C’mon Hollywood #230

…stop with the shitty spoof movies!
by J.A. Hamilton

I’ve always been a fan of spoof movies for a variety of reasons; one, I’m all for poking some fun at things that take themselves too seriously and two because I love to laugh and spoofs make for some great comedy. At least they USED to. I wouldn’t dream of telling you that the NAKED GUN and HOT SHOTS films were the best that spoofing has to offer (the sequels were rather hit and miss), but these films were funny for the most part and THAT is what spoofing is all about. Somewhere down the line (I can and will point some fingers) this bloodline was tarnished and as a result spawned a subsequent litter of mutant turd babies that (to my dismay) keep multiplying at an exponential rate.

We all remember SCARY MOVIE…whether we want to or not. This film wasn’t all bad, there were a few honorable mentions as far as jokes go, but not enough to merit multiple viewings (let alone sequels). But we got them anyway and I’m sure I don’t need to point out how asinine, incompetent and just plain lame they all were. This was enough to make most people loath the Wayans brothers, but it’s not just their fault as Hollywood seems to believe that most of us are f*cking simpletons who can’t get enough of these juvenile jokes that would’ve landed you a punch in the nuts even by Junior High School standards.

What baffles the hell out of me is that despite poor reviews, bad word of mouth and being stereotyped as “the worst thing to ever happen to comedy” they just keep on coming. EPIC MOVIE, DATE MOVIE, MEET THE SPARTANS and then just a couple weeks back I reviewed STAN HELSING which was God awful and really me wonder about Hollywood’s writing (ahem) “talent”. My generation was weaned on stuff like FRIDAY, RAW and DELIRIOUS as far as comedy goes, but like every great stand-up comedian will tell you, there’s more to an act (or in this case there should be more to a film) than just shit, boob and dick jokes. Someone needs to remind these writers of that very thing…with a baseball bat to the skull.

The good news is there ARE still good spoofs out there, but they sometimes pass under our radar because people are too busy cutting up all the bad ones. GALAXY QUEST is a good spoof of the STAR TREK universe, SHAUN OF THE DEAD is an underrated comedy that spoofs the hell out of the zombie world and LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS was a laugh out loud vampire spoof that deserves far more credit than it received. These are just a few examples of what I believe define the concept behind a spoof. There will always be room for debate however, as comedy is a matter of opinion, this one clearly being mine.

As I said, I’m not against proper spoofs, they’re a fun addition to our movie roster, but I can’t stand the fact that Hollywood is now spoofing the spoof movie genre which more often than not ends up being f*cking ridiculous. I know there’s a lack of creativity in the air these days, but there are plenty of people out there who know funny (even most of the spoof videos we run from FUNNY OR DIE and COLLEGE HUMOR are funnier than these flicks), which leads me to firmly believe these writers can and should do much better. We need a SCARY MOVIE 5 like we need a Jar Jar Binks TV spin off.