Date Movie (2006)
Directed by Aaron Seltzer
Spoof of romantic comedies which focuses on a man, his crush, his parents, and her father.
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What critics compared Date Movie to
These days, though, the genre has been taken hostage by writer/directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, whose cinematic conveyor belt continues to crank out execrable dross like Date Movie and Meet the Spartans with alarming regularity.
Better yet, the wonder duo manage to rip themselves off with gags borrowed from Date Movie (the transparent appearance of a black man as a white woman's stunt double) and Scary Movie 3 (a person of small stature hits a ceiling fan and is subsequently shot out a window) that had actually been mildly amusing the first time around.
Big question: Is the latest spoof from Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (“Meet the Spartans,” “Epic Movie,” “Date Movie”) even slightly better than the garbage they’ve done before?
One day after Obama stirred the nation with his DNC speech in Denver, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (the hacks behind Date Movie and Epic Movie) unleashed their second witless rehash of pop culture references this year (after February’s Meet the Spartans), one featuring a black “comedian” by the name of G. Thang.
Riding in on the shabby coattails of "Scary Movie," "Date Movie," and "Epic Movie," the film lampoons shock-and-awe blockbusters from "Armageddon" to "An Inconvenient Truth."
Instead writer/directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer do what they’ve done in Date Movie, Epic Movie, and Meet the Spartans, spoof big movies and other miscellaneous popular culture from the last six to twelve months regardless of how it fits into the overall title concept.
Date Movie plays as if the worst two of the six writers of Scary Movie scribbled it down on the back of a cocktail napkin while on the way from their hotel to the set.
Reaching for the dustiest shelves of the video store, former "Scary Movie" writers Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg lampoon "When Harry Met Sally" (now almost 17 years old), "Pretty Woman" (16 years old) and David Lynch's TV series "Twin Peaks" (also sweet 16), as well as "Mr.
The fact that ‘‘Date Movie” was made by two of the six writers of ‘‘Scary Movie” should have been indication enough of the type of ‘‘comedy” to expect from this parody flick.
Date Movie 's trailer brags, “From two of the six writers of Scary Movie...” After seeing it you can’t help but muse, “It took two writers for that movie?!” The writers in question are Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer , who also co-directed.
Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Scary Movie) scripted this parody of romantic comedies, a project that puts them in the hopeless position of mocking movies that were much funnier than theirs.
It was only a matter of time until Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the writing-directing duo responsible for a parade of genre film parodies from “Date Movie’’ to “Meet the Spartans,’’ turned their attention to the “Twilight’’ franchise.
That's because writers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer worked with the Wayans before striking out on their own to write screenplays for "Date Movie" (which received a 6 percent rotten rating from Rotten Tomatoes); "Epic Movie" (2 percent rotten rating); "Meet the Spartans" (another 2 percent rotten rating); and "Disaster Movie" (you guessed it--another 2 percent rotten rating).
After a slew of really bad parody movies (including “Date Movie,” “Epic Movie” and “Disaster Movie”), writer-directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer step up their game by picking a target that really deserves it: The “Twilight” franchise.
After a 30-month span in which they released "Date Movie," "Epic Movie," "Meet the Spartans," and "Disaster Movie" , they were silent.
After their cancerous 2008 effort, “Disaster Movie,” I honestly thought that would be the end of filmmakers Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg, two poisonously unfunny fellows who personally suffocated the parody genre with lethal features such as “Epic Movie,” “Date Movie,” and “Meet the Spartans.”
The duo, responsible for such stinkers as "Date Movie," "Epic Movie" and "Disaster Movie," now have turned their puny sights on the rabid pop culture phenomenon of sexy vampires.
Jones and his excellent crew, including crackerjack editor Paul Hirsch (whose career has swung wildly from Star Wars to Date Movie , with all kinds of stops in-between), cinematographer Don Burgess, and a phenomenal sound team led by Tom Bellfort, do such an amazing job of keeping the film sizzling along, finding an infinite number of ways to keep the flow between the high-energy scenes on the train and the slow-boil paranoia scenes in the Source Code mission room, that one could almost overlook the human element; certainly it's fairly boilerplate stuff about the power of free will and spirituality and all, but told with a fair degree of conviction, and well-acted, with Monaghan on her best behavior proving to be an outstanding romantic lead for Gyllenhaal; though the movie is rather stolen by Farmiga and Wright in two marvelous supporting performances, hers a subtle masterclass in conflicting emotions, the desire to be a decent, sympathetic person butting against the need to get the job done and be all mili…
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Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer continue spinning off from the Scary Movie franchise, to which they contributed on the original script, in this follow-up to Date Movie .
A few short weeks ago, I placed the spoof Date Movie on my list of the ten worst films of 2006.
Apparently not, since they were equally clueless in their choice of prey for Date Movie, last year's comic misfire.
"Epic Movie" was directed and written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who were among the "brains" behind the similar "Scary Movie" franchise (currently in production for a fifth installment) and 2006's "Date Movie."
The ongoing efforts of filmmakers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer to destroy the spoof genre continue with Epic Movie, as the film is just as ineffective as any of the pair's previous works (including the Scary Movie series and Date Movie).
These two scripted Scary Movie (along with Shawn and Marlon Wayans), which was amusing, and Date Movie, which was anything but that.
No, this isn’t in the realm of the Scary Movie franchise or such abysmal spin offs as Date Movie (2006) or Epic Movie (2007).
Lame spoofs like “Epic Movie” and “Date Movie” pop up now and then, grab a couple cheap laughs, then evaporate as soon as their jokes become dated (usually in a matter of days).
It's really merely the current crop of spoofs that are cruel, blunt, and simplistic, led by the Scary Movie franchise and now devolving into the line of quickie "(insert genre here) Movie," like Date Movie or Epic Movie .
Also, it makes no sense whatsoever and, if you dim your eyes slightly, you can almost imagine you’re watching a Seltzer/Friedberg-style spoof a la Date Movie or Vampires Suck .
In this case, the joke is on the filmmakers: Although they sneer at fluff like "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" and "What Women Want," those films look like motion picture milestones next to this cinematic toxic dump.
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Meet the Spartans (20th Century Fox), the latest spoof from Scary Movie/Date Movie/Epic Movie auteurs Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, begins with King Leonidas from 300 getting crapped on by a dancing penguin who exclaims, "I'm about to make you my bitch!"
Turning the task over to Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer—the auteur team who gave us Date Movie (2006) and Epic Movie (2007)—guaranteed that wouldn’t actually happen.
Or maybe it's because, after sitting through the rancid garbage that are Date Movie and Epic Movie, I simply don't have any more patience for the worthless cinematic exploits of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer .
These guys, who previously authored Date Movie and Epic Movie, are not really filmmakers.