Date Movie

This is less a movie than it is a series of lame skits satirising aspects of popular culture; it’s SNL for film buffs with next to no intelligence. What Date Movie strives to be is the next in the line of films bowing down to the Zucker brothers’ classic Airplane! As film critics Scott Foundas and Bob Strauss suggest in their "anti-commentary,” which is the most clever aspect of this release, it’s set up to fail because it positions itself as a meta-parody but is astoundingly unfunny. Alyson Hannigan plays a self-conscious woman looking for love who wins the heart of a Hugh Grant-style heartthrob played by Adam Campbell. That’s the basic premise. From there on in it’s really just a game of spot what film/TV show/music video/celebrity the writers do a shitty job of sending up. These include: Napoleon Dynamite; Bridget Jones’ Diary; Kelis; My Big Fat Greek Wedding; Hitch; Pimp My Ride; Star Wars; The Bachelor; When Harry Met Sally; Meet the Parents; Michael Jackson; Sweet Home Alabama; The Lord of the Rings; The Wedding Planner; Paris Hilton; Pretty Woman; "10”; The Sopranos; What Women Want; Britney Spears; Chappelle’s Show; Kill Bill; Dodgeball; Jerry Maguire; The Wedding Crashers; and King Kong. Not exactly a group of sacred cows are they? The whole notion of roasting the romantic comedy genre is a great one — there’s plenty of comic gold to be mined within its earnestness and picture-perfect motifs. Unfortunately, Date Movie mistakes immaturity for edginess and insults the intelligence of even its teen demographic with this patchy cringe fest. Plus: Making a Spoof; deleted scenes; laugh track; commentaries. (Fox)