rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2008
Directed by Aaron Seltzer & Jason Friedberg; produced by Aaron Seltzer, Jason Friedberg, Peter Safran; written by Aaron Seltzer, Jason Friedberg
Starring Sean Maguire, Carmen Electra, Ken Davitian, Kevin Sorbo, Diedrich Bader, Method Man, Phil Morris
The last two films made by Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg - 'Date Movie' and 'Epic Movie' - I awarded zero stars. Therefore 'Meet the Spartans' could be called an improvement. It still belongs to the worsed examples of spoofs, which makes me wonder how big the makers' involvement in 'Scary Movie', a pretty decent spoof, actually was. When the high point of your film, even for female viewers, is Carmen Electra, you just have to understand you are doing something wrong.
Inspiration this time is '300', based on the Frank Miller comic. It tries to exploit the questionable scenes in that film, but none of them become remotely funny. Television and video games are another big inspiration this time. In one of these scenes the film actually gets one thing right: Dane Cook is not funny. On the other hand, when 'Meet the Spartans' took some time to explain to me I am not funny, it would not worry me that much. If you like 'Date Movie' - I guess, and hope, I am talking to an empty chair - you will like this as well. Enough said.