Meet The Spartans
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cast: Sean Maguire, Carmen Electra, Ken Davitian
Extras: Commentary, Featurettes, Gag Reel, Games, Trailers
Rating:
A comedy from the same people who brought us "Epic Movie" and "Date Movie" and based upon the popular action film "300" may seem like a brilliant idea to some, especially movie executives looking to cash in on a young crowd, but how does this type of idea translate on the screen? About as well as you may expect; and now we have a Blu-ray version of this 'comedy' to bring the juvenile antics to your home theater screen.
This pathetic excuse of a comedy pits King Leonidas (Sean Maguire), thirteen wax-chested, loincloth-wearing warriors, and his slutty wife Queen Margo (Carmen Elektra) against the pierced Xerxes (Ken Davitian), and along the way takes part in some of the most disgusting and unfunny skits ever committed to celluloid. Nothing is safe in this film, not even penguins. Britney Spears and Paris Hilton also get their fair amount of attention, along with "American Idol", homosexuals, and just about every other topic you could have picked up from any gossip publication six months ago.
While "300" certainly had much material that could easily be made fun of, this poor excuse of a comedy goes so far out of it's way to constantly remind us of its filthy origins that it becomes bogged down under the weight of its own stupidity. Directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the film certainly knows no limits as it lampoons pop culture. In doing so it becomes as tiresome as the annoying topics it makes fun of. This is disposable entertainment, and one wonders if it even belongs on the big screen at all, since it would be far more appropriate as a television skit of the week, especially since the subjects it takes on have such a quick expiration date, much like the jokes themselves. Almost all of the gags are based on reality shows, celebrity scandals or television commercials, and hardly any of them are funny. Its rapid fire approach to humor certainly ensures you won't have time to not laugh at one skit, because as quick as you can figure out how stupid it was they have fired another one off. Surely this is the worst picture of the year.
This film is a complete waste of time and the fact that it made so much at the box office actually depresses me, but for whatever reason we haven't heard the last from this team of filmmakers.
As for the transfer itself we have a film that is a 25 GB single layer release with an aspect ratio that fills the screen at 1.85:1. Certainly no complaints about the transfer, it features a very sharp image that often jumps off the screen, along with very well balanced black levels and colors that seem very natural. Unfortunately the humor is of such an ugly and mean spirited nature that we seldom have any desire to see what is happening on the screen, let alone with any added clarity.
The sound is also very well done, featuring a wide sound field, along with plenty of ridiculous surround sound action. The DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless Audio track delivers a very clean sounding track with dialogue that is unfortunately quite easy to hear, and the music and sound effects also sound quite impressive.
Fans of this film, if they are out there, will be pleased with the amount of special features on the disc, starting with a Cast and Crew commentary track which is quite lively. Much of the witty banter is actually more intelligent than the film itself, not surprisingly. On board we have the directors, Sean Maguire, Kevin Sorbo, Nicole Parker and Ike Barenholtz. We also have a 'Trivial Track' on this Blu-ray release.
We also have a group of very short featurettes, and none are in high definition, starting with 'Prepare for Thrusting' which features an overview of the history of the production and includes interviews with the cast and crew.
'Tour The Set with Ike Barenholtz' features a guided presentation of the actual places they filmed the movie and only runs about six minutes.
'Meet The Spartans: The Music' is simply a menu that will instantly take you to any musical sequence.
We also have 'Know Your Spartans' which bills itself a Pop Culture Trivia Game, but is really just a bad excuse to show you clips from the move as a reward for getting the correct answers, but it is certainly no reward to have to watch any more scenes of this film, which is why the included four minute 'Gag Reel' is also difficult to endure.
'Celebrity Kickoff' and 'Super Pit of Death Ultimate Tactical Battle Challenge' are a couple of games that are about as dumb as you may have guessed. Along with two theatrical trailers presented in high def, this is about as full of a supplements package as you could ever want, and more.
While this is one of the worst films I've ever seen, the Blu-ray edition kicks it up a couple of stars because of a decent transfer and good audio, but it baffles me as to why they made this film, and it disturbs me that it was such a hit, either way. This Blu-ray version is the version to pick up if you are a fan of the film.
