Disaster Movie
| Disaster Movie | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Jason Friedberg Aaron Seltzer |
| Written by | Jason Friedberg Aaron Seltzer |
| Produced by | Jason Friedberg Aaron Seltzer Peter Safran |
| Starring | Matt Lanter Vanessa Minnillo |
| Cinematography | Shawn Maurer |
| Edited by | Peck Prior |
| Music by | Christopher Lennertz |
| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
Release date | August 29, 2008 |
Running time | Theatrical cut 87 minutes Extended cut 88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20,000,000 |
| Box office | $34,816,824 |
Disaster Movie is a Template:Fy parody film. It is written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, and stars Carmen Electra, Kim Kardashian, Matt Lanter, Nicole Parker, Crista Flanagan, Vanessa Minnillo, and Ike Barinholtz. The film was critically panned, and received six nominations for the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards.
Plot
The movie opens with a shot spoofing the one in Armageddon. In the year 10,001 B.C., a caveman (Will) runs away from a mammoth before getting in a fight with Wolf (Ike Barinholtz), the main antagonist. He then encounters a saber-toothed, gasoline-drinking Amy Winehouse (Nicole Parker), who informs him that the world will end on August 29, 2008 (the releasing day of the movie), revealing their fate laying in a crystal skull. The film flash-forwards to the present, where Will (Matt Lanter), the main protagonist, apparently dreamed the past sequence. He then finds out that his girlfriend, Amy (Vanessa Minnillo), is having an affair with Flavor Flav (Abe Spigner) and the two break up with Will not admitting his true feelings for her.
Later that day, Will has a "Sweet Sixteen" party at his house, despite the fact that he's 25. Among the guests are Juney (Crista Flanagan) and Will's best friend Calvin (Gary "G-Thang" Johnson), who attempts to curve a bullet around the room to stop Seth and McLover (Noah Harpster and Austin Scott) from stealing the alcohol, accidentally killing Dr. Phil (John Di Domenico), Anton Chigurh (Barinholtz), and the Beautiful Assassin (Carmen Electra) in the process. By then, Amy arrives with her new boyfriend, an underwear model (Nick Steele), before the High School Musical-like number "Friends Forever" is performed with cameos by an off-key Jessica Simpson (Parker) and Justin Timberlake (Jonas Neal).
However, the party comes to a halt when the lights go out as the room shakes and a bulletin on the radio claims that it is the end of the world. Will, Juney, Calvin and his girlfriend Lisa (Kim Kardashian) go outside during a meteor shower and find that Hannah Montana (Flanagan) has been crushed by a meteor and, even when caught between life and death, is still promoting her merchandise until her wig falls off, revealing her as Miley Cyrus before she finally dies. While this occurred, a kid (Ty Wesley) wakes up Hancock (Walter Harris) and mouths at him to go save the world, only to be knocked away as Hancock tries to flee the city but hits his head on a streetlight and knocks himself out. Soon after, the city starts to freeze over, and the group retreats to a garage for shelter. They meet the Sex and the City girls, who claim to have first grabs and Juney beats a drag queen version of Carrie Bradshaw (Jason Boegh) for the garage Zohan-style. After discussing global warming, Calvin says that he is cold and suggests they take their clothes off. Only the girls take their clothes off, and the guys stare in awe until Juney's water broke.
Later, Will has a dream where he is a Jumper and accidentally impales himself on Prince Caspian's (Barinholtz) sword (Caspian identifies him as "the guy who ruined Star Wars"; also a reference to Matt Lanter's voice role as Anakin Skywalker in the 2008 CGI Clone Wars television series). After Will's dream ended and he was chided for not even trying to commit to his relationship, the gang leaves the garage and Will gets a call from Amy, admitting his feelings for her before he decides to get to her as Lisa gets killed by a meteor (Calvin exclaimes "They killed Lisa! You Bastard!"). While the others comfort a distraught Calvin, the Enchanted Princess (Parker) climbs out of a manhole and gets hit by a taxi, with Calvin catching her as they immediately fall in love with each other. Juney guesses she's a princess thrown out of her kingdom by an evil witch, the Princess explains that she's a "demented homeless chick who lives in the sewers" due to consuming "lots and lots and lots of mind-altering, enchanting drugs!" After getting into a dance off with the Princess's Princely pimp dancing to Sizzle C's "I Like Them Girls," the heroes flee when a tornado appears with Iron Man (Gerrard Fachinni), Hellboy (Barinholtz), and the Hulk (Roland Kickinger) attempting to fight the natural disaster and being knocked down by its projectile cows. When they find shelter, Calvin gets a call on his shoe phone from Lisa's mother, who is informed about Lisa's death and how Calvin has found someone hotter than Lisa. Afterward, they encounter knockoffs of Alvin and the Chipmunks, who suddenly contract rabies and start attacking the gang and eat Juney's flesh until she presumably dies. The Chipmunks then go after Will and Calvin until they trap them in a trash can, suffocating them to death (making them die) as they attempt to break free.
On their way to the museum to save Amy, who called to tell Will she's trapped under a statue, they run into Batman (Ike Barinholtz), who informs them that they must get to the evacuation buses by 9 pm, it is now 5:30pm, and also mentions that there will be no chance of survival if they go to save Amy. Learning that it's closer to nine than he thought, Batman throws a rope, which accidentally lands on a car that drags him away. With time against them, the Princess kills Speed Racer (Jared Eddo) so they can hijack his car with the numbers 5 1/2 (5:30) and Michael Jackson (Christopher Johnson) in the trunk along with Chim-Chim and Spritle (Bubbles and Macaulay Culkin) and drive to the museum. When they get there, they save Amy who reveals the Crystal Skull from Will's dream to be the only thing that can stop the end of the world. As Will and Amy make their way to the altar, Calvin and the Princess find that the museum doors are closed and all the artifacts have come alive, including Kung Fu Panda (Yoshio Iizuka), who fights Calvin. When Calvin makes out with the Princess after beating Kung Fu Panda, he sees that she is actually a transvestite by removing "his" wig while Kung Fu Panda takes out a katana and kills Calvin and the Enchanted Princess.
