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Meet the Spartans

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2008 Canadian film
Meet the Spartans
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJason Friedberg
Aaron Seltzer
Written byJason Friedberg
Aaron Seltzer
Produced byJason Friedberg
Aaron Seltzer
Peter Safran
StarringSean Maguire
Kevin Sorbo
Carmen Electra
Ken Davitian
Diedrich Bader
Travis Van Winkle
Jareb Dauplaise
Nicole Parker
Ike Barinholtz
CinematographyShawn Maurer
Edited byPeck Prior
Music byChristopher Lennertz
Production
company		Regency Enterprises
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • January 25, 2008 (2008-01-25)
Running time83 minutes
86 minutes (unrated version)
CountriesCanada
United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$30 million
Box office$84,646,831

Meet the Spartans is a 2008 parody film directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. Similar to past movies, such as Scary Movie, Date Movie, and most recently Epic Movie, it directs parodies at various films. Although it references many movies, TV shows, people and pop cultural events, it focuses mainly on the 2007 film 300. It opened #1 in the US box office, despite receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews. The film stars Sean Maguire, Carmen Electra and Kevin Sorbo as The Captain.

Plot

The film opens with a Spartan elder inspecting an ugly, talking baby (an ogre from Shrek the Third); it is abandoned to die for its deformity. A second baby, who is Vietnamese, is adopted by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Baby Leonidas is then inspected, having a six-pack, biceps and beard from birth. He is accepted as a Spartan and prepared for kinghood through his childhood training, from fighting his grandmother to enduring torture (a la Casino Royale). Leonidas (Sean Maguire) is then cast out into the wild, and survives the harsh winter and a gangsta penguin (Happy Feet). Returning a king for his inauguration wearing a penguin skin hat, Leonidas sees Margo (Carmen Electra) erotically dancing and asks her to marry him, to which she responds by giving him the combination to her chastity belt.

Years later, Leonidas is training his son when Captain (Kevin Sorbo) informs him that a Persian messenger has arrived. Accompanied by the Spartan politician Traitoro, the messenger has come to present Xerxes' demands for Sparta's submission. Leonidas arrives to greet the messenger in the Spartan way (high-fives for the women and open mouth tongue kisses for the men). After growing angry with both the messenger's disrespect and finding him making out with his wife, Leonidas kicks him into the 'pit of death'. Despite "Traitoro's" advice that the messenger's guards are now needed to convey the actual message, Leonidas kicks them in as well. Afterwards, he dumps in several other people he simply dislikes, including Britney Spears (Nicole Parker), Sanjaya Malakar and the judges for American Idol before having Ryan Seacrest fling himself in. Resolving to face the Persians, Leonidas visits the Oracle, for any advice. The Oracle, Ugly Betty, reveals that Leonidas will die should he go to war. After reaching a decision while spending the night with his wife, Leonidas meets the soldiers assembled for his departure to Thermopylae, and finds that only 13 (not 300) were accepted in the army, since there were stringent specifications to be accepted— "Hunky with deep Mediterranean tans, hot bods, and well-endowed". Three among them include Captain, his son, Sonio, and a slightly unfit Spartan named Dilio, who, as the Captain states, "Has a lot of heart...and nice man boobs." Once at the Hot Gates, they encounter the deformed Paris Hilton (also played by Parker), who tells Leonidas and the Captain about a secret goat path above the Hot Gates that Xerxes could use to outflank the Spartans. When she asks to be made a Spartan soldier, Leonidas rejects her as unqualified due to her inability to use a spear correctly. Leonidas and his platoon soon face off with Xerxes' messenger and his Immortals, beating them in a dance contest before driving them off a cliff. Xerxes (Ken Davitian), who, is described as, "sort of looked like that fat guy from Borat", impressed, personally approaches Leonidas and attempts to bribe him. The Spartan king declines, saying that he will instead make him fall. The Spartans then face the Persian army in a "Yo Momma" fight. The Spartans end with a victory, in spite of Dilio having his eyes scratched out.

