Product: Date Movie [UMD for PSP] (2006)
Rating: 1.0
Spoof Aloof
Satire is hard enough to do when the writers aren't working on overkill, the central problem to DATE MOVIE: instead of focusing on one major premise for parody -- take WAITING FOR GUFFMAN or even this writing crew's SCARY MOVIE 3 as examples -- DATE veers all over the movie spectrum, taking jabs of MEET THE PARENTS, MEET THE FOCHERS, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, HITCH, MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING, PRETTY WOMAN, RUNAWAY BRIDE, MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, and undoubtedly many, many lesser films not worth mentioning individually. Tip to aspiring comedy writers: some people like stew while others prefer soup, and DATE would've worked far better had the parody been kept to a relative handful of films ... NOT EVERY ROMANTIC COMEDY to come down the pike in the last twenty years. The result here is wildly, wildly uneven, and the actors share various blank faces lost in the bits of this script.Unfortunate for me, this is the kind of wackiness I generally at least try to like, but DATE MOVIE just felt flat and emotionless, not a good place to be for a parody of romantic movies. Besides, what success could seriously be hoped for in satirizing comedies? Comedies work on an entirely different formula than do documentaries and/or horror films and/or dramas, all ripe stomping ground for satire. Comedies are already predicated on getting a solid laugh; what's to be gained from satirizing it?A mistake on all counts, DATE MOVIE should be considered a fine of example of "spoof aloof"!