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Review: Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
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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,
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[
02/17
]
Festival Ballet Providence presents UP CLOSE ON HOPE
@ Black Box Theater
[
02/17
]
"Dana Levin: A Classical Realist In the 21st Century," an exhibit of paintings
@ Bert Gallery
[
02/17
]
Mary Poppins
@ Providence Performing Arts Center
More Information
Watch the trailer for
Epic Movie
ARTICLES BY TOM MEEK
REVIEW: UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING
| January 24, 2012
The Underworld series got long in the tooth early, but here, in the fourth installment (directed by Swede Måns Mårlind), it grows new fangs.
REVIEW: JOYFUL NOISE
| January 10, 2012
There's not much joy but there's plenty of noise of the rafter-rocking gospel singing variety in Tony Graff's musical dramedy.
REVIEW: IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY
| January 05, 2012
Jolie has loosely reworked the story of Romeo and Juliet in an infamous setting familiar from CNN but here seen from the inside.
REVIEW: ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED
| December 13, 2011
For 50 years, Alvin and the Chipmunks have been driving parents nuts with their helium-infused banter and shrill bastardizations of pop music.
REVIEW: TRESPASS
| October 13, 2011
If Rod Lurie's errant remake of Straw Dogs didn't tickle your morbid fear of home invasion, then perhaps the latest from Joel Schumacher ( Falling Down ) might do the job.
See all articles by:
TOM MEEK
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