Synopsis

The twisted minds of two of the six writers of "Scary Movie" (Friedman and Seltzer) lampoon the biggest mega-blockbusters of all time in "Epic Movie". The story centres on four not so young orphans: one raised by a curator at the Louvre (where an albino assassin lurks), another a refugee from Mexican "libre" wrestling, the third a recent victim of snakes on her plane, and the fourth a "normal" resident of a mutant "X"-community. The hapless quarter visits a chocolate factory, where they stumble into an enchanted wardrobe that transports them into the land of Gnarnia. Yes folks the sick twisted minds of Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer who made us laugh with "Scary Movie" and "Date Movie", are at it again as numerous big budget movies are parodied in this "EPIC MOVIE", with the central narrative allowing its cast to poke fun at films such as "The Chronicles Of Narnia", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Nacho Libre", "Pirates Of The Carribean", "Snakes On A Plane" and many more well known EPIC MOVIES.

What The Critics Say

"None of it makes much sense and none of its funny, and to see such truly talented performers like Coolidge, Willard and Kid-in-the-Hall Kevin McDonald, who appears briefly as a seedy, middle-aged Harry Potter, is merely depressing." Ken Fox TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE "On January 26th, I have witnessed what is assured to be the worst film I will behold all year." Brian Orndorf OHMYNEWS.COM "No matter how low your expectations for Epic Movie are, reduce them by at least 90 percent." Jeremy C Fox PAJIBA "What was the last studio picture this bad? Maybe 2002's The Adventures of Pluto Nash. I've seen more talent in my cat's last dump." Dustin Putman THEMOVIEBOY "Too simple, too vulgar and too obvious to be Funny Movie. It's not even Chuckle Movie or Giggle Movie. It's in your face, with most humor centered around taking characters you recognize and just making them dumber." Willie Waffle WAFFLEMOVIES

"Thankfully, at 90 minutes, Epic Movie is anything but epic. Unfortunately, there is little else to be thankful for in Friedman and Seltzer's latest and most meagre lampoon. This series of spoof movies, which began just shy of promisingly with "Scary Movie", has become more rote and tired with each successive and inexplicably successful new entry." Louise Keller URBANCINEFILE "When did this sort of movie stop being funny? Parodies with so-called "saturation humor" used to be reliable - rarely memorable but typically good for 90 minutes of enjoyable, disposable cinema. At some point, however, the jokes lost their zing, and the writing team of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer were right in the middle. There's no way to soften the truth: Epic Movie is a waste of time." James Berardinelli REELVIEWS "Based on the dubious theory that recognition is 99% of comedy, pic indiscriminately references recent popular movies from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" to "Nacho Libre" to "The Chronicles of Narnia," extravagantly expending elaborate sets, special-effects, music, costumes and actor look-alikes for the sake of a few lame gags and a legion of crotch-kicks. Weak "Epic" seems unlikely to join the list of blockbusters it lampoons." Ronnie Scheib VARIETY "..Epic Movie, aside from having nothing to do with epics (nobody in Hollywood knows what one is, much less how to make them), is an educational outing. The producers show how easy it is to fake a Narnia, a pirate ship, a chocolate factory full of little people. Pity they couldn't find anything funny to do once they'd built the sets, and found dead ringers for Anna Paquin, Paris Hilton, P Diddy & Jack Black." Roger Moore ORLANDO SENTINEL

