Epic Movie - Review

Discuss this movie on our message board!

Length: 86 min

Rated: PG-13

Distributor: Regency Entertainment

Release Date: 2007-01-26

Starring: Kal Penn, Adam Campbell, Jennifer Coolidge, Jayma Mays, Faune A. Chambers, Crispin Glover, Tony Cox, Héctor Jiménez, Darrell Hammond, Carmen Electra, Fred Willard

Directed by Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer

Produced by Paul Schiff

Written by Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer

Visit the movie's Official Site!

Reviewed by Scott Gwin : 2007-01-26 19:28:24

There’s no question that with all the major sci-fi and fantasy franchise films floating around there’s also bound to be a solid spoof film worth of material out there to rib them. Such a movie would be full of witty jabs, playful parody and laugh-out-loud mockery. Unfortunately that movie hasn’t been made yet. The only effort made so far is Epic Movie, but it’s less a comedy and more the cinematic equivalent of peeing and missing the toilet by a good three feet.

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer demonstrated a minimum aptitude for spoof comedy as two members of the six man committee that wrote Scary Movie. For some reason that compelled them to strike out on their own and the result was the appalling, embarrassing Date Movie. Lucky for them, America seems to like stupid and so the movie turned a profit. Likewise, Friedberg and Seltzer have turned their attention back to parody yet again and this latest attempt may be the worst yet.

Four “young” orphans find themselves desperate to escape their tragic lives. Peter (Adam Campell) is a misfit at the Mutant Academy of Arts and Sciences. Edward (Kal Penn) dares to dream of a world beyond his orphanage life where Nacho Libre serves up roadkill and snotty Doritos for lunch. Susan (Faune Chambers) gets thrown out of a plane full of snakes for complaining that Samuel L. Jackson is repetitive. Lucy (Jayme Mays) is the ward of a museum curator who leaves clues behind to lead her to safety after he is slain by a black albino.

Each of the orphans finds their way out through a golden ticket in a Willy chocolate bar. Arriving at Willy’s (Cripsin Glover) factory for what they hope will be a wonderful new life, they quickly discover that all he wants are their bodies. Human flesh is the secret ingredient to his magnificent candies and he’s fresh out of stock. On the run yet again, the four orphans hide in a wardrobe they discover in Willy’s house. The wardrobe turns out to be a gateway to the magical world of Gnarnia.

Up to that point most of the story is piece-mealed together from other movies and the cameo moments from those films had me grinning from time to time. For example, I actually laughed out loud as Lucy was trying to escape from the museum. She shines her black light on the painting of the Mona Lisa revealing the cryptic message “So lame the hair of Tom”. She checks the next painting to find a perfect rendering of that bizarre hair-do that Hanks sported in The DaVinci Code. If the whole movie had been at least that clever there may have been some hope for it, but once the children arrive in Gnarnia it becomes one long chain of tired, boring and mostly vulgar gags.

Gnarnia is ruled by the cold-hearted White Bitch (Jennifer Coolidge). Friedberg and Seltzer must have been laughing to the point of wetting themselves when they thought up that one because it gets tossed around so many trite ways. She lives in a White Castle (cue the inevitable Kal Penn / Kumar joke) and drives around in a sleigh-like snow mobile terrorizing the peoples of Gnarnia. The four children, guided by Mr. Tumnus (Héctor Jiménez) and his life partner Harry Beaver (a relationship that gives rise to one too many creepy make out scenes between Héctor and an animatronic puppet), must find the half man, half lion Aslo (Fred Willard) and join forces with him to save Gnarnia.

Somewhere along the way they get a battle training montage from middle-aged Harry Potter and friends (an overplayed gag on actors being too old to play child roles). Oh, did I forget to mention the overused Jack Sparrow spoof? Despite the fact that those characters have little or no reason to be in Gnarnia in the first place, they pop up anyway for comedic bits that drag far too long to stay fresh and funny.

The real losers here are the actors. I’m mortified in particular for Jennifer Coolidge and Fred Willard who deserve far better than to be caught up in this sort of pseudo-comic tripe. And then there’s poor Crispin Glover reduced to prancing around as Willy. I wanted to weep. The only truly bright spot was the movie’s score. Ed Shearmur brilliantly mimics and sends-up the music from every single movie spoofed, from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe right down to Harry Potter, X-Men and Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s nice to know someone involved with the project was able to interject something that wasn’t completely embarrassing.

