Epic Movie

In my opinion, the key to any effective spoof is to anticipate what the audience may have been musing about when they viewed the original material upon which the knockoff is based. Epic Movie sets out to lampoon various Hollywood hits from the past few years, but you may find there's a big difference between what was on your mind versus what was going through the heads of the scriptwriters behind this film.

For instance, during Charlie and the Chocolate Factory did you think it would be cool if Willy Wonka took sexual body parts from the golden ticket winners and put them in his candies? Or while watching The Chronicles of Narnia, did you consider Mr. Tumnus and Mr. Beaver to be great as a gay couple? Or that Aslan could be the result of a bestiality pairing between real-life magician Siegfried and a lion? How about envisioning Hermione from Harry Potter as a chain-smoking pregnant woman?

If these examples are as bizarre to you as they are to me, then I'll bet there are some congratulations going on backstage. Judging from the past efforts of this creative team (who were responsible for such films as Date Movie and the Scary Movie franchise), they probably feel they haven't done their job if you aren't shocked.

Obviously, like their previous attractions, teens and young adults are the main target market. Yet, while it's supposed to all be in good fun, the nauseating bathroom humor, abundant profanities, violent acts presented without consequences, abhorrent vulgar jokes and sexual imagery are just the surface issues. Dig only a little deeper and you'll find comedy being used as weak justification for presenting condescending attitudes toward religion, race and sexual orientation. Although it can certainly be argued that they offend equally, the question still remains: Do we really need more material like this for kids to take back to the school hallway?

Equally disparaging are the negative depictions of women. With Carmen Elektra demoting herself to play a knockoff of the X-Men's near-naked Mystique, and many other women being portrayed as toys for men, young audiences are at risk of learning new methods to humiliate and demean. And for me, that's no laughing matter.