Date Movie
—1. Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads
Having done everything they can to horror flicks (maybe not, Scary Movie 4 is coming soon!), Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg attack the chick flick motif. Mixing every movie from the last ten years with the word “wedding� in the title, plus a few more widely watched romantic comedies, Date Movie strikes at the heart of all of our stereotypes, only to return full circle in the end.
Extremely overweight Julia Jones meets goofy yet handsome Grant Funkyerdoder in her father’s little diner—but her insecurity drives her to Dr. Hitch for help. In a strange twist, Hitch takes her to a “Pimp My Ride� body-do over and she is suddenly slimmed down. We should be aware of the rude amount of expectations put on our bodies when it comes to ‘attractiveness’—specifically women. Even more so, we should be aware of the ridiculous stereotypes that Hollywood puts on love: you must be slimmed down and perfect-skinned to meet “the One.�
When Julia re-acquaints herself with Grant, she takes him to interact with her family, but her father’s expectations of the perfect spouse seem to set them apart. As a black man, Eddie Griffin’s Mr. Jones wants his daughter to blend all the parts of her genetic background (black, Japanese, Indian and Jewish), showing the impractical expectations often exhibited by families in the dating process. Things get worse with the Funkyerdoders, where we see the completely hands-off approach to raising a family…truthfully, I never would’ve made it as a hippie.
Enter Andy, Grant’s ex-fiancee of three weeks—once again, how do we date and meet people? We’re constantly bouncing from one relationship to another—and nowhere more quickly than we are in Date Movie. Thanks to these creative minds we see how ABSOLUTELY ABSURD IT IS! Here we get the Australian/New Zealand pop star Sophie Monk as our attractive villain—who is every absurdly awful aspect that we love to hate. Of course, Grant’s going to have second thoughts because he barely knows Julia, right? And he remembers all the sex that keeps being brought up and alluded to by our guides to dating foolishness—so nothing Julia does seems to measure up.
So, what can we gain from this movie besides a few cheap laughs? I would argue that the comic look at our foolishness often allows us the easiest way to critique ourselves. Serious drama seems too heavy at times but cheap laughs (think Saved’s look at Protestant Christianity) has something to say too.
Date Movie says look past the outside and respect yourself for who you are. Date Movie says it might be more than sex that makes a relationship work. Date Movie says that bouncing from relationship to relationship means that we never have the ability to be ourselves in the meantime. And Date Movie says that while we need our family’s advice and love in every way, choosing the right “One� is up to us. And no “chick flick� will ever be the same again.
— Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads
Having done everything they can to horror flicks (maybe not, Scary Movie 4 is coming soon!), Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg attack the chick flick motif. Mixing every movie from the last ten years with the word “wedding� in the title, plus a few more widely watched romantic comedies, Date Movie strikes at the heart of all of our stereotypes, only to return full circle in the end.Extremely overweight Julia Jones meets goofy yet handsome Grant Funkyerdoder in her father’s little diner—but her insecurity drives her to Dr. Hitch for help. In a strange twist, Hitch takes her to a “Pimp My Ride� body-do over and she is suddenly slimmed down. We should be aware of the rude amount of expectations put on our bodies when it comes to ‘attractiveness’—specifically women. Even more so, we should be aware of the ridiculous stereotypes that Hollywood puts on love: you must be slimmed down and perfect-skinned to meet “the One.�
When Julia re-acquaints herself with Grant, she takes him to interact with her family, but her father’s expectations of the perfect spouse seem to set them apart. As a black man, Eddie Griffin’s Mr. Jones wants his daughter to blend all the parts of her genetic background (black, Japanese, Indian and Jewish), showing the impractical expectations often exhibited by families in the dating process. Things get worse with the Funkyerdoders, where we see the completely hands-off approach to raising a family…truthfully, I never would’ve made it as a hippie.
Enter Andy, Grant’s ex-fiancee of three weeks—once again, how do we date and meet people? We’re constantly bouncing from one relationship to another—and nowhere more quickly than we are in Date Movie. Thanks to these creative minds we see how ABSOLUTELY ABSURD IT IS! Here we get the Australian/New Zealand pop star Sophie Monk as our attractive villain—who is every absurdly awful aspect that we love to hate. Of course, Grant’s going to have second thoughts because he barely knows Julia, right? And he remembers all the sex that keeps being brought up and alluded to by our guides to dating foolishness—so nothing Julia does seems to measure up.
So, what can we gain from this movie besides a few cheap laughs? I would argue that the comic look at our foolishness often allows us the easiest way to critique ourselves. Serious drama seems too heavy at times but cheap laughs (think Saved’s look at Protestant Christianity) has something to say too.
Date Movie says look past the outside and respect yourself for who you are. Date Movie says it might be more than sex that makes a relationship work. Date Movie says that bouncing from relationship to relationship means that we never have the ability to be ourselves in the meantime. And Date Movie says that while we need our family’s advice and love in every way, choosing the right “One� is up to us. And no “chick flick� will ever be the same again.
— Overview
4 Comments:
Are You Kidding Me!? You're going to tell me that we can learn something from watching movies such as date movie and Underworld? If you think that you can justify watching crap like that by saying that you're looking for the spiritual christian connection... your deceived brother. I went to go see date movie and I had to walk out because the vuglarity of the picture made me ashamed that I was even in a movie theater that was playing that movie! I was deeply convicted and frankly the fear of the Lord came so heavy on me I had no problem walking out of that theater in front of everyone. I mean honestly man, do you really think you're doing the Christian community a service by giving them an excuse to go see a film like Date Movie? Of course people are going to buy into it... It's gives them every reason to expose themselves to sex on the big screen. "No, Mom, I just went to see it because I wanted to get the spiritual aspect of the movie so that I can grow in the Lord." Please... you've got to be kidding me.
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Hey Josh and Anonymous, thanks for writing in. I'm surprised that based on your opinions and convictions that you would go to see Date Movie to begin with, and I'm sorry you used my review as a reason to go. Certainly, Date Movie and Underworld are not for everyone-- in fact, Underworld is one of my harshest reviews ever!
The truth is this: people are going to go see Date Movie, Wedding Crashers, Forty Year Old Virgin and everything else. Some of those are better than others but people are going to go! I can either ignore that those movies are there or I can seek God in everything, regardless of how dimly He may be shining there.
There are things that you won't find endorsed by me, but this site and my blog are not about endorsements: they are about recognizing the love of God when it's seen, and sharing that with others.
I'm glad that you have convictions and thankful you're listening when you hear God speak to you! Keep following His voice and don't settle for anything less.
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