Epic Movie (PG-13, 2007)

The story, such that it is, follows four adult "orphans" from a variety of races (the joke is that they're all brothers and sisters, despite their ethnic mix) whose origins rest in plotlines of movies as diverse as Nacho Libre and The Da Vinci Code. The four come into possession of Golden Tickets that allow them tour Willy Wonka's (Crispin Glover) fabulous candy factory. When Wonka tries to make candy out of the overgrown-kid heroes (it's strongly hinted that he has sex-pervert motivations), they hide from him in a wardrobe that turns out to be the portal to the magic land of Gnarnia. There the evil sorceress known as the "White Bitch" (Jennifer Coolidge) tries to catch them to stop the fulfillment of a prophecy that would end her reign. Part of her plans include the woozy pirate Jack Swallows (Darrell Hammond), who, of course, is a takeoff based on a certain Disney pirate-film series. Oh, and there's a homicidal albino monk after them, too.

With a title like EPIC MOVIE, you'd think this feature-length spoof would be taking aim at, well, epic movies, and the clichés of spectacles like Troy or Gladiator.

But Epic Movie -- which was made by some of the people involved in Date Movie and the Scary Movie series -- just goofs on a laundry-list of 2005-2006 theatrical releases and TV shows, both epic and non-epic, all pinned to a framework of Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The whole thing is like a MADtv sketch that escaped the small screen to the big one. What's the point? Basically, just a state-of-the-art ridicule of the most current film fads and crazes -- kind of like the way the New York stage community has fresh editions of a parody called Forbidden Broadway every season or so. But there's not much insight beneath the crass, rapid-fire gags and celebrity (or celebrity impersonator) cameos.

Kids are an easy-to-please crowd for this style of broad send-up, and some bits might make parents laugh too -- when they're not squirming at the prospect of having to explain a sleazy pun like "Jack Swallows." But much of Epic Movie's humor relies on the tiresome fallbacks of sex and drinking, with a few incongruous hip-hop dance numbers thrown in for good measure. Even more of the humor relies on having viewing tastes identical to writer-directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who do takeoffs on everything from the Saturday Night Live digital short "Lazy Sunday" (which itself was partially a Narnia riff) to MySpace.com. Good luck if you're not hip to the last two or three years of popular culture.

Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Director: Aaron Seltzer, Jason Friedberg
Cast: Adam Campbell, Jayma Mays, Kal Penn
Genre: Comedy
Run time: 86 minutes
Theatrical release: January 26, 2007
DVD release: May 22, 2007
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA explanation: crude and sexual humor, language and some comic violence.