Date Movie

Date Movie is a 2006 American romantic comedy parody film written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. It was released on February 17, 2006 by 20th Century Fox and stars Alyson Hannigan, Adam Campbell, Sophie Monk, Tony Cox, Jennifer Coolidge, Eddie Griffin, and Fred Willard. A parody of the romantic comedy film genre, the film mostly references My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Meet the Fockers, Hitch, Legally Blonde, and Bridget Jones's Diary. Date Movie was panned by critics and has a 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but was a box office success, grossing almost $85 million on a $20 million budget.[2]

Not to be confused with Date Night.

Date Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAaron Seltzer
Jason Friedberg (uncredited)
Produced by
  • Jason Friedberg
  • Paul Schiff
Written by
  • Jason Friedberg
  • Aaron Seltzer
Starring
Music byDavid Kitay
CinematographyShawn Maurer
Edited byPaul Hirsch
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • February 17, 2006 (2006-02-17)
Running time
83 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million[2]
Box office$84.8 million[2]

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.

She earns a spot on a reality television dating show called The Extreme Bachelor, the bachelor turning 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 & they need to book a caterer, pick a piñata & to choose a best man. When Grant says he has a best man, she shows them what she booked for the entertainment, after which she uses her rear to knock over her desk 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 as they scream in fear, while she carelessly & 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.

She 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 apparently 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.

Cast

Parodies

Films and TV shows

Real-life people

Release

Box office

The film grossed $48,548,426 in the United States and $36,247,230 internationally, adding up to a worldwide gross of $84,795,656.[2]

Critical response

The film did not have advance press screenings.[11] It received unfavorable reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 7% based on reviews from 88 critics, with an average rating of 2.42/10. The site's critical consensus states: "In an attempt to parody rom-com clichés, Date Movie ultimately makes a mockery of itself, with juvenile toilet humor and empty pop culture references."[12] The site ranked the film 77th in the 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s, with a rating of 6%.[13] On Metacritic the film has a score of 11% based on reviews from 18 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".[14] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade C+ on scale of A to F.[15]

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly awarded the film a B- grade, and compared it to fast food, suggesting that if audiences are "hungry for comedy that's salty and loud," this film might be just what audiences are craving.[4] Variety praised Jennifer Coolidge for providing a few bright moments with a spot-on spoof of Barbra Streisand, but was otherwise unimpressed describing the film as "padded and repetitious".[6]

Critic Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club was amazed that a "joke-a-second comedy" failed to contain a single laugh.[3]

Kyle Smith of the New York Post stated that the film was a "collection of throwaway gags from other movies, a big blue recycling barrel of comedy waiting for the trash collector." He also joked that the reason why it carried a PG-13 rating was "because 13 is the maximum age of those who might find it funny."[7]

Pete Vonder Haar of Film Threat described the film as a contender for worst of 2006. He walked out of the film after 29 minutes without a single laugh, and said he did not feel any guilt about it. He described the laughter of others in the audience as "inexplicable" and wondered if U.S. cinema-going audiences were made up of "deranged howler monkeys".[11]

Accolades

Carmen Electra won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her performance in this film and Scary Movie 4.[16] At the 2006 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, Jennifer Coolidge was nominated for Most Annoying Fake Female Accent but lost to Cindy Cheung for Lady in the Water. However, the film won the awards for Worst Screenplay and Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy.

Home media

The film was released on DVD on May 30, 2006 in rated (83 minutes) and unrated (84 minutes) versions and 1,051,878 units were sold, bringing in $18,777,508 in revenue.[17]

Soundtrack
Date Movie Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
various
ReleasedFebruary 17, 2006
RecordedVarious times
GenreR&B, hip hop
LabelTwentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Track listing[18]
  1. "Milkshake" – Kelis
  2. "Party Hard" – The Perceptionists
  3. "You’re the First, the Last, My Everything" – Barry White
  4. "Toma" – Pitbull feat. Lil Jon
  5. "Funhop" – Todd Schietroma
  6. "Do You Believe in Magic" – The Lovin' Spoonful
  7. "Too Much Booty (In da Pants)" – Soundmaster T
  8. "Break it on Down" – Flii Stylz & Tenashus
  9. "Baby Come Back" – Player (Edit)
  10. "The Price Is Right (Theme)" – David Kitay
  11. "Break It Down" – Alana D.
  12. "Come on Shake" – Classic
  13. "What Will You Do?" – Sparklemotion
  14. "Don't Cha" – Pussycat Dolls

See also

References
  1. "DATE MOVIE (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. February 13, 2006. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  2. "Date Movie (2006)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com.
  3. Scott Tobias (February 21, 2006). "Date Movie". The A.V. Club. The Onion.
  4. Owen Gleiberman (February 22, 2006). "Date Movie (2006)". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. hodgepodge of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Bridget Jones's Diary, Meet the Fockers, Hitch, and Sleepless in Seattle
  5. Anna Smith (February 15, 2006). "Date Movie". Denver Post.
  6. Leydon, Joe (February 17, 2006). "Date Movie". Variety.
  7. KYLE SMITH (2006). "'DATE' WILL LIVE IN INFAMY". New York Post. Archived from the original on March 3, 2006.
  8. Anna Smith (January 1, 2000). "Date Movie". Empire (film magazine).
  9. Jon O'Brien (June 20, 2017). "My Best Friend's Wedding: 20 things you may not know about the classic rom-com". Metro (British Newspaper).
  10. Kuhl, Ken. "Carl's Jr. ad parodied in film". FoodFacts.com. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  11. "Date Movie". Film Threat. February 19, 2006. Archived from the original on July 11, 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-07.
  12. "Date Movie". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media.
  13. "Worst of the Worst 2000–2009". Archived from the original on September 28, 2009. Retrieved 2013-07-29.
  14. "Date Movie". Metacritic. CBS.
  15. "DATE MOVIE (2006) C+". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018.
  16. Scott Weinberg (April 20, 2020). "2006 Razzie Awards Announced".
  17. "Date Movie DVD". Nash Information Services. The Numbers.
  18. "Original Soundtrack - Date Movie". Amazon.com.
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