Film Review: Date Movie (2006)
Some of the worst celluloid manure brought by Hollywood on big screen at the start of 21st Century were romantic comedies - a genre with plots that should theoretically be closest to real life, but, in practice, often representing insult to viewers’ intelligence. Even more insulting, however, are attempts to further exploit romantic comedies through parody. One such insults came in the form of Date Movie, 2006 film directed by Aaron Seltzer.
Like with many such parodies made at the time, the plot is extremely basic and utterly unoriginal. In this particular case, it concerns Julia James (played by Alyson Hannigan) and her efforts to get together with Grant Funkyerdoder (played by Alan Campbell). Its resolution is quite predictable, and, at the end of the day, plot serves as nothing more than an excuse for gags that exploit not only romantic comedies, but every remotely popular film that hit the cinemas in the previous 18 months and even some celebrity headlines.
Seltzer co-wrote his film with Jason Friedberg. The duo had honed their craft on a series of horror parody films Scary Movie, with its approach simply being copied to romantic comedies.
Despite initially good box office results, Date Movie remained remembered as one of the most hated films in history, not only among critics, but also among the general public. The latter can be concluded by the film’s 2.8 score at IMDb, one which is extraordinarily low.
The reason for such bad reputation can be found in lack of originality and humour, with authors trying to compensate utter lack of laughs by trying to be “edgy” with jokes dealing with paedophilia, necrophilia, zoophilia and references to various metabolic processes – all, off course, within the PG-13 limits that notorious hypocritical MPAA Ratings Board would tolerate.
The only bright spot in the film comes somewhere in middle with the spectacular appearance of Sophie Monk, Australian singer and model who plays Julia’s glamorous rival Andy. Monk makes scenes with her worth watching not only by her sultry look, but also by displaying something of talent for screwball comedy.
Date Movie, which made professional film critics proudly announce walking out of theatre after suffering only twenty out of eighty minutes of running time, and which brought Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress for Carmen Electra (who plays character of Annie), is definitely not the film watching.
On the other hand, its DVD edition is far more interesting, made when the film’s fate among audience and critics was already certain. Short running time allowed many extra features that allowed producers to mock their own work. Those who were traumatised by horrible quality of the film itself can listen to three different audio-commentaries, which could be recommended for therapeutic purposes.
RATING: 1/10 (--)
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