Thursday, November 20, 2008
There are few things lamer than (Blank) Movie, the series of increasingly moronic spoof “films” made by untalented Hollywood directors and writers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. One of those few things is the inevitable riff after a new one is cranked out:
“What's next?! 'Animated Movie?' 'Space Movie?' How about 'Spoof Movie,' where they spoof spoofs! Wouldn't that be crazy?”
Every single moviegoer in the world has cracked up his friends with the possibilities that come from Friedberg and Seltzer's movie-by-numbers method of creating anti-cinema. Although ostensibly pointing out their laziness, people who partake in this particular line of thought anymore are just as lazy and just as wrong in thinking they're being original or funny.
This hypocrisy used to be merely annoying. But it has become something much worse: The inevitable conclusion of that riff, Spoof Movie, is becoming reality.
Last week, The Hollywood Reporter Hollywood reported that Chevy Chase and Burt Reynolds will be “spoofing the nonstop flood of spoof films” in “Not Another Not Another Movie.”
The movie's synopsis is like a verbal M.C. Escher drawing: When Chase's character leaves his position as the boss of a failing film studio, his replacement gives a production assistant the task of directing a spoof movie that spoofs spoof movies. Within the spoof spoof, Reynolds plays an actor playing the director of the spoof ... spoof.
No intelligent person thinks this recent rash of spoof flicks is anything less than garbage. But this is simply not the way to go about sticking it to Friedberg and Seltzer and the cruel suits who repeatedly give them the green light.
This isn't fighting fire with fire. This is fighting illiteracy by blowing up a library.
Nothing is accomplished with this film except for bringing more attention to the spoof genre just as it appears to be losing its profitability. “Disaster Movie,” the most recent incarnation of the series, premiered at No. 7 in the box office, making under $7 million during Labor Day weekend.
But as the beast begins to die, Chevy Chase decides to swoop in and revive it.
Why won't you use your powers for good, Chevy Chase?
As Oscar Wilde once said, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” Instead of doing the right thing by just ignoring the movies, True Fiction Filmz (the company producing this movie, and yes, it’s spelled with a “z”) is legitimizing its existence by immortalizing its influence on culture.
This movie is providing free publicity to the franchise that it is spoofing. Even the slightest bit of success on its part will not only motivate Friedberg and Seltzer to spoof back, but would also encourage moviegoers to see their new film out of morbid curiosity. It's a shameful exercise in competitive spoofery that will end in carnage.
If Wilde were alive today, he'd be dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after seeing what passes for entertainment these days.
Of course, in writing this column, I'm a part of the problem. I'm reminding the smart folks who read this paper that these movies exist.
But the people who are immune to their inexplicable allure must band together and brace themselves for the oncoming Spoof-pocalypse. We must not be blindsided because if we let down our guard, one day we will suddenly find ourselves at a screening of the Wayans Brothers' upcoming spoof “Dance Flick” wondering what the hell happened.
And that would truly be the lamest thing of all.
— — Nichols is an Overland Park sophomore in creative writing.
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Comments
Nichols: With spoof movies, the joke's on us
Totally.
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