Epic Movie

A cynical pastiche of recent blockbusters and rehashes of stuff you've seen before, but with the twist that one of the characters either hits his head, urinates or uses ethnic slang. This ain't as funny as anything it tries to spoof, and that includes "Narnia."

By Luke Y. Thompson Jan 26, 2007 12:02 AMTags

Review in a Hurry: Everything you loved about the past couple of years' blockbusters, only much less entertaining and with a lot more urination.

The Bigger Picture: Hey, wouldn't it be funny if Wolverine flipped somebody off using his metal claws? Oh, right...He actually did that in the first X-Men movie. And it was funny. Seeing it re-created by a cheap imitation, not so much.

But that's all that happens in this cynical pastiche: rehashes of stuff you've seen before, with the twist that one of the characters in every scene either hits his head, urinates or uses incongruous ethnic slang.

Apparently unable to afford Anna Faris and Regina Hall from the Scary Movie series, the filmmakers actually managed to find cut-rate versions of both (Jayma Mays and Faune A. Chambers), who are paired up with Kal Penn and Adam Campbell for a series of lame impersonations primarily based on The Chronicles of Narnia (and even that was funnier the first time).

Worst of all, Epic Movie actually tries to spoof some of the past year's most successful comedies, and does so by making them less funny. How do you spoof the popular SNL short "Lazy Sunday"? Click? Borat? (Answer: You don't wanna know. Really.) Director-writer team Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg have no sense of comedy whatsoever, but they're milking this whole "two of the six writers of Scary Movie" thing for all it's worth. When you need the Wayans brothers to rewrite you, that oughta be a sign.

The 180—a Second Opinion: If you have to go, be sure not to take a bathroom break during the scene where Crispin Glover, playing Willy Wonka, cuts off Kal Penn's testicles and puts them in a candy bar. This we didn't see in the Johnny Depp version.