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Review: Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
Reviews
Epic Movie
No remorse
By
TOM MEEK
|
January 31, 2007
EPIC MOVIE
" alt="photo of 'EPIC MOVIE'">
1.5
Stars
EPIC MOVIE: The White Bitch
Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the brain warp behind the
Scary Movie
franchise and
Date Movie
, again take their tired and not-so-true formula (lifted from
Airplane!
and
The Naked Gun
) and spoof a list of semi-recent theater fillers that include
The Da Vinci Code, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, X-Men
, and even
Borat
. It’s hilarious in blips, but overall there’s no glue — it plays out like an overlong Comedy Central skit lurching for the next laugh without any remorse for the gross misfires in between. The
Scary Movie
series had the indomitable Anna Faris to give it teeth; here her stand-in, Jayma Mays, has to share the screen with three other mains (including Kap Penn of
Harold & Kumar
fame) as orphans on the run from the “White Bitch” in Narnia. The
Pirates of the Caribbean
music-video clip, with
SNL
’s Darrell Hammond doing an uncanny Johnny Depp, is the film’s gem, and, keeping with dead-on Depp knockoffs, Crispin Glover is Michael Jackson creepy as Willy Wonka.
Related
:
Disaster Movie
,
Meet the Spartans
,
Date Movie
,
More
Disaster Movie
Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (the hacks behind Date Movie and Epic Movie ) unleashed their second witless rehash of pop culture references this year.
Meet the Spartans
The steam has at last run out on the Jason Friedberg/Aaron Seltzer movie-spoofing machine.
Date Movie
In this masturbative inanity, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the duo who scripted Scary Movie , spoof recent romantic staples like Hitch , Bridget Jones , and My Big Fat Greek Wedding .
Close shave
If it weren’t for his beloved turn as Jack Sparrow in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Johnny Depp would best be known as the cinematic alter ego of Tim Burton.
Reality bites again
At the tail end of February, for the second consecutive year, I (barely) escaped a late-winter hurricane to enter a Midwestern oasis of grass-fed beef, cheap cigarettes, Johnny Depp impersonators, and some of the finest documentaries you might just see this year.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
A Disney “franchise” that began as an Oscar-nominated showcase for Johnny Depp seems to have walked the plank, but has it jumped the shark? Watch the trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (QuickTime)
Potter-schmotter!
No reading required.
Hell is other sequels
At first, At World’s End doesn’t seem to differ much from the world outside.
Crossword: ''Court case''
Time to mix and match
The Libertine
Although he enjoyed the patronage of King Charles II (John Malkovich) and the respect of the London theatrical world, the Restoration author John Wilmot (Johnny Depp) was better known for “the emptying of bottles and the filling of wenches.”
Tour de force
Two movies push at each other within Jasmine Dellal’s Gyspy Caravan, which opens this Friday, July 6, at the Kendall Square.
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Watch the trailer for
Epic Movie
ARTICLES BY TOM MEEK
REVIEW: GOD BLESS AMERICA
| May 17, 2012
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture ( i.e. , Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, and American Idol ) and the indignity of being an office drone.
REVIEW: THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS
| April 24, 2012
Peter Lord, animator behind claymation staples Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run , directs this very British, very dry romp on the high seas during the time when Britannia did indeed rule the waves.
REVIEW: GOD BLESS AMERICA
| April 18, 2012
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture (i.e., Paris Hilton, the Kardashians and American Idol) and the indignity of being an office drone.
REVIEW: UNDEFEATED
| March 15, 2012
Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin's Oscar-winning documentary about an underequipped high-school football team competing against big-time programs across Tennessee offers a potent contemplation on race and opportunity.
REVIEW: DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX
| March 01, 2012
Regrettably, this team loses a lot of Seuss's quirkiness, though not the message about corporate greed and slash-and-burn imperialism.
See all articles by:
TOM MEEK
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