Though victory seemed to be in the Spartans' grasp, Paris Hilton betrays the Spartans and reveals the location of the goat path to Xerxes in return for various gifts. Using a CGI army (with the blue screen blatantly shown), Xerxes meets the twelve remaining Spartans and the war is on. Meanwhile, back in Sparta, Queen Margo has several confrontations with Traitoro, because he is the vital vote in sending more troops to assist her husband. Following her address to the Council, Traitoro publicly betrays the Queen. She defeats him in battle. Evidence is shown he is a traitor, uniting the council with the queen. At the Battle of Thermopylae, the Persians introduce their secret weapons: Ghost Rider and Rocky Balboa, who kills Sonio with a decapitating uppercut before his father avenges him with Botox poisoning. But when Captain is struck down by Xerxes, Leonidas pursues Xerxes and plays Grand Theft Auto. Managing to find the "Transformer Cube", Xerxes uses it in a car to become "Xerxestron" as he shows off his powers to access the "Leave Britney Alone!" video on YouTube. However, Xerxestron trips on his extension cord, fulfilling Leonidas' vow that he would fall at the cost of himself and surviving Spartans being crushed. The blind Dilio, who left prior to the final battle, eventually returns to Sparta to tell of Leonidas' final moments. A year later, Dilio leads a force of one hundred real Spartans and several thousand CGI-ones to defeat the Persians, but the blind warrior ends up going the wrong way. They end up in Malibu where they knock Lindsay Lohan down as she is leaving rehab (again).

The film ends with a musical number set to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" performed on American Idol by all of the characters in the film.

Cast

Critical reception

The film received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film 25th in the 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s, with a rating of 2%." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 9 out of 100, based on 11 reviews — indicating "extreme dislike or disgust" and being the worst received film by the director on the site.

One reviewer in Scotland's The Sunday Herald gave the film a score of zero, as did Ireland's Day and Night while an Australian newspaper review described it as being "as funny as a burning orphanage". The Radio Times said "After enduring the torturously unfunny Date Movie and Epic Movie, one could be forgiven for concluding that the art of cinematic parody was in terminal decline. This latest installment in Friedberg and Seltzer's franchise hammers a final nail into the coffin with an utterly atrocious collection of imbecilic skits... it's junk-food cinema at its worst. One cringes to think what future cultural historians will make of it… and us." In London, The Times reviewer Wendy Ide suggested that the producers of the film were not aiming for 'laughs' but "a simian grunt of recognition from an audience that must have been practically brain-dead to fork out £10 to see a film that can’t even master the concept of out-takes?". This film was the lowest-rated of the 2008 film season.

Most of the film's criticism consisted of not having many actual jokes and instead having an over-reliance on pop culture references. Several recurring gags were criticized for being overused, such as throwing various celebrities down the Pit of Death or the ambiguous sexuality of the Spartans.

The film's score by Christopher Lennertz was commended by Christian Clemmensen from Filmtracks.com, who considered it one of the biggest "guilty pleasures" of 2008.

Upon news of Meet the Spartans box office success, The Soup staff created a sketch that parodies all previous "Parody Movies" by mentioning the film's weak comedy stunts.

On January 21, 2009, the film received five nominations for the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Picture (jointly with Disaster Movie), Worst Supporting Actress (Electra), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off, or Sequel.

Box office performance

Despite the overwhelmingly negative critical reaction, the film opened #1 at the US box office, grossing $18,505,530 over its opening weekend, narrowly edging out fellow newcomer Rambo, which was briefly parodied in the credits of this film. The film dropped 60.4% in its second weekend grossing $7,336,595 expanding to 2643 theaters while ranking fourth at the box office. The film grossed $38,233,676 in the United States and Canada and grossed $45,787,889 Internationally, adding up to a Worldwide gross of $84,021,565.

Home media

The film was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on June 3, 2008, in an "Unrated Pit of Death" Edition and a PG-13/theatrical release of the film. The theatrical cut does not include extras but includes widescreen and full screen versions on one dual disc. A "ruder & cruder" version was later released in the UK on August 18.

See also

References

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
  1. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1073498/releaseinfo#akas
  2. "Meet the Spartans - Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
  3. "Meet the Spartans (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
  4. "Meet the Spartans (2008): Reviews". Radio Times. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
  5. "Meet the Spartans - Bottom Line: "300" was funnier". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2008-01-28. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. John Wilson (2009-01-21). "RAZZIES.COM 2008 Nominations". Razzie Awards. Retrieved 2009-01-21.
  8. "US Movie Box Office Chart Weekend of January 25, 2008". The Numbers. Retrieved 2008-01-31.

External links

Films by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer
Written and directed
Written only
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