Disaster Movie (2008)

Disaster Movie is, as they say on the internet, exactly what it says on the tin. The film is a massive collage of movies put together to try to create something funny; putting recognizable characters on screen and saying, "Look, there's [this character]. He/She has had a recent film which is relevant to today's youth and pop culture." The result fails.

Disaster Movie begins with the dream of the main character, Will, played by Matt "The Clone Wars" Lanter. In his dream, it is told that the world will end on August 29th, 2008 (ironically, the film's release date).

During Will's Sweet Sixteen party, a bulletin comes out that it is indeed the end of the world. Now Will and his friend's Calvin, Juney (Juno), Lisa (played by Razzie nominated Kim Kardashian) and the Enchanted Princess (from Enchanted) have to fight their way through reference after reference to save Will's cheating ex-girlfriend Amy and possible save the world. Why he still cares for her is beyond me.

The characters are way beyond dull, there are absolutely unmemorable. I can barely remember their names. The one characters who stands out would be the Enchanted Princess, who alternates between quirky, annoying, sometimes funny, badass and just plain weird.

The script doesn't seem to care about the films its referencing. Not parodying, referencing. The storyline is only made in order to show these second-hand copies of popular movie characters. In fact, some of the films mentioned in the movie themselves aren't good or memorable. How can this film stand the test of time when it makes references that are outdated even six years later? The answer is it doesn't.

The film also takes an almost mean-spirited ribbing of the movies and even celebrities. In other parody films, for example Young Frankenstein, the work being looked at and parodied is given the utmost respect upon the transfer to the screen. In films like this and even Airplane!, the comedy is almost all original and comes from witty dialog, background jokes and outlandish scenes. This film does none of that. Instead, it says, "Here's Batman. He's not acting like Batman. He has a pratfall. Laugh."

With all that said, this unfunny mess of the movie mash-up gets my vote for one of the worst movies of all time. All I can say is that the filmmakers of this film, who also released other films such as Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans and Vampires Suck, need to take a lesson out of the book of Mel Brooks.

And for those out there who have just watched this, go watch Spaceballs. Not the greatest but you'll enjoy it a whole lot better.

1/2  out of ««««


(I should also note that the Princess does have the best line of the movie; "You know, they say that the first kill is supposed to be difficult. But I find it easy. In fact, rather fun." This line, to me, may be the only worth watching thing in the movie.)