The Inside Story "EPIC MOVIE is big. Really big. It’s a movie of, well, epic proportions. We know … because we measured," says the tagline for the latest effort from two of the six writers of "Scary Movie", Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. After seeing "Epic Movie" many will pose the question: 'Measured against what!' If it is against the male appendage then there must be some awful small penis's in the U.S of A. Penis's that truly must be in need of an enlargement proceedure. This lack lustre effort from the two writers continues their downhill slide following the release of their first send-up movie, "Date Movie", which is evidently when the guys first got the idea for "Epic Movie". According to producer Paul Schiff, "We had so much fun making that movie we didn’t want to stop, so we came up with another one. We were just brainstorming and talking about targets of opportunities ripe for parodies." That session must have killed off a few of their brain cells judging by the final product. The framework for "Epic Movie" is built around that other 'epic movie', "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" and the magical world of Gnarnia. No it's not a typo. It's the magical world of Gnarnia. Of course that bright spark of a thought opened up a crack in the time continium to bring in other films and incorporate them into an "Epic Movie". "We just like these movies and thought they’d be great movies to ridicule," says co-writer and co-director Aaron Seltzer. "Like 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'Superman' and 'X-Men' and 'Nacho Libre'. It just seemed like fun to parody them all, using 'Narnia' as the broad outline, and then it just stemmed from there." The main pitch for the film is the adventures of four orphans. Kal Penn plays Edward, who falls under the White Bitch's spell; Adam Campbell is Peter, who tries to be a true leader even though his natural inclinations are to cut and run; Faune Chambers is Susan, the practical and stoic one; and Jayma Mays is Lucy. The idiot. Edward is loosely based on the Edmund character from Narnia," Kal Penn relates. "He’s jealous of his older brother, Peter, and doesn't really think that he’s part of the family. He's the traitorous character. He's led to believe that the witch is going to make him king of this land, whereas my siblings are on a separate mission. He doesn’t feel like he really belongs, but through the course of the story they all come together as a family to fight off the witch." "My character is a rather anxious, nervous, frightened mutant boy who eventually gains his courage and becomes something bigger than he's ever dreamt," says Adam Campbell, who starred as the foppish, charming, bumbling British lad Grant Funkyerdoder in Seltzer & Friedberg’s romantic comedy spoof "Date Movie". Jayma Mays, who co-starred opposite Rachel McAdams in "Red Eye", plays the dimwitted Lucy. "Lucy’s a simple gal," says Mays. "She’s definitely a little slower than the rest of the group. She figures things out a few steps behind everybody else." The role of Susan, the most responsible and practical of the orphaned adventurers, went to "White Chicks" cast member Faune Chambers. "Susan has been an orphan all of her life," Chambers explained, "so she feels that she's never been a part of anything worthwhile. So when she finds this golden ticket that says, 'an epic adventure', she's just so excited. And once she gets there, of course, it turns into something they’re not expecting, but what she’s discovered is a nice little family unit that she's never had and never been a part of." Amonst the many characters in the film, The White Bitch is played by "Best In Show" cast member Jennifer Coolidge, best known to younger audiences as Stifler's mom. Did she mind being cast again as a bad girl? "I guess I just get offered the bad girl a lot," Coolidge says. "I seem kind of typecast, I guess, but yeah, it’s just more fun." Much more fun I suspect than audiences will have watching "Epic Movie". Then there's Captain Jack Swallows, the films pirate who is obviously a send up of Captain Jack Sparrow, the campy pirate Captain made famous by a real actor, Johnny Depp. I don't know if the Swallows part refers to an act performed on the male appendage, but I am sure many cinemagoers will find themselves 'gagging' on what Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer are trying to shove down our throats as, 'entertainment'. "I spent almost every hour of every day watching "Pirates of the Caribbean", trying to get every single little thing I could get my hands on, because the thing about the character is that it has so many layers to it, so I had to take a look and find as many aspects to parody as I could," says "Saturday Night Live" veteran Darrell Hammond. Then there's "Back to the Future" cast member Crispin Glover (no relation to a real actor named Danny Glover) playing another Johnny Depp character, Willy from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". "We were searching high and low for an actor to have the courage and sense of abandon to ridicule Willy Wonka as played by Johnny Depp," recalls "Maid in Manhattan" and "Mona Lisa Smile" producer