Date Movie
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 This page is for people who LOVE date movies and people who HATE Date Movie.
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Date Movie is a 2006 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Aaron Seltzer. Much of the storyline is based on that of the romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Meet the Fockers. It stars Alyson Hannigan, Adam Campbell, Sophie Monk, Tony Cox, Jennifer Coolidge, Meera Simhan, Eddie Griffin, and Fred Willard.
Despite being a box office success, the film was heavily panned by film critics and retains a 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Plot
Julia Jones (Alyson Hannigan) is an obese woman who dreams of marrying Napoleon Dynamite (Josh Meyers), but even in her dreams, she is rejected. Writing in her diary, she thinks she will never find her true love. Julia goes outside and dances to impress men on the streets, but is unsuccessful. Julia goes to work at her father Frank's (Eddie Griffin) Greek diner, where she meets and forms an instant attraction with Grant Fockyerdoder (Adam Campbell). When Frank yells at Julia to get an order, she turns to respond and accidentally hits Grant over the head with the coffee pot she is holding, knocking him to the floor. She turns around only to find his table is suddenly empty and figures he ran away. Julia wants help and goes to see a love therapist, Hitch (Tony Cox), who rejects her at first but reluctantly agrees to help her. Hitch takes her to a garage where she gets "pimped out" and made slimmer.
Julia earns a spot on a reality television dating show called The Extreme Bachelor, the bachelor turns out to be Grant, the man she met in the diner. Host Ty Andrews (Scott Speedman) introduces Grant, who greets all the women and is asked to eliminate the losers, which he does by shooting them one by one. Julia is the last woman standing and is rewarded with dinner for two at a restaurant called "A Restaurant". After their meal, Julia and Grant head back to her apartment, where they have sex. Julia takes Grant to meet her parents.
Later, Grant takes Julia to Tiffany & Co., where they turn on the lights to reveal the salespeople ready to let her pick whatever she wants. Grant then confesses he loves her and proposes to her. Julia happily says yes. Julia and Grant go to a wedding planner named Jell-O (Valery Ortiz), who has a massive rear. She suggests that they go to a restaurant called Taco Butt. When they decline, she gets upset. She tells them that's the best she can do on short notice and they need to book a caterer, pick a piñata, and choose a best man. When Grant says he has a best man, Jell-O shows them what she booked for the entertainment, after which she uses her rear to knock over her desk and then aggressively rips off her clothes to reveal a gold bra and tights. She shows off her dance moves until she backs up to them while she carelessly and joyfully crushes them with her rear. Grant introduces Julia to his ex-fiancée, Andy (Sophie Monk), who seems to harbor no resentment towards Julia for marrying Grant, going so far as to help Julia shop for her wedding dress. At the dress store, Julia hits her head on a power box and finds that she can read people's thoughts. Julia finds from reading Andy's mind that she wants to get back together with Grant and plans to split the two of them up. Julia and Andy fight each other, Kill Bill-style.
Julia cannot forgive Grant and agrees to marry Nicky (Judah Friedlander). Once at the altar with Nicky, Julia is regretting it and has flashbacks about her and Grant. Frank objects to the union and realizes he was wrong about Grant who liked her even when Julia was ugly, and he persuades her to go after Grant who is revealed to have waited for months. Julia journeys to meet him as he is leaving while tossing aside Andy who was pursuing him too. Julia arrives too late and sees Grant on the streets before she falls off the roof, though is conveniently caught by Grant. They get back together and get married, with Hitch officiating. Andy and Nicky meet at the wedding and fall in love. Meanwhile, Grant and Julia leave in a horse and carriage. Julia also gets a present from her mother-in-law: a vaginal thermometer which has been in their family for generations and is regarded as good luck when it is not washed.
On their honeymoon, Grant and Julia go to Skull Island and film a woman, Anne (Carmen Electra), tied to two pieces of wood. After King Kong rips off Anne's dress and gropes her, she says "I like hairy boys", and King Kong roars and flattens her.