When the humor isn’t painfully predictable, it’s annoying and juvenile. For every hundred fart gags and sex jokes there might be one genuinely funny bit. As useless and un-entertaining as the movie might be, I have no doubt that Seltzer and Friedberg have nothing to worry about. Like I said before, there’s a significant portion of America that seems to love stupid. That part of America has inexplicably kept the Scary Movie franchise alive for four films now and I’m sure they’ll hand over the cash for this one too.

Latest Movie Reviews:

Public Enemies

The Boat That Rocked (UK release)

My Sister's Keeper

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs 3D

Image Gallery for Epic Movie

Comment on “Epic Movie”

Note: This website is not meant for use by minors. The views expressed in the comments section below are not our own. This section is intended for discussion of the topic in the post above. Disagreement is encouraged, however comments which attack, insult, or threaten the author in a personal manner won't be published. Similarly, comments that we deem to be poorly worded, or wildly off topic will also not be approved and may be mocked. For free, uncensored, unfettered, and possibly dangerous discussion visit our forum.

Subscribe to topic comments

0 0 / 0
y n

????????
September 30, 2007 at 00:29

wtf i thought it was a good movie but i read all of this and im thinking other wies and is it really that bad like whats the most affencive part aka or worse part

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Mike 83
July 12, 2007 at 00:10

The movie was just not funny. Now Scary movie was funny. This is not. It did however have some hot scenes, if thats your thing. But as a comedy, it was a joke that had no jokes. The best part "the Pirates area" I saw it on Youtube first. And so I had hope. But that sub par comedic effort, was the only okish part of the movie. But again their was some nice Tand A in their, but that was about it.

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

mee
June 22, 2007 at 01:23

i loved greasteest ever better make a # 2

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Darren
May 30, 2007 at 11:11

I only paid a few bucks to rent the DVD and I felt ripped off. C'mon America are we so dumb that rich hollywood idiots like this are encouraged to make such a piece of crap for profit? I think the fact that it was made is an insult to all of us....but then again, springer, reality tv, hmmm ...nevermind. But seriously this is such a bad movie I actually could not finish watching it. It's not that it's boring or badly acted really, it's just that the gags are soooo lame and old...like c'mon the rubber tongue (stuck to the frozen pole) thing? How many movies have we seen that in? These clowns put this movie together in one evening with a couple spliffs and a case of beer- it's so obvious. The ugly guy from Nacho Libre making out with a fake beaver...jeez... really the movie's weak attempt at comedy is just plain offensive... when you watch it with other people you feel just like you do when you are at a party and one of your relatives is drunk and making an ass of himself- y'know how you kinda feel embarassed for them?

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Me
April 28, 2007 at 21:33

Worst movie ever :| not funny at all

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Randpom
April 22, 2007 at 13:34

This was the most retarded shit i've ever seen, the whole thing was more gross than funny, and to be frank, the whole thing was a waste of time and money.

don't see it

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Elmware
March 5, 2007 at 00:03

This movie was just horrible! I not only wasted my movie ticket from iCoke on this garbage but I also wasted an hour and a half of my life watching this filth.

There was nothing funny about this movie, except the part where the guy goes to drink out of the so-called chocolait stream.

The blonde chic acting dumb just made the movie even stupider.

Like others have said, if you have time to spare, go watch paint dry instead because you'll get more entertainment out of that.

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Daniel Sheridan
February 22, 2007 at 17:35

without a doubt the least funny film i have seen in my lifetime, absolute crap! they had all the possibilities there for a gd script and banter, scary movie succeeded there, but they squandered it all with poor writing and repetitive storyline. If you have a spare few hours then don't go and see this film! go and watch some paint dry instead, far more rivetting!

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Jennifer
February 21, 2007 at 18:31

Honestly.. I agree.. the most horrible movie EVER!! Please do not waste your money and most importantly your TIME.. on this. I only watched it because my b/f and I were under the influence of Mary J... You know.. where you laugh AT ANYTHING!!! ...yeah, not even mary J. made the movie good.. I shouldn't have listened to him..

