Starring: Matt Lanter, Nicole Parker, Gary "G-Thang" Johnson, Vanessa Minnillo, Crista Flanagan, Ike Barinholtz and Kimberly Kardashian
Directors: Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer
Rating: One of Ten Stars
Let's the the easy and obvious out of the way: "Disaster Movie" is the most appropriately named film ever. This is a movie that not only should but WILL end careers (unless it's being funded by Germans looking for a tax write-off). However cheap it was to make, there is no way something this utterly devoid of quality, coherence and funny material will come even close to recouping what it made.
This film is almost certainly one of the worst movies ever made. It is, indeed, a disaster movie in every sense.
"Disaster Movie" is a failed comedy that pokes fun at about a dozen movies of all genres and budget levels from the past couple of years. It is such a misffire that its spoof of "The Love Guru" actually makes "The Love Guru" look good. I'm not going to summarize the plot, but there really isn't one... we just have the main characters running from disconnected skit to disconnected skit while the city they live in is being hit by meteors, tornados and mysterious fires.
That said, I did laugh during the spoof of the "Step Up" movies, I was vastly amused by the demon-possessed Alvin and the Chipmunk clones, and I thought that Ike Barinholtz was very funny as Batman and later Beowulf. Also, Nicole Parker was also hilarious as the "Enchanted Princess"... in fact, she stole every scene she was in and she was the only consistently funny thing about the film. At no point did the "Enchanted Princess" character feature in a gag or scene that went on and on and on and on well past the point where it had stopped being funny or even remotely interesting. (Like the songs in the film. Maybe it's because I haven't seen any of the "High School Musical"films, but there's a spoof of them that drags on forever, with a song so lame that only the dance number that goes with it is lamer. Now, you might say that since I haven't seen any of the "High Shool Musical" films, I'm not getting the joke. Well, I've never seen the movie that "Airplane" makes fun of, and I rank that as one of my favorite comedies. Whether a viewer is familiar with the material being spoofed, the writers of the comedy should still put enough thought and craft into their script to make it funny.
Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer have made the worst theatrically released movie of the year with this one. I know it's only August, but I can't imagine anything worse than this could possibly be released. I wouldn't mind seening Nicole Parker or Ike Barinholtz in the futur, as they were very, very funny. Vaneesa Minnillo and Kimberly Kardashian both fill out tight dresses nicely (so I would REALLY like to see more of them in the future). But, while I don't wish poverty or unemployment on anyone, Friedberg and Seltzer really should not be allowed near a director's chair again.
This is not a movie that you should wait to see on DVD. Wait for it to be on Comedy Central if you really have to see it. Because as funny as the "Enchanted Princess" and the Alvin and the Chipmunks bits are, they're not funny enough to make sitting through the rest of this movie worth it.