Date Movie

Review by Michael Jaffe

Date Movie is a rare case of someone smearing fecal matter all over some film, and slapping it in the can and calling it a movie. The supposed parody comedy of romantic comedies didn’t make me laugh once through its, thankfully quick, 80 minute run-time. The point of a parody, like the successful Scary Movie or, my favorite, Not another Teen Movie, takes stuff that is either serious or comedic and turns it with a wink and a nod into something different and occasionally better than the source materials. Date Movie takes some movies that were OK before like My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Hitch and makes me long for the originals. It is almost a compliment to the makers of Date Movie to make me feel such a strong emotion as most of Hollywood films lately have been so bland that no emotion is evoked.
The plot is exactly like a stupid date movie itself, so the parody is almost lost and completely turned onto itself. The story of a once ugly girl from a strict family goes to a date doctor and becomes beautiful. She then falls in love with someone her parents do not approve of but eventually her parents turn when the meet the grooms parents. Then stuff goes wrong but who really cares at this point? All I cared about 40 minutes into the movie was how to get my money back. The cast was people who’s faces were familiar, including Alyson Hannigan as the lead and Eddie Griffin as her father. Who comes up with these casts? Fred Willard, apparently suffering from Eugene Levy “can’t say no” syndrome shows up as the groom’s father as well. I actually felt bad for the cast who had to do this stuff and when the credits started rolling I dashed for the door only to be drawn back in to watch the bloopers. They were the best part as people’s errors were better than the piece of sh…I mean script.
I usually look for some technical points or some direction but overall, the movie was so bad that who cares? I recommend avoiding being in a theatre or next to a theatre playing this movie because some of it might rub off on you, then you would be screwed. 1/10