Meet The Spartans

Review By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

It goes without saying there have been a lot of infamously bad movies and the names are familiar. However as bad as movies like Manos: The Hands Of Fate, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Howard The Duck, and others are, they still manage to be enjoyable due to providing some modicum of creativity.

Then there’s the movies of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. After garnering some success with the first two Scary Movie films, they have inarguably become the gold standard for the Antichrists of filmmaking with “parody” movies like Date Movie and Epic Movie.

Not only are these movies shockingly gross and just plain offensive, but are completely incoherent, slapped together poorly, and worse of all, completely unfunny. Yet the movies have done well enough in the theatres, mostly by unsuspecting, low-brow young ignorami willing to see just about everything. Now, the “Dungnamic Duo” has reached a new low with their latest “parody film” Meet The Spartans, now available on DVD.

In the city bears Leonidas (Sean MaguireKen Davitian) plans to invade the kingdom, Leonidas gathers an army of thirteen warriors, headed by Captain (Kevin Sorbo) at Themopylae as a counter measure. As the battle ensues, Queen Margo (Carmen Electra), tries to persuade the Greek council to help Leonidas to send more troops, but must deal with conspiring senator Traitoro (Diedrich Bader).

“The Dungnamic Duo” have proven once again to show the American moviegoing public once more why they are an offense to cinema with their latest effort, or lack thereof. The cast is the duo’s typical mix of D-list talent (Kevin Sorbo, how many of these has Carmen Electra done now?) and bizarre oddities (Method Man, Ken Davitian).

The 300-derived plot itself is nothing but a poor, lazy, and derivative excuse to slap on elements that don’t fit, including countless gross-out moments, inexplicable dance sequences, and incoherent, senseless pot-shots at celebrities. However, what sadly does gel this film is the amount of sheer egregious and tasteless homophobia, particularly obvious stuff like two rounds of “I Will Survive”, that runs over the course of its not-short enough 69 minutes.

The DVD’s picture quality is in the 1:85:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio, with the sound quality in Dolby Digital Surround 5.1. The DVD is also packed with plenty of special features.

The first is audio commentary with Friedberg and Seltzer, as well as much of the film’s cast, which is, to its credit entertaining, but bereft of any substance. “Meet The Spartans Pop Culture Trivia” is nothing but a fairly dumb set-top game.

“Meet The Spartans Music” allows you to view each