Date Movie

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This article is about the spoof. For the genre, see romance film.
Date Movie

Promotional poster for Date Movie
Directed by Aaron Seltzer
Produced by Jason Friedberg
Jack L. Murray
Paul Schiff
Aaron Seltzer
Written by Jason Friedberg
Aaron Seltzer
Starring Alyson Hannigan
Sophie Monk
Adam Campbell
Eddie Griffin
Fred Willard
Jennifer Coolidge
Mauricio Sanchez
Cinematography Shawn Maurer
Editing by Paul Hirsch
Release date(s) February 17, 2006
Running time 83 min.
Language English
Budget $20 million
Followed by Epic Movie
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Date Movie is a 2006 romantic comedy film, which was directed and written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, two of the writers of the first Scary Movie. Much of the story line was based on that of the well-known romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It stars Alyson Hannigan, Adam Campbell, Sophie Monk, Eddie Griffin, Fred Willard, Jennifer Coolidge and Mauricio Sanchez. The film was released on DVD on May 30, 2006. The film was rated PG-13 for continuous crude and sexual humor, including language. There is also an unrated version on DVD. It was critically lambasted as a bomb, although it garnered a respectable bow in its opening weekend.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The movie starts with the main character, Julia Jones, an obese woman, having a dream about marrying Napoleon Dynamite. It turns into a nightmare when Napoleon turns around and rejects her. Julia wakes up screaming and goes to her diary to write an entry. She thinks she will never find her true love.

Julia goes outside and dances to impress men on the streets. It doesn't, as her obesity gets the best of her -- one man even shoots himself in the head with a nail gun.

Later on, Julia goes to work at her dad's Greek diner. Her dad, Frank, suggests she gets married. He likes humus spray and squirts it on her mole. He suggests Nicky, an ugly, stupid, grimey man. She then meets Grant Funkyerdoder. Grant is attracted to her and vice-versa. Julia's dad yells to her to get an order, she turns to respond and hits Grant over the head with the coffee cup she's holding, thus knocking him to the floor. She turns around only to find his table is suddenly empty and figures he ran away.

Julia realizes she will never find her true love at this rate, and she goes to see a love therapist, Hitch. At first, Hitch rejects her but Julia says she is desperate and walks off. Hitch, feeling guilty invites her in. Julia explains about the guy at the diner and thinks it will be impossible for him to fall in love with her. Hitch takes her to a garage where she gets "pimped out" into a beautiful woman. She earns a spot on a reality TV dating show and the bachelor is the man she met at the diner, Grant. Grant greets all the women and is handed a shotgun for the elimination round. Grant shoots all the other women, leaving Julia. They win a dinner for two at a restaurant called, "A Restaurant".

The two leave the restaurant and head back to Julia's apartment where they have sex. Julia suggests that Grant meets Julia's parents.

Now we see a big house, similar to the one in Meet The Parents. Grant and Julia are sitting together along with Julia's parents, Frank and Linda. There is tension between Frank and Grant. Grant goes to the bathroom to see Jinxers, the family cat farting continuously on the toilet, similar to the cat in Meet The Parents using the toilet. Things get a lot worse when Grant attempts to open a bottle of champagne and the cork hits a vase that contains Frank's mother's remains, and the problems only get bigger when Jinxers begins humping the skeleton.

Later, Julia and Grant are walking down a street and Grant takes Julia to a jewelry shop. There, Frodo, Sam, and Gandalf from Lord Of The Rings try to pawn off the Ring, with Gandalf pleading that the Ring could "destroy all evil". Ignoring him, Frodo accepts fifty dollars; they then beat up Gandalf and run off to "get some wine coolers... and hookers!". Grant then confesses he loves her and pops the question. Julia happily says yes.

Now it's Grant's turn to take Julia and her family to meet his parents. This spoofs Meet The Fockers, as Grant's father, Bernie, is practicing a strange martial art ("capuerta", in a reference to "capoeira", a Brazilian fight). This meeting doesn't go well either, as Roz, Grant's mother, informs everyone that Grant lost his virginity to their gay housekeeper, Eduardo. Frank secretly brings along Nicky as well and talks to Julia. He says that Nicky has agreed to marry her and she has no choice. Julia runs off, devastated. Later, Frank and Bernie have a one on one basketball game. Things get bad when Frank gets a huge taste of Bernie's chest hair (a recreation, not technically parody, of the basketball scene in Along Came Polly).

The next day, Julia and Grant go to a wedding planner called Jell-O (spoof on the singer Jennifer Lopez and the movie in which she starred, The Wedding Planner). The wedding planner suggests they go to Taco Butt [or Taco Bell] but they want something a little fancier. She is offended and refuses to plan their wedding.

Julia finally gets the chance meet Andy, Grant's best man, at the swimming pool. Of course, Julia assumes Andy is a man, but she is really a woman and is a lot more attractive than Julia. Julia is even more horrified when she finds out that the two were engaged three weeks ago. Andy helps Julia shop for her wedding dress. At the dress store, Julia hits her head on a power box and finds that she can read peoples thoughts. She reads Andy's mind and finds out Andy wants to wreck Grant and Julia's wedding and take Grant back. Julia changes into a Kill Bill costume and fights with Andy.

Julia grows depressed and has thoughts that she'll always be the fat woman she used to be. She goes back to Hitch and tells him about Andy. Hitch reckons she doesn't stand a chance against Andy. But if she does stand a chance, then everything will be fine in the end.

Julia grows confident again and figures that she just has to make it through the wedding rehearsal at her dad's diner; then, only one day until their wedding. There, Andy shows up and talks to Grant about how he's using Julia to get over her, but Grant resists and ignores her.

