There's not a single laugh to be had.
Date Movie (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:81
Fresh:5
Rotten:76
Average Rating:2.4/10
Consensus: In an attempt to parody rom-com cliches, Date Movie ultimately makes a mockery of itself, with juvenile toilet humor and empty pop culture references.
Runtime: 85 mins
Genre: Comedies
US Box Office: $48,478,234
Synopsis: Seltzer and Friedberg tell the story of hopeless romantic Julia Jones, who has finally met the man of her dreams, the very British Grant Funkyerdoder. But before they can have their Big Fat Greek... Seltzer and Friedberg tell the story of hopeless romantic Julia Jones, who has finally met the man of her dreams, the very British Grant Funkyerdoder. But before they can have their Big Fat Greek Wedding, they'll have to Meet the Parents; hook-up with The Wedding Planner, and contend with Grant's friend Andy – a spectacularly beautiful woman who wants to put an end to her Best Friend's Wedding. For years, there have been comedies that poked fun at sports films, spy flicks and scary movies. But where, wondered Friedberg and Seltzer, was the romance? The duo sold their first "spoof" screenplay, Spy Hard, just out of college, and a few years later they contributed to the screenplay for the box-office smash Scary Movie. Now, they've set their sights on the romantic comedy genre. "We watched a lot of romantic comedies and thought it would be a genre we could have some fun with," says Aaron Seltzer. Friedberg lays out DATE MOVIE's classic template: "Homely girl next door becomes beautiful, meets a guy, brings him home, parents hate the guy and they go through all the required obstacles." As Seltzer tells it, "We selected memorable scenes from different romantic comedies and from that we created a story on which we could hang lots of spoofing." Their central character is Julia Jones. The moniker is a play on the names of superstar Julia Roberts and fictional character Bridget Jones, and it represents a blend of actor and character that audiences love to watch fall in love. Julia is the heart of DATE MOVIE. "The one thing we know about Julia is that no matter how hard you try to keep her down, you can't crush her spirit," says Seltzer. "She believes in true love, and that's the thing you hang your hat on." --© 20th Century Fox [More]
Starring: Alyson Hannigan, Adam Campbell, Eddie Griffin, Jennifer Coolidge
Starring: Alyson Hannigan, Adam Campbell, Eddie Griffin, Jennifer Coolidge, Fred Willard, Carmen Electra, Tony Cox, Lil Jon, Valery M. Ortiz, Meera Nara Simhan, Nick Steele
Director: Aaron Seltzer
Director: Aaron Seltzer
Screenwriter: Aaron Seltzer, Jason Friedberg
Composer: David Kitay
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Reviews for Date Movie
The dismaying thing about this spoof of chick flicks is the lack of satirical perspective: you can't do irony while assuming the audience knows and cares about nothing beyond a few hit romantic comedies.
It's loud and obnoxious, but too full of itself to be interesting and not sober enough to be truly offensive. (Unrated)
There's nary a laugh to be found in this relentlessly idiotic parody of popular romantic comedies, which manages the difficult feat of seeming overlong at just 80 minutes.
Looting the key scenes and plot points of hit movies is the bread and butter of spoof comedies, but the script for Date Movie is about as funny as dry white toast.
More shocking than hilarious, this spoof of the teensploit genre offers just enough funny moments to earn this critic's seal of approval.
Get it? It's just like that one scene you saw in that one movie, but with poop!
The kind of spoof that doesn't so much "poke fun" at its targets as it does "lazily reference" them.
While the premise of a gross-out spoof of such movies may sound like a good idea in theory, it doesn’t make a lot of sense in practice.
Date Movie still labours under the mistaken impression that exaggerated mimicry alone is enough to entertain.
Alyson Hannigan deserves better. In fact, we all deserve better than DATE MOVIE, a slow-witted assembly of every date movie joke we've already seen.
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