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

joe soup
February 13, 2007 at 08:39

man epic movie sucks... i went to watch it with a couple of mates and during da movie.. 6 ppl left!!!...no joke!!!! epic movie is pure trash. they try too hard ! way too hard!

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Connagh Hawkins
February 10, 2007 at 13:57

I saw this film earlier today with great expectations.... after seeing scary movie and POD.

And im not gonna say the acting was terrible or anything... but that fact is that this is just a not funny film at all, the pirates rap made me smile but apart from that they are all things that i guessed were going to happen before they did, there is no punchlines and no real jokes at all, the microphone is visible alot and the beaver is god aweful. They do incredibly bad impressions of cribs and Punked which was just insulting to be frank. And it is way too short.

I really would not reccomend this.

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

kay
February 7, 2007 at 12:50

i took my younger sister to see this movie thinking it would be just a funny movie making fun of other ones. But when i was watching it i almost walked out. And i should've and got my money back. I can't believe i wasted my time on this piece of crap. This was without a doubt the WORST movie EVERRRRR!

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Dante\'
February 6, 2007 at 23:10

man....i wanted to kill myself when i was in the place......I mean it was soo dumb, stupid, retarted!! One thing i realized was nobody was in the theater but me in 4 others....I thought it was just because of the weather....i should've takin it as a warning...But it was booty, the jokes were stupid, i only laughed at the beginning when they carved "Thug Life" on that mans chest.....the rest was garbage!! DONT WATCH, MAY CAUSE EYE DAMAGE!! *no wonder the tickets were half off*

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

stamen
February 6, 2007 at 20:24

Worst movie I have ever seen!!!! Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer owe me $28; more importantly 86 minutes of my life. I feel so ripped off I'm angry. Do not see this movie under any circumstances! This proves there's nepitism in Hollywood. You mean there was no better script to produce? Pure garbage.

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

annabella
February 6, 2007 at 20:24

this movie is the worst ever. even worser than date movie, I know, WORSER is not a word but Epic movie invented it.

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Brian
February 2, 2007 at 03:19

This movie was horrible. It wasn't funny at all. All the paradies weren't even relative. You can see the boom microphone a few times in the movie... lame! The only reason why I even watched it, is because they gave me a free ticket to watch Ocean's 13, and it was full, so I had to watch this instead. Do NOT watch it!

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Scott
January 29, 2007 at 13:26

K,

I agree, the movie walked the line between PG-13 and R. I wouldn't be surprised if it originally received an R and was then pared back to get the PG-13.

Either way, however, parents and parents alone are responsible for what their kids watch. If I were a parent I would be just as concerned about the nature of the movie as the content. I would never let my child think that I consider something this stupid to be entertainment. I'd put this one right up there with the Jackass movies in terms of entertainment value. I honestly think kids come out dumber for the experience of having seen it.

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

K
January 28, 2007 at 16:56

I went into this movie with the expectations of extreme stupidity, but even with those low expectations, I was shocked. This is the only movie I have ever felt even the slightest urge to walk out of. And I am disgusted that this movie was rated PG-13! A large percent of the kids in the theater didn't understand half of the movie because of adult and sexual content! But that is no excuse. The kids in the theater probably learned a lot of things from this movie that they did NOT need to know at that young of an age. It really eliminates the question of where the youth learn the things they know today...

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

asd
January 27, 2007 at 15:50

Scary Movie shouldn't be compared to this trash. Date Movie was easily one of the worst parody movies ever made and I'm assuming this one will be no different. Scary Movie can at least spark some laughs and pull off decent parodies... When I watched Date movie I literally had to force myself to finish it.

Reply
0 0 / 0
y n

Goon
January 27, 2007 at 14:21

you'll never go broke appealing to the lowest common denominator. if anyone reading this saw and enjoyed this film, you dear reader, are a stupid stupid person, and should never breed.

Reply

Subscribe to topic comments

Please login or sign up to post reply

Back to Epic Movie

Epic Movie - Review

Comment on “Epic Movie”

Leave a Reply