Date Movie

A mainstream spoof of romantic comedies is surely long overdue, but it’s a shame it had to fall into the hands of ‘Scary Movie’ writer and first-time director Aaron Seltzer. While the idea of a chubby, diary-writing Julia Jones (Alyson Hannigan) falling for an Englishman called Grant in her parent’s Greek Diner may hold some satirical promise, the narrative structure of ‘Date Movie’ is so haphazard, and the humour so base, this fails at every turn. Like the ‘Scary Movie’ trilogy (2 and 3 in particular), this is a series of sketches combining unsophisticated references to movies and other popular culture icons. Rather unnecessarily, both ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ and Michael Jackson are mimicked here alongside Andie MacDowell, Meg Ryan and other romantic comedy actors. The fact that Jennifer Coolidge – the low point in many a teen comedy – emerges as a comic highlight gives you some idea of the quality on offer here: her impression of Barbra Streisand in ‘Meet The Fockers’ beats the cat-poo jokes hands down.