Director: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer
Starring: Sean Maguire, Carmen Electra, Kevin Sorbo, Ken Davitian, Diedrich Bado
Meet The Spartans (2008) *1/2
Director: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer
Starring: Sean Maguire, Carmen Electra, Kevin Sorbo, Ken Davitian, Diedrich Bado
The lords of the overdone spoof, writer/directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer are back at it. After such comedy classics as the Scary Movie series and all its offshoots (Epic Movie, Date Movie, etc.) these guys turned the action epic, 300 into a one-gag film with modern pop culture references appearing over and over again in the setting of ancient Sparta. Its’ funny once in awhile, but mostly it’s just wearisome
TV star Sean Maguire is Leonidas, the mucho leader of the Spartans who loves nothing more than kicking people into the Pit of Death, but unfortunately stopped before the makers of this mess stepped onscreen. The story follows 300 pretty closely, just tweaking it into the same joke over and over again, as it references Casino Royale (the groin torture scene of course), Happy Feet, Britney Spears (naturally), and Paris Hilton (another surprise). An overabundance of body fluid scenes do nothing to add to the appeal here, nor do the preponderance of gay jokes. I’d tell you how it ends, but I’ve already forgotten.
Meet the Spartans is poor, even by spoof standards, but juvenile-minded fans of Friedberg and Seltzer’s previous efforts will probably enjoy it, though the humor is weaker and replaced by more pop culture references and corporate product placement. It does offer one gift to movie reviewers such as myself, in that its ridiculously short 70 minute run time limited my suffering, though real fans may feel like they should get some of their money back. As for movie viewers who have missed these guys’ previous attempts at cinematic excellence, skip it and be glad you did, but I’m sure you didn’t need me to tell you that.