Meanwhile, Will and Amy run into Beowulf (Barinholtz), who fights Will in the nude. After Beowulf is defeated, Will and Amy meet Will's father (Tony Cox) and Will returns the Crystal Skull to its altar, averting further destruction. The film ends with a wedding ceremony for Will and Amy being performed by The Guru Shitka (Di Domenico), who tries to get Amy to "tickle his pickle". Then all the characters come sing a song about dating each other, which sets off a chain ("Disaster Movie Date Song"), ending with Alvin and the Chipmunks being crushed by another cow.
Cast
- Matt Lanter as Will "William"
- Vanessa Minnillo as Amy
- Crista Flanagan as Juney MacGuff / Hannah Montana
- Nicole Parker as The Enchanted Princess / Amy Winehouse / Jessica Ann Simpson
- Gary "G. Thang" Johnson as Calvin
- Kim Kardashian as Lisa
- Ike Barinholtz as The Policeman, Wolf, Anton Chigurh, Hellboy, Batman, Alex "Alexander" ("Beowulf"), Prince Caspian
- Carmen Electra as The Beautiful Assassin
- Tony Cox as Indiana Jones
- Tad Hilgenbrink as Prince Edwin
- Nick Steele as Underwear Model
- Jason Boegh as Carrie Bradshaw
- John Di Domenico as Dr. Phil, The Guru Shitka
- Abe Spigner as Flavor Flav
- Christopher Johnson as Michael Jackson
- Jared S. Eddo as Speed Racer
- Yoshio Iizuka as Kung Fu Panda
- Jonas Neal as Justin Timberlake
- Jacob Tolano Wood as Dr. Bruce Banner
- Roland Kickinger as The Incredible Hulk
- Walter Harris as John Hancock
- Gerrard Fachinni as Iron Man
- Johnny Rock as Male Princess
- Devin Crittenden as Paulie Bleeker
- Noah Harpster as Seth
- Austin Michael Scott as McLover
Critical reception
Reviews of Disaster Movie were almost entirely negative. Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film 22nd in the 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s, with a rating of 2%.[1] Metacritic gave the film a metascore of 15%, based on 12 reviews.[2]
The only positive review posted on Rotten Tomatoes was by Jim Schembri from Australian newspaper The Age. Schembri called it "dumb but also undeniably funny in spots that a right-thinking mature person feels comfortable admitting", the film was given 3 1/2 stars out of five.[3] The most positive major critic review listed on either Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes (though it was still listed as "rotten" on the latter) was by Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, who gave the film a C+ and remarked: "The movie is merciless sending up Juno's self-satisfied hipster gobbledygook, and it's quite funny to see Hannah Montana still promoting her tie-in products as she lies crushed and dying under a meteor."[4] Gleiberman previously contributed the only positive review listed on either site (out of 17 at Metacritic and 57 at Rotten Tomatoes) of Friedberg and Seltzer's earlier effort Epic Movie.[5][6]
The Times newspaper named the film the worst of 2008.[7]
On January 21, 2009, the film received six nominations for the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards:[8] The nominations were for: Worst Picture, Worst Supporting Actress (Electra), Worst Supporting Actress (Kardashian), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off, or Sequel. Kardashian acknowledged her nomination on her blog, where she graciously commented, "It's an honor just being nominated!"[9]
Box office performance
On its debut in United States theatres, Disaster Movie grossed $2 million on its opening day, $5.8 million over the three-day weekend, and $6.9 million over the four-day weekend (including Labor Day).[10] It ranked #7 for both the three- and four-day weekends. The film's takings for the weekend fell far short of the $17 million predicted by the Dallas Morning News.[11]
The film was not as commercially successful as previous Friedberg/Seltzer movies. Against a $20,000,000 budget, it grossed $14,190,901 domestically and $17,492,474 internationally for a total of $31,683,375 worldwide,[12] less than half the gross of Meet the Spartans.
Home media
The Blu-ray Disc and DVD was released on January 6, 2009. They both included an Unrated "Cataclysmic" Edition and a Rated PG-13 Version, both with the same extras. About 410,934 DVD units were sold, bringing in $8,447,690 in revenue (updated October 2009). [13]
References
- ^ "Disaster Movie Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-09-05.
- ^ "Disaster Movie (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-09-05.
- ^ "Disaster Movie Review". Retrieved 10-09-2008.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Text "The Age" ignored (help) - ^ "Movie Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-09-03.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help); Text "Entertainment Weekly" ignored (help) - ^ "Epic Movie Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
- ^ "Epic Movie (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
- ^ "The 100 Worst Movies of 2008". The Times. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
- ^ John Wilson (2009-01-21). "Razzies.com 2008 Nominations". Razzie Awards. Retrieved 2009-01-21.
- ^ http://kimkardashian.celebuzz.com/2009/01/my-first-razzie-nomination.php
- ^ "Daily Box Office Grosses for Disaster Movie (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-09-01.
- ^ http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-boxofficebuzz_0829gl.ART.State.Edition1.4d574d9.html
- ^ "Disaster Movie (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-11-13.
- ^ http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2008/DISAT-DVD.php