Epic

Epic

The production quality of a parody film can sometimes provide a basis of measuring the degree at which the film was able to adequately replicate the expository style of the films that it makes fun of. In that sense, Epic Movie is a pretty good movie. But for those who seek an actual joke in a movie that parodies other films, than Epic Movie would more be appropriately described in the phrase “nothing to write home about.” With an 86-minute duration, it is a ball of boredom that is devoid of any clever thoughts or humor.

As with the last two films of this series such as Date Movie (2006) and Scary Movie franchise which writer / directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer were both apart of and created compare for different spoof films Epic Movie at least attempts to tie the story of out a couple of its targets. Four adult orphans (Kal Penn, Adam Campbell, Jayma Mays, Faune A. Chambers) are given the honor of having a Golden Ticket and allowed a one in a life time visit to the Willy Wonka’s (Crispin Glover) chocolate factory, where such was the case that the doors were secured and they were not permitted to exit.

In their efforts to exit, they look through a closet and enter a parallel dimension called Gnarnia wherein they get embroiled in the conflicts between an evil sorceress named the white bitch (Jennifer Coolidge) and a half man half lion, Aslo (Fred Willard).

It is rather unfortunate to note that actors such as Coolidge, Willard and former Kid In The Hall Kevin McDonald are featured in Epic Movie yet they are not able to make any comic relief, as the material they are provided is simply too bad. This is further enforced by the fact that such actors seem to think that a good thought process was behind the scripting that featured bland scenes with no scope for comedy. Also, the script doesn’t seem to comprehend that song and dance can be forcibly included in a scene a hundred times but will still not be funny.

The parody movie genre can be said to have started with the film Airplane! which not only parodied the recent trend of the Airport disaster film craze but also the entire wooden Hollywood genre of featuring a classic cast of actors and putting them in danger. The writer/director trio responsible for the movie, Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker, would go on to develop the Police Squad television series that analogously to the movie developed into a trilogy titled Naked Gun. However, these movies were more general parodies of their respective genres than pokes at specific movies.

On the other end of the scale, there’s a second generation of parody films which goes all the way from Scary Movie through to Epic Movie and are presented as films that parody a select few films that are focused on the same genre. In fact, they usually deliver as a collection of Mad Magazine idiotic clips which do not come together in any meaningful way to create a logical sequence of events.

The fact that a few of these sequences may elicit a chuckle is of no consequence as the end product always appears to be a work in progress. Never mind elevating the standard set by the original, this second generation of the parody genre seems to be more obsessed with self-serving retards, adding more and more recent movie spoofs until the entire edifice buckles under the weight.

This is also the case with Epic Movie. For instance, in their attempts to include as many different movies as possible references the whole plot becomes too chaotic to comprehend. Yes, there are some surefire targets to shoot at, such as Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. What is pathetic is calling such movies as Nacho Libre and Click an ‘epic’ and then opening the floodgates, it’s not even the bottom of the barrel, it’s the area beneath the barrel.

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