Mini Film Review – Epic Movie

Yesterday I watched Epic Movie; and it was sort of funny! Directed by Jason Friedberg, and Aaron Seltzer, and starring Jayma Mays, Adam Campbell, Faune Chambers Watkins, and Kal Penn; Epic Movie is a parody movie, about four orphans, who after receiving four golden tickets, and escape from the owner of a terrifying chocolate factory, land in a fantasy world, where they have to defeat a terrible witch! Epic Movie is a very dated type of film now. It’s amongst that trend of parody films from the 90’s and 2000’s (which may be part of a series, but there’s little evidence to suggest they are), that make a film loaded with references to popular movies released around the same time. Examples of this include (but are not limited to) Superhero Movie, Meet The Spartans, and the Scary Movie series. In this instance the film is largely referencing the The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, with other movie references including Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and others. Largely, it’s a bit dreary. The plot just sort of plods along under a canvas of movie references (and some TV references to shows I have never heard of before, like Punk’d). I wouldn’t necessarilly call it borring, but it’s pretty close. Most of the movie references do feel a bit uncomfortably ridiculous, and the cast are nothing much to shout about. What is pretty funny though, are scenes featuring sudden violence. It’s a very camp form of violence, nothing really blood thirsty, just silly; and that’s quite funny. Scenes such as someone flying into a vending machine, or being sent flying into the air for no reason, or just suddenly getting flattened. Maybe it’s because the rest of the film is so monotonous? That kind of violence just raises a nice smile, to break out of the more tedious bits. Altogether, Epic Movie isn’t a terrible movie, it’s just got quite a sedate pace, but does thankfully generate some laughs, as well as a cool song, which for some reason was not in Pirates of the Caribbean films; but should have!