The big day has arrived! But unfortunately, Julia wakes up with a big zit on her face. She eventually pops it, but is late for her wedding. Meanwhile, Andy finally tells Grant how she feels about him, and that Julia doesn't deserve him. She wants to marry him but Grant steps up and says he wants Julia. Andy ignores him and kisses him. Grant drags Andy off and sees Julia, who has caught them in the act. Julia runs back to her apartment and is surrounded by balloons, gifts and letters from Grant. Julia cannot forgive Grant and agrees to marry Nicky. Once at the alter with Nicky, Julia is regretting it and has flashbacks about her and Grant. Frank, realizing this, stops the wedding and tells her she doesn't want Nicky. Grant is the one for her. (He saw it in her flashback.) Frank shows Julia a magazine with a picture of Grant and a message. It says to meet him on the rooftop of her apartment building. After an epic journey -- throwing Andy down a stairway, bashing someone on the head with a baseball bat to get their bike -- she gets there, only to find she just missed Grant. She leans her hands on the railings, causing it to snap and falls right into Grant's arms. It is very emotional but they get back together and get married. The priest is Hitch. Andy and Nicky are attending the wedding. The two kiss and enter a relationship. Meanwhile, Grant and Julia leave in a horse and carriage. Julia also gets a present from her mother: a vaginal thermometer which apparently has been in their family for generations.

An Owen Wilson look-a-like comes on asking if it is too late to crash their wedding.

The movie ends with Grant and Julia attending their honeymoon on Kong Island. They see a woman (Carmen Electra) tied up by two pieces of wood. King Kong comes on and rips off Carmen's dress and she is clad in a leopard print bikini. Kong then assumes to feel her up (which she enjoys quite a lot) and then says to him "I like hairy boys". Kong roars and smashes her like a bug.

[edit] Parodies

  • Austin Powers - At the beginning when she is running after a bunch of guys and jumps
  • Hitch - Julia's date doctor.
  • Pimp My Ride - The scene with turning Julia into a princess
  • When Harry Met Sally - Grant's fake orgasm, and Julia's response "I'll have what he's having" parody the famous restaurant scene.
  • Girls Gone Wild - During Julia's pastry school submission tape when she takes off her bra that says "Julia gone Wild".
  • Meet the Parents - Grant's meeting with Julia's parents, and the cat who uses a toilet.
  • Lord of the Rings - When 2 hobbits and a Gandalf characters come to sell a gold ring.
  • Taco Bell - When the wedding planner suggests a place called "Taco Butt" for the wedding reception.
  • Carl's Jr. - The scene with Andy in slow motion, using a hamburger to wash a car.
  • Best Buy - When Julia and Andy are at a shop called "Best Bride".
  • Kill Bill - The scene with Julia and Andy fighting.
  • My Best Friend's Wedding - The rehearsal dinner and when Grant and Andy kiss. We could also say that the whole Andy character is based on this movie.
  • Runaway Bride - When Julia leaves the wedding after she sees Andy and Grant kissing.
  • Desperate Housewives - Is mentioned when Grant tries to get Julia back a guy said "Shut up! I'm trying to watch Desperate Housewives!" .
  • Say Anything - When Grant is holding the radio above his head to convince Julia to take him back
  • Pretty Woman - The talk when they get back together: Grants asks "what happens after the prince rescues the princess" and Julia says "she rescues him right back"
  • As Good As It Gets - Same talk as above, Grant says "You make me want to be a better man"
  • Jerry Maguire - During Julia's flashback, in the elevator and when Julia says "You had me at hello" a bit after landing in Grant's arms at the end.
  • Notting Hill - Grant saying "I am just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her" to Julia at the end.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Deleted scenes

There were some scenes in this movie that had to be blocked out or changed, but available on the Unrated edition. They are:

  • At the beginning Julia is on a horse and gets knocked off and at one point she is on the cell phone and asks, "Can you hear me now?"
  • In the beginning in the dream sequence, after the Napoleon Dynamite character says "gosh", he runs back and falls to the ground.
  • When the two men are dancing, they dance for a much longer time than the theatrical version
  • The scene where Jinxers is on the house is much longer than in the theatrical version.
  • When Julia is asking Little Jack questions from cards, she actually asks Little Jack four questions instead of only two questions in the theatrical version.
  • When Grant and Julia visits Jell-o, the Wedding Planner, they walk in and she introduces herself, and then she says "Fockyerdoder" then we cut to her walking to her desk where we see her extremely large buttocks. She takes a pencil and sharpens it by using her buttocks. She gets up to tell Julia and Grant where they can get married, her chair is stuck to her and she yanks it off and ends up flying across the room, and goes over to her desk and takes out a picture and suggest that they get married in a trash filled boat called "Garbage Barge". She tells Grant that they need to find a best man and then uses her buttocks to throw a lamp across the room and smash it to pieces on a desk. She knocks her desk over, and two women appear mysteriously and all three of them dance for a while. The two women leave and Jell-o begins backing up towards Grant and Julia, who scream, but are eventually knocked over by Jell-o's extremely large buttocks.
  • The scene in which Julia asks Hitch for help after she finds out that Andy still has a thing for Grant, his response is "Do I look like Will Smith to you?"
  • When the Owen Wilson "parody" appears at the wedding, he gets crushed by a camera man that is sitting on a tree.
  • In the last scene, the natives are shown eating popcorn which was not in the theatrical version.

[edit] Box office

 This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (August 2007)

Domestic US$ $48,548,426

Non-Domestic US$ $36,247,230

World-Wide US$ $84,795,656

[edit] DVD

The DVD has been released on May 30, 2006.

The DVD comes with an English, French, 2 commentaries, a commentary featuring two critics who apparently did not like the film, and a laugh track.


[edit] See also

[edit] External links