Cast: Matt Lanter, Vanessa Minnello, Gary “Thang”, Johnson; Directors: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer; Producers: Jason Friedberg, Peter Safran, Aaron Seltzer; Screenwriters: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer; Music: Christopher Lennertz; Editor: Peck Prior; Genre: Comedy/ Spoof; Cinematography: Shawn Maurer; Distributor: Lionsgate; Location: Louisiana, USA; Running Time: 90min.;Technical Assessment: 2
Moral Assessment: 2
CINEMA Rating: For viewers 14 and above
Will (Matt Lanter) is plagued by dreams of apocalypse just right before his super duper sweet sixteen party at his house (even though he is already 25). Terrified of his own dreams, Will also loses his girlfriend Amy (Vanessa Minillo) who leaves him for someone else. Will’s friends Calvin (Gary Johnson) and Lisa (Kimberly Kardasian) together with a parody of characters from past movies, e.g. Juno, Enchanted Princess, experience a series of disasters from the night of Will’s party. As they all struggle for survival, they randomly meet and encounter various characters lifted from recent and not-so-recent-movies. Ultimately, Will has to save Amy from an impending disaster as he learns that Amy’s location, a museum, is on the verge of destruction.
Another spoof of various movies from the same makers of Scary Movie, Meet the Spartans and Epic Movie, Disaster Movie is true to its title with its disastrous moviemaking taste. With tidbits of scenes taken from past “hits” and “not-so-hits”, the film is devoid of any originality. There is no soul, no humor. There really is nothing in the movie. Audiences are sometimes given a hard time guessing the spoof’s inspiration and the source of a character’s parody. If one has not seen yet the movies being spoofed in Disaster Movie, never will he ever appreciate those scenes. Movie icons are constantly ridiculed in the film. There are offensive stereotypical portrayals of women, homosexuals and the religious that are all done in bad taste.
Disaster Movie is consistent with the values or non-values it presents. Nudity, gore and violence are scattered all over the place. There are characters who are almost nude and there are some scenes suggesting women half-nude. The tamest form could be that of women showing cleavage and wearing bikinis. Being trigger-happy is presented as funny and violence among and against women is considered acceptable. A pregnant teenager is seen drinking alcohol and whose water bag raptures profusely enough to bathe two men. A woman takes from under her skirt a crystal skull, indicating that it is hidden all along inside her. Being a spoof movie, such scenes are supposed to be funny but they turn out to be malicious and extremely offensive. Although there is no graphic representation of sex and violence, only ridiculous depiction of gore and suggestive sexual and homosexual connotations, young audiences should be warned and guided by adults for such scenes may negatively influence impressionable minds.
