Movie Review: Meet the Spartans (2008)

Whenever there is a blockbuster movie, there is always a good chance
that somebody will make a parody of it. Usually, these parodies come
in the form of articles in humor magazines such as Mad or National
Lampoon. However, there are parody movies made as well. Parody movies are generally intended to make fun of whole genres instead of specific moves. Also, parody movies are often made by talented folks such as Mel Brooks or the ZAZ team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams & Jerry Zucker who were responsible for such parody gems such as Airplane!, Hot Shots, Kentucky Fried Movie & Young Doctors in Love.

However, the makers of Meet the Spartans, Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer, have an abysmal track record as creators of parody flicks.
This untalented duo have managed to be the directors, producers &
writers of their movies. Both Friedberg & Seltzer were involved in the unfunny 1996 flick Spy Hard as well as the dreadful Scary Movie series. Lately, they have created a series of parody films consisting of Date Movie, Epic Movie & Meet the Spartans. Of this cinematic trio, only Epic Movie is anything but utter drivel and Epic Movie itself is hardly anything to write home about.

The plot of Meet the Spartans is poorly thought out and makes little
sense. Its best parts come when it is parodying 300. However, it all
too often veers from making fun of 300 and loses its focus in the
process. Additionally, some of the satire on 300 is poorly conceived so
even that element does not elicit as many laughs as it should. To top it all off, there is a great deal of unnecessary vulgarity in what should have been a fun film for the entire family.

The movie opens with the inspecting of newly born babies to see if they
have the requisite strength to be allowed to live and grow up to become
a Spartan. Leonidas makes the grade and embarks on his training during
which, among other things, he fights his grandmother. Once he nears the
age of manhood, he is ritually cast out into the wild where he must kill
a giant penguin to fully prove his manhood. Leonidas once again makes
the grade and he is accepted both as a full Spartan, and as a future
king.

While the above sounds pretty funny, its impact is pretty much lost on
the audience. Part of this is due to the excessive vulgarity in which
these plot points are executed. The main reason though is all the
distractions from the satire of 300 that the filmmakers provide. There
are scenes involving the 21st Century likes of Lindsey Lohan & Britney Spears as well as a scene in Malibu, California. In one scene, the Spartan queen wears a black Spiderman uniform. Most of these distractions are not funny at all. One wonders if Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer were unable to come up with enough parody material relating to 300 and, as a result, chose to pad their movie with all this drivel.

In any event, Meet the Spartans is just simply not a good movie. It is funny when it parodies 300, but not funny enough to work as a parody and it suffers from far too much vulgarity throughout. To be sure, it is a better than 300, but since that flick is itself at the bottom of the barrel that is not saying much. Meet the Spartans is a movie to avoid period.