Paul Schiff. "Crispin twisted the character and played with it." Fred (why the hell did you do it) Willard plays Aslo, which is of course, a tongue in cheek reference to the computer generated "The Chronicles of Narnia" lion Aslan. "Aslo is kind of a randy lion, who has an eye for the ladies," says the comedy veteran who can currently be seen in "For Your Consideration". To get into the mind of Aslo the lion meant Willard had to participate in some unusal and what seems very dangerous research. Willard revealed that he "went to several zoos. I ate with the lions. I slept with the lions. Made love to the lions. Made love to the zookeepers. And finally they said, 'That’s enough. Out you go.' And I said, 'But I'm preparing for a movie.'" Which is far funnier than anything you'll experience in "Epic Movie". And how did they transform the usually very funny Willard into Aslo? "My days consisted of them slicking down my hair, putting on a skullcap, putting on the wig, struggling with the pants and shoes, and shaving my chest so they could glue the fake chest hair on," he said. Now that would be funny to see Fred! So why then isn't this second film from Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer really funny? Schiff hit the nail on the head when he noted that "making a parodic movie like "Epic Movie" is deceptively complicated." Why is it so? "Because we’re taking on some pretty big and spectacular movies to ridicule, in order for the joke to work the scene has to be grounded in enough reality of that movie so that you can twist it and turn it and ridicule it." Unfortunately for all their hard work, the reality is horribly simple. "Epic Movie" aint no epic. And, to make matters worse, it aint funny either. Finally, while "Epic Movie" reunites a number of cast members from "Date Movie", there is one staisfying point to be made about the cast, Australian actress (yes that's actress and not actor dummies) Sophie Monk and her curvacious, hot body is thankfully, not in the starting line-up. The Verdict "It's a sad fact that when it comes to making sequels (or sequels of sorts) the more you attempt the more likely you are to come unstuck. Such is the case with "Epic Movie" the latest send-up from two of the six "Scary Movie" writers, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer who also take on the directing roles. Regular readers of my reviews will know that I love films that take the piss out of the establishment especially those which lampoon or satirize their subject and those with a bent for being politically incorrect. But, and in the case of "Epic Movie" there's a huge but, as long as they are entertaining, and in the case of a comedy parody, they are 'funny'. "Epic Movie" is none of these. My initial reaction was "give it a week at the box-office and watch what happens." Friedman and Seltzer only just scraped through with their last film, "Date Movie", which was saved by the fact that it had a half decent cast, something "Epic Movie" truly lacks. "Epic Movie" is unfortunately a huge disappointment and a load of childish, puerile, nonsense. As far as "Epic Movies" go, it is unfortunately a non event that, like a dud crackers, fizzles and splutters but lacks the excitement of a big bang. Leave it for the fans and the no-brainers. An 'epic' it aint. 1 1/2 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "EPIC MOVIE" stars .......
Kal Penn ["Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle", "Man About Town" and "Superman Returns"]; Adam Campbell ["You Are Here" and "Date Movie"]; Jayma Mays ["Red Eye" and "Flags of Our Fathers"]; Faune A Chambers ["Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me", "Like Mike", "Austin Powers in Goldmember" and "White Chicks"]; Crispin Glover ["Nurse Betty", "Like Mike", "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "Drop Dead Sexy"]; with Darrell Hammond ["Scary Movie 3", "Blues Brothers 2000", "Agent Cody Banks" & "New York Minute"] as Captain Jack Swallows and Jennifer Coolidge ["Legally Blonde 2", "Best In Show", "A Mighty Wind", "Click" and "For Your Consideration"] as the White Bitch.
"EPIC MOVIE" was .......
directed by Jason Friedberg ["Epic Movie"] and Aaron Seltzer ["Epic Movie" & "Date Movie"]; written by Jason Friedberg ["Spy Hard", "Scary Movie 1,2,3 & 4" and "Date Movie"] and Aaron Seltzer [""Spy Hard", "Scary Movie 1,2,3 & 4" and "Date Movie""]; cinematography by Shawn Maurer ["Johnson Family Vacation", "Run Ronnie Run", "Like Mike" and "Date Movie"]; original music by Ed Shearmur ["Cruel Intentions", "Charlie's Angels 1 & 2", "Miss Congeniality 1 & 2", "The Skeleton Key" and "Derailed"]; production design by William A Elliott ["Ace Ventura: Pet Detective", "Nutty Professor I & II", "Malibu's Most Wanted" and "Date Movie"]; set decoration by Teresa Visinare ["K-19", "About Schmidt", "The Rules of Attraction", "In Her Shoes" and "Date Movie"] and costume design by Frank Helmer ["L.A.X.", "Herbie Fully Loaded" and "DOA: Dead or Alive"]. Run Time 92 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2007 - 20th Century Fox - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2007 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved