DATE MOVIE

Directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

Starring Alyson Hannigan

Reviewed by Byron Merritt

BIG THUMBS DOWN FILM REVIEW RATING

It’s always risky going to the movies. You never know (for sure) what to expect. I’ve heard horrible reviews about films I found enjoyable and vice versa, so relying on professional and/or amateur film reviewers is rarely the best way for me to gauge whether or not I want to see a flick.

I knew that DATE MOVIE was directed by a couple of the guys who did the SCARY MOVIE series’, and my kids (17-year-olds, mind you) love them. I’d sat through the first SCARY MOVIE and found it relatively funny at times, if a bit crude. But there was some care taken with the filming of it (the homage paid to THE EXORCIST was actually quite well done) so I thought maybe I’d find something similar here.

No such luck....

Like SCARY MOVIE, DATE MOVIE takes its jabs at a film genre, only this time, instead of horror, it’s romance movies of the past fifty years (all the way back to THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH which starred Marilyn Monroe). But, unlike SCARY MOVIE, DATE MOVIE doesn’t pay much homage in a very artistic or funny/flattering way to these wonderful films. The jokes are just thrown in — without rhyme or reason — and shot without regard for the surrounding environment (most teenagers probably won’t give a flying whoopty-doo about that but others most certainly will). Bathroom humor rules the roost here as we see the infamous cat from MEET THE PARENTS taking a raucously loud dump in a toilet with full sound effects (yes, I did laugh here but it was about the only place), and some extremely, extremely, extremely forced sexual connotations are smeared in the audience's face by the beautiful Carmen Electra.

Pulling skits from NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, JERRY MAGUIRE, and WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (among dozens of others), the film tried too hard to use the comedy it could’ve easily pulled off with a less heavy-handed effort.

Alyson Hannigan, as the main character, Julia Jones, gives the shallowest performance of her career. Adam Campbell as her love interest, Mr. Grant Funkyerdoder (ha-ha), was entertaining but obviously trying to make more out of the script than was possible.

The rest of the supporting cast was terrible, unable to get any truly laugh-out-loud moments across to the audience.

I think the race for Worst Film of the Year has officially begun.

Click here for the Date Movie movie trailer!