Why It Makes Us Wanna Breakup
- There are tons of gross-out, sexist, racist, sex and poop jokes.
- Grant's surname "Fockyerdoder" sounds so juvenile, as it's a clear play on "fuck your daughter".
- Another example is where Jinxers the cat wipes his butt and sniffs at the toilet paper after rolling up some of it.
- A cliched story, instead of satirizing the repetitive cliches of romantic comedies, it blatantly copies many of them since it follows their same plots and structures.
- One of the biggest problems is that, as pointed out above, since most of the parodied movies are comedies (and parodying comedies it's pointless) it steals and plagiarizes jokes from those movies. There are numerous signs of it, some of them include the basketball scene from Along Came Polly, the dance scene from Hitch, the video essay from Legally Blonde, the fake orgasm from When Harry Met Sally, the majority of Meet The Parents and Meet the Fockers, etc.
- None of the "cameos" (celebrity impersonators), such as Owen Wilson, are funny.
- Horrible and lifeless acting, especially from Tony Cox and Jennifer Coolidge.
- Lots of now outdated references like the "Pimp My Ride" montage.
- There is a scene where a construction worker kills himself with a tool which isn't funny at all.
- Terrible visual effects, especially on Jinxers the cat and King Kong at the end of the film.
- The humor is very bad.
- The Frank Jones hairball scene is extremely disgusting and goes on for way too long.
- Despite being called Date Movie, it even parodies films that aren't even romance films, such as Kill Bill, The Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars, making the title somewhat misleading.
- Below average and lazy soundtrack that overuses popular songs from the 2000s such as "Milkshake".
- The ending is just terrible, as it involves Carmen Electra getting groped by King Kong, only to get crushed by his fist.
- Many of the characters, such as Julia, Andy, and the love interest Grant, are unlikable and annoying.
- Shameless and blatant product placement, such as Dunkin' Donuts.
Redeeming Qualities
- There are a few funny moments and jokes here and there like The Bachelor scene or the Mr. and Mrs. Smith parody.
- Good acting from Eddie Griffin and Adam Campbell.
- Jell-O and her scene are somewhat well-executed compared to the rest of the movie. It was a decent parody of its source material and many viewers found Jell-O herself attractive. Valery Ortiz has stated she enjoyed being in the film, as have a few of the other actors.
- Andy's scene is liked by some for similar reasons, as it was a spoof of an already dumb Carl's Jr. commercial, even though this makes the reference itself dated.
- Unlike most of Seltzer and Friedberg's subsequent movies, this one mostly manages to stick to parodying its target genre (romantic comedies), rather than just parodying whatever happens to be popular (though while it can sometimes happen in this film such as The Lord of the Rings scene, they aren't as obnoxious).
Parodies
- What Women Want
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding
- Bridget Jones's Diary
- Hitch
- Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
- Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers
- The Wedding Planner
- DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story
- Kill Bill
- The Parent Trap
- Sweet Home Alabama
- King Kong
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy
- Father of the Bride
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith
- Pretty Woman
- When Harry Met Sally
- Along Came Polly
- Fatal Attraction
- Princess Diaries
- Napoleon Dynamite
- My Best Friend's Wedding
- Girls Gone Wild on Campus 2
- Legally Blonde
- How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
- Say Anything...
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- Notting Hill
- Jerry Maguire
- Wedding Crashers
- Jennifer Lopez
- Britney Spears
- Michael Jackson†
- Ben Stiller
- Kevin Federline
- Bridget Jones
Videos
Comments
- Bad media
- Bad films
- 2000s films
- 20th Century Studios
- Comedy films
- Live-action films
- Parody
- Gross-out films
- Box office hits that received negative feedback
- Abusing the mascot
- Boring films
- Unfunny films
- Edgy media
- Edgy films
- Sexist films
- Featured on TV Tropes' So Bad, It's Horrible
- Films with misleading titles
- Misogyny