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Meet the Spartans
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jason Friedberg Aaron Seltzer
Written by	Jason Friedberg Aaron Seltzer
Produced by	Jason Friedberg Aaron Seltzer Peter Safran
Starring	Sean Maguire Carmen Electra Ken Davitian Kevin Sorbo Diedrich Bader Method Man Nicole Parker
Cinematography	Shawn Maurer
Edited by	Peck Prior
Music by	Christopher Lennertz
Distributed by	20th Century Fox Regency Enterprises
Release dates	January 25, 2008
Running time	84 min.
Country
Language	English
Budget	$30 million

Meet the Spartans is a 2008 spoof/parody from "2 of the 6 Scary Movie writers" Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. The MPAA rated it PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, language, and some comic violence. Although it references many movies, TV shows, people and pop cultural events, it focuses mainly on the movie 300.

Plot

The film opens with a Spartan Elder inspecting a baby similar to that of Shrek the Third. The narrator paraphrases the words of Dilios in the movie 300 about the Spartan selectiveness of their citizens. The baby is rejected and punted off the hill. Leonidas is then inspected, having a six-pack and biceps from birth. He is accepted as a Spartan and prepared for his kinghood by many humorous adventures, including being captured and accused as if he were James Bond, getting beaten by a Spartan elder, and fighting and killing a giant penguin (Happy Feet) in the wilderness.

Returning a King for his Inauguration Ceremony (in a scene nearly identical to the parallel in 300), Leonidas sees Queen Margo dancing and asks her to marry him, to which she responds by giving him the combination to her chastity belt. The film then cuts to Leonidas' kingship as he is beating his own son with various weapons and other objects. Leonidas is then informed that a Persian messenger has arrived to represent Xerxes, and Leonidas greets him the Spartan way (High-fives for the women, open mouth tongue kisses for the men). After growing angry with the messenger, Leonidas kicks him and several other people into "The Pit of Death," a big hole similar to the one in 300 with a sign that says, "Pit of Death."

Leonidas and Margo then decide to 'do it' before Leonidas most likely dies (which in fact is just Leonidas bench pressing his wife numerous times). Leonidas then goes out to meet the soldiers collected for his departure, and finds that only 13 (not 300) came to the call of war. In a very Wizard of Oz kind of way, the 13 hold hands and skip behind Leonidas to Thermopylae, where they meet Paris Hilton (the movie's equivalent of the hunchback from 300). She is rejected and betrays them to Xerxes.

After several Stomp the Yard and Yo Momma battles, the Spartans prepare to fight their final battle against Xerxes (who is in fact a rather large drag queen). Using a digital army, Xerxes overpowers the 12 remaining Greeks. Even after being defeated, however, Xerxes still overwhelms the Spartans as a giant transformer (which plays the Chris Crocker YouTube 'Leave Britney Alone' video) by falling on them. Dilio apparently leads a force of 100 real Spartans and several thousand more digital ones, but since he is blind goes the wrong way and leads the Spartans to Malibu, just as Lindsay Lohan is coming out of rehab. They crash into her and the screen shoots into her pantyless crotch, ending the film.

Cast

• Nicole Parker as Britney Spears
• Sean Maguire as King Leonidas
• Carmen Electra as Queen Margo
• Ken Davitian as Xerxes
• Kevin Sorbo as Captain
• Diedrich Bader as Traitoro
• Method Man as Persian Emissary
• Jesse Lewis IV as Miss Jay
• Jenny Costa as Tyra Banks

Critical reception

The film received exceedingly negative reviews from critics. As of January 28, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 3% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 23 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 8 out of 100, based on 6 reviews — indicating "extreme dislike or disgust. British film critic John Hays said "About as awful as putting a pine up your back side.""

Box office performance

Despite the extremely negative critical reaction, the film opened at the top spot at the US box office, grossing an estimated $18.7 million, narrowly edging out fellow newcomer Rambo. The film was marketed towards teen and young-adult audiences which often pay much less attention to critics than older audiences. Teenagers and young adults made up about 75 percent of the audience.

References

1. "Meet the Spartans - Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
2. "Meet the Spartans (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
3. "Moviegoers glad to 'Meet the Spartans'". CNN.com. Retrieved 2008-01-28.

External links

• Official site
• Meet the Spartans at IMDb
• Meet the Spartans at Rotten Tomatoes
• Meet the Spartans at Metacritic
• Meet the Spartans at Box Office Mojo
• Template:Amg movie
• eFilmCritic discusses Meet the Spartans
• Watch movie

Template:Box Office Leaders USA

• 2008 films
• 20th Century Fox films
• American films
• English-language films
• Parody films
• Teen comedy films