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Disaster Movie
Stars: Matt Lanter, Nicole Parker, Calvin 'G Thang' Johnson, Vanessa Minillo, Crista Flanagan, Ike Barinholtz, Kimberly Kardashian
Director: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer
Why can't the Americans make slapstick comedies any more? One reason is that casts of multi-spoofs like this one simply don't have the talent: there's lots of enthusiasm here but little idea of how to time a laugh.
Sympathy, though, for some of the players, like the girl playing Amy Winehouse, who is required to do little but look like the star (which she certainly does), refer to 'Blake' and 'crack' and belch at considerable length.
Otherwise, this has precious little to do with disaster movies, apart from a nod or two to War of the Worlds. It's more a case of dragging in the principal characters from various high-profile movies of recent times, such as The Dark Knight, Juno, Hellboy II, Beowulf, The Incredible Hulk, Enchanted, Indiana Jones and even Kung Fu Panda, all of which were miles better than this.
The cast gives it the usual wide-eyed wellie, but fail to give birth to anything approaching a laugh. Body-function and scatological jokes are slightly thinner on the ground than usual (though I could have done without the soiled knickers), for which relief much thanks.
David Quinlan
USA 2008. UK Distributor: Momentum. Colour by deluxe.
87 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.
Review date: 01 Sep 2008