for it in them.

matome

Plus we should get some decent kills as well, unless they pussify them down to PG13 (which probably wouldn't surprise me).

awmurray

Yes, I did.

You're right, Ass Pirates IV or Whore Gagger 7 are much, much, much better films. Since they have female nudity and all.

Matthew Chmiel

They are better films because there's a minute or two of actual enjoyable content in those films, which is a minute or two more than what Date Movie had. And Christ, you haven't even seen the film, so you have no room to talk almost.

If Date Movie had female nudity, I could at least say, "At least it had some nudity." Whereas now, all I can say is, "Date Movie had nothing going for in it." The movie still would've sucked, but at least there'd be some eye candy.

Seantn

He actually said that he did see the film.

Hokeyboy

I didn't see the film.



But I do think it's worse than Hitler.

Matthew Chmiel

I don't know if it's worse than Hitler and this is coming from someone who is Jewish.

Because, you know, er, Hitler had, er, Triumph of the Will? Eh?

Forum Troll

I just saw this. I have one question: How the fuck is a cat humping a mummified corpse (and proudly displaying a condom whilst doing it) supposed to be funny? Who is the absolute fuck-tard executive who greenlit this movie?

End of rant. You may return to your regularly scheduled lives now.

raven56706

oh man... i just saw this movie and i must say i wanted to burn the place down... it was so bad.....

Cinemaddiction

I finally got to see "Date Movie" tonight on DVD and I was so incredibly surprised that I'm sure as hell buying it next Tuesday. I'm well aware that it is rated 2.7/10 on IMDB. It doesn't sway my decision in the least.

The fact of the matter is this. "Date Movie" incorporated some of the funniest, most effective sight gags I have ever seen in a satire, some of which recalling the good old days of the "Naked Gun" franchise. That's a hard, hard thing to do, given the derivative nature of satire. Coming up with fresh and effective gags is unheard of, given even Zucker resorted to re-using many of them in his 2 installments in the "Scary Movie" franchise alone.

Granted, there were some scenes that could have been excised that didn't really help keep the theme intact, i.e. the non-date movie related material like the "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Lord of the Ring" spoofs, as well as some of Nicky's scenes, but overall, it's one of the better spoofs I've seen in recent memory, and much better than "Scary Movie 4" in my opinion.

Lastly, the biggest gripe I've gathered is that it really had no plot. Do any spoof movies?! Actually, it was very easy to follow. Alyson Hannigan's character was just living the cliches of date movies in her everyday life. What's so hard to grasp? Besides, who's looking for PLOT in movies that are out to make light of something, that being their sole purpose?

I'm a huge spoof fan, and I know bad ones when I see them, but I think that "Date Movie" has caught A LOT of unfair flack from people who have a prejudice towards the genre, expect the same amateur "Scary Movie" humor, or just based their opinions off of the trailer, which is incredibly misleading, as 1/4 of it didn't even make it to the movie. This is DEFINATELY worth a rent, IMO, and in my case, a purchase I'll gladly be making.

Kevin M. Dean

I enjoy and own many spoof movies, but this move was just awful awful awful. It was literally painful to watch in how unfunny it was. The trick with spoof movies is the spoofs have to blend into the plot. This movie seemed to just be throwing things in left and right whether they fit into the scene or not.

DRG

To the young teen mindset, items of a sexual nature are often considered humorous. Witness a group of giggling sixth-graders during a sex eduaction class for evidence of this phenomenon. Adolescents deal with fear, confusion, inadequacy and other issues during the pubescent stage. As with any difficult subject, laughter is a way of dealing with those troubling issues. While a scene of a human copulating with something may be harder to digest in a humorous setting (and in this particular example far too disturbing), having an animal serve as the proxy in the same sexual joke can lessen the impact in such a manner as to make it more palatable. In addition, it adds a certain absurdist bend to the subject: an animal behaving like a human... how bizarre!

The corpse serves two purposes in the joke. First, it is symbolic of the older generation. In this sense, the joke is essentially "Fuck the older generation". A crass sentiment, perhaps, but resentment of adults is and has always been a common attitude in the teenage mindset. Also, the defiling of a corpse adds a certain amount of edginess. This may seen incongruous with the fact they are using an animal instead of a human to mute the effect in first place, but it really is not. The fact that the corpse is ridiculously decayed indicates it is more or less a caricature of a deceased person, designed as a proxy (much in the same way the cat is). It implies a dead body but dehumanizes it to the point where viewers are comfortable laughing at the offense being committed to it.

The condom gag also serves several purposes. It adds an additional punchline, which is an obvious intent. It also reinforces the satirical nature of the scene... again how absurd is it that a cat uses a condom? This over-the-top event helps to placate viewers that may still be having trouble with the deviant nature of the scene despite the previous attempts to place obvious absurdist indicators. Finally, the condom use is there as a subtle persuasion technique. Teenagers are suggestively taught the message that condoms should be used in every sexual act, even one in which it is impossible for the receiving participant to become pregnant.

(So yeah, I'm bored today. )

PixyJunket

Funny observation: Matthew Chimmel can make a whole thread and write a large essay on movies he doesn't like, but if you dare post something negative about a movie he likes he jumps on people proclaiming they're trolling, threadcrapping or "need to get laid more."

raven56706

gosh this movie sucked......my fart sounds are funnier then this movie.

Ketamine

Agree that this is one of the worst movies I have seen in a long time. I told my wife we could shut it off after the first 30 minutes b/c it was so bad (I have never given up on a movie before), but we stuck it out. One or 2 ok parts with the rest just not funny in the least.

WFoS

Seantn

Naked Gun 1,2,3, and Airplane had actual plots that kept things moving forward to an actual conclusion. Date Movie was not 'spoofing' anything. They were imitating or re-creating, and expecting us to find that funny (the Napoleon Dynamite scene. His shirt says "DON'T vote for Pedro"...funny, right??!? Because it's the opposite of what it should really say!! LOLLLLLLSZZZZ). It seems that recent films have not figured out what 'spoof' actually means.