Date Movie (2006)

Date Movie is a 2006 American romantic comedy film directed by Aaron Seltzer. Much of the story line is based on that of the romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Meet the Fockers. It stars Alyson Hannigan, Adam Campbell, Sophie Monk, Tony Cox, Jennifer Coolidge, Meera Simhan, Eddie Griffin, and Fred Willard.

The film was heavily panned by film critics and retains a 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, although it was a box office success.

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. There she meets Grant Fockyerdoder, with whom she forms an instant attraction. When Frank yells at Julia to get an order, she turns to respond and 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, 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 prominent rump. She suggests that they go to a restaurant called Taco Butt (in alternate versions of the movie, she uses her rump as a pencil sharpener and recommends that they use a garbage barge as their wedding location). When they decline, she gets annoyed. When Grant says he has a best man, she shows them what she booked for the entertainment, after which she uses her butt to knock over her desk then rips off her clothes to reveal a gold liquid spandex tight suit. She shows off her dance moves, then twerks and bounce and backs up to the couple with her massive rear for them to scream while she bounces and crushing and suffocate them for them to scream more for the screen to cut to the next scene. The alternate scene is she has backup dancers and she bounces and shows off her dance moves until she shakes her massive booty right to them for them to scream and knocks them over with her right and left buttcheek to end it. 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 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. In one alternate version of the film adaptation, they walk off the screen—presumably to the left—in order to engage in "foot fellatio" to quote Danny (Jack Cortes) verbatim.

She cannot forgive Grant, and agrees to marry Nicky. Once at the altar with Nicky, Julia is regretting it and has flashbacks about her and 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. King Kong comes on and rips off her dress, leaving her clad in a leopard print bikini. King Kong then gropes her, she says "I like hairy guys" and King Kong roars and flattens her.

Parodies

 * What Women Want
 * My Big Fat Greek Wedding
 * Bridget Jones's Diary
 * Hitch
 * Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
 * Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers
 * The Wedding Planner
 * DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story
 * Kill Bill
 * King Kong
 * The Lord of the Rings trilogy
 * Father of the Bride
 * King Kong
 * Mr. &amp; Mrs. Smith
 * Pretty Woman
 * When Harry Met Sally...
 * Princess Diaries
 * Napoleon Dynamite
 * My Best Friend's Wedding
 * Legally Blonde
 * How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
 * Say Anything...
 * A Streetcar Named Desire
 * Notting Hill
 * Jerry Maguire
 * Wedding Crashers
 * X-Men
 * Sweet Home Alabama

Cast

 * Alyson Hannigan as Julia Jones
 * Adam Campbell as Grant Fockyerdoder
 * Eddie Griffin as Frank Jones
 * Sophie Monk as Andy
 * Tony Cox as Hitch
 * Fred Willard as Bernie Fockyerdoder
 * Jennifer Coolidge as Roz Fockyerdoder
 * Meera Simhan as Linda Jones
 * Judah Friedlander as Nicky
 * Marie Matiko as Betty Jones
 * Valery Ortiz as Jell-O
 * Carmen Electra as Anne
 * Mauricio Sanchez as Eduardo
 * Beverly Polcyn as Old Cat Woman
 * Scott Speedman as Ty Andrews
 * Jack Cortes as Danny Ricks
 * Tom Fitzpatrick as Gandalf
 * Tom Lenk as Frodo
 * Lil Jon as Himself
 * Josh Meyers as Napoleon Dynamite / Owen Wilson from Wedding Crashers
 * Edward Moss as Michael Jackson
 * Nadia Dina Ariqat as Britney Spears
 * Nick Steele as Kevin Federline
 * Jasen Salvatore as Ben Stiller
 * Bridget Ann Brno as Bridget Jones

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.

Critical response
The film did not have advance press screenings. It received unfavorable critic reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes giving the film a score of 7% based on reviews from 84 critics, with an average rating of 2.5 out of 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." The site ranked the film 77th in the 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s, with a rating of 6%. 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.

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

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."

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 the American cinema going audience is made up of "deranged howler monkeys".

Accolades
Carmen Electra won the Golden Raspberry Award for Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her performance in this film and Scary Movie 4.

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.