“Meet the Spartans” (20th Century Fox)
Ranges From Silly To Boring
“Meet the Spartans” is a supposed spoof on the mega-successful film “300.” It isn’t actually a spoof because spoofs are supposed to be funny, and this movie ain’t funny. It is crude, lewd and silly but nowhere is it funny. Maybe the problem is that “300” is a movie that borders on being a caricature of those old sand and saga movies. It borders on parody but never crosses over. “Meet the Spartans” crosses over.
In addition to not being funny, “MTS” goes after Paris, Lindsay and Britney; three people of whom we are sick to death. Their lifestyle is already a joke and pouring more scorn on them is just not the stuff of ha-ha’s. When the Britney Spears parody section of the movie came onscreen an audible groan went up from the audience.
Now it is obvious the Spartans were ripe for gay jokes as they ran around in their leather speedos, But the barrage of these attempts at humor are so numerous that it suggests the writers are homophobic. The movie begins with this kind of humor and ends with this kind of humor.
Then there are the poor actors. Okay, you don’t have to feel sorry for Carmen Electra. Her role as Queen Margo in this epic is probably the highlight of her career. But Kevin Sorbo! Why on earth did he decide to immerse himself in this pitiful attempt at humor. Watching him prance around like the macho man of the Village People group is embarrassing to say the least. Better he should stick to TV rather than debase himself in movies like this one.
Sean Maguire has the lead role of Leonidas and he plays it straight, well not straight but serious. Maguire looks like he could have a future in Hollywood but not with many of these type roles on his resume.
The movie is rated PG-13 for profanity and crude situations.
Years ago the spoofs hit a high point with “Airplane.” Since then it has been all downhill. No one seems to listen and learn from the crash and burn failures of lesser attempts at humor. “Meet the Spartans” will draw a crowd but it won’t be a crowd pleaser. There are only so many fourteen-year-old boys who will go and laugh over the dumbest of dumb jokes.
If you are a fan of satire or any other form of comedy then you should avoid “Meet the Spartans.” It is one of the most unfunny movies I have seen in a long time.
I scored “Meet the Spartans” a classical 3 out of 10.
