Disaster Movie

Disaster Movie is a 2008 American parody film written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer and produced by Peter Safran, Friedberg, and Seltzer. It stars Matt Lanter, Vanessa Minnillo, Gary "G Thang" Johnson, Crista Flanagan, Nicole Parker, Ike Barinholtz, Carmen Electra, Tony Cox, and Kim Kardashian in her feature film debut. It was released on August 29, 2008, by Lionsgate. The film is mainly a parody of the disaster film genre, although it also references many other films, TV shows, people, and pop culture events of the time.

For the genre, see Disaster film.

Disaster Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJason Friedberg
Aaron Seltzer
Written by
  • Jason Friedberg
  • Aaron Seltzer
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyShawn Maurer
Edited byPeck Prior
Music byChristopher Lennertz
Production
companies
Distributed byLionsgate
Release date
  • August 29, 2008 (2008-08-29)
Running time
87 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million[2]
Box office$34.8 million[2]

The film was panned by critics and audiences for its forced adult humor, excessive pop culture references, and poor writing and directing, with many considering it to be the worst movie directed by Seltzer and Friedberg,[3][4] as well as one of the worst films of all time, and it is the lowest rated film on IMDb, with a 1.9/10 rating based on 93,270 votes.[5] The movie received six nominations for the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards. It was a box-office flop, grossing $35 million against a budget of $20 million.[2]

Plot

In the year 10,001 B.C., a caveman runs away from a predator through a plain and immediately gets into a fight with Wolf. After defeating him, the caveman then encounters the predator, a saber-toothed, gasoline-drinking Amy Winehouse, who informs him that the world will end on August 29, 2008, and that their fate lies in a Crystal Skull.

The sequence is then revealed to be a dream of everyman Will in the present day. He then finds out that his girlfriend Amy is having an affair with Flavor Flav, and she breaks up with Will because he is not admitting his true feelings for her.

Later that day, Will has a "Super Duper Sweet Sixteen" party at his house, despite being 25. The guests include Juney, Dr. Phil, Will's best friend Calvin, and Anton Chigurh, among others. During the party, Amy arrives with her new boyfriend, a Calvin Klein underwear model. The party then comes to a halt when the room shakes and the lights go out. A bulletin on the radio claims there is a meteor shower and it is the end of the world. Soon after, the city starts to freeze over, and Will, Juney, Calvin, and Calvin's girlfriend Lisa retreat to a garage for shelter. When Juney mentions that the calamities are caused by global warming, Will realizes his dream as a caveman could be related. Later, Will is chided by the others for not committing himself to his relationship with Amy.

The gang leaves the garage and Will gets a call from Amy, where he admits his feelings for her before the call is dropped. He decides to go to rescue Amy. Lisa is later killed by a meteor. While the others comfort a distraught Calvin, Giselle, a prostitute, climbs out of a manhole and gets hit by a taxi. Calvin catches her, and they immediately fall in love with each other. Giselle's pimp, Prince Edwin, challenges Calvin to a dance fight for her love, but a tornado appears and Prince Edwin flees. Iron Man, Hellboy, and the Hulk attempt to fight it, but all are defeated by cows thrown by the tornado. After taking shelter, Will, Juney, Calvin, and Giselle encounter rabid knockoffs of Alvin and the Chipmunks, who attack the gang and kill Juney. The "Chipmunks" then go after Will and Calvin, but they trap them in a trash can, fatally suffocating them as they attempt to escape.

On their way to the museum where Amy is trapped, the group runs into Batman, who informs them that they must go to evacuation buses and that there will be no chance of survival if they go to save Amy. With time against them, Princess Giselle kills Speed Racer, and the group hijacks his Mach Five to drive to the museum. At the museum, they save Amy, who reveals that the Crystal Skull is the only thing that can stop the end of the world. Calvin and the Princess then find that the museum doors are closed and all of the artifacts have come alive, including Po from Kung Fu Panda, who fights Calvin but is defeated. When Calvin makes out with the Princess, Calvin accidentally pulls her wig and discovers that she is actually a transvestite. While this happens, "Po" takes out a katana and simultaneously kills Calvin and the Princess.

Meanwhile, Will and Amy run into a nude Beowulf, who fights with Will. After Amy stabs "Beowulf" in the back, Will and Amy encounter Indiana Jones, who is revealed to be Will's father. "Indy" tries to put the Crystal Skull on the altar, but he flies through a stained glass window in the room. Will does it instead, and he averts further destruction. Will and Amy have a wedding ceremony performed by "The Guru Shitka", which ends with a musical number about all of the characters in the film dating each other (having sex in the unrated version) parodying "I'm Fucking Matt Damon" by Sarah Silverman and the film closes with the "Chipmunks" getting crushed to death by a falling cow before the credits start to roll.

Cast

Parodies

Films and TV shows

Real-life people

Production

On April 2, 2008, less than 3 months after the release of Friedberg and Seltzer's previous spoof film Meet the Spartans, it was announced that the duo were in pre-production on a spoof of Superbad, with the title being Goodie Two Shoes.[23] Unlike the previous Friedberg and Seltzer-directed films, which were financed by Regency Enterprises and distributed by 20th Century Fox, this film was financed by Grosvenor Park and distributed by Lionsgate in the United States.

Writing

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer wrote the film as a parody of Superbad, but similar to the duo's previous films, it parodies some of the big blockbusters and popular celebrities from 2007 and 2008. Since many of the films being spoofed were not released at the time that the script was being written, Friedberg and Seltzer used trailer footage to get the basic idea of the films.

Casting

On April 28, Matt Lanter, Vanessa Minnillo, Gary "G Thang" Johnson and Carmen Electra signed up to be the main cast members.[24]

Filming

Filming took place in the state of Louisiana from April 28 to June 6.[23] Oscar-nominated production designer William Elliott (who has done production design on the duo films since Date Movie), did the production design for the sets.[25] The Chamber of Commerce building in Shreveport was used for filming the natural history museum scenes in the film.[26]

Post-production

After the filming had ended, Friedberg and Seltzer renamed the film Disaster Movie.

Release

On its domestic theatrical debut, Disaster Movie grossed $2,023,130 on its opening day, $5,836,973 over the three-day weekend, and $6,945,535 over the four-day weekend (including Labor Day).[2] It ranked #7 for both the three- and four-day weekends. The film's takings for the weekend fell far short of the $17 million predicted by the Dallas Morning News.[27] The film was not as commercially successful as previous Friedberg/Seltzer releases. On a $20 million budget, it grossed $14,190,901 domestically and $17,492,474 internationally for a worldwide total of $31,683,375,[2] less than half the gross of Meet the Spartans.

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, Disaster Movie has an approval rating of 1% based on 74 reviews with an average rating of 2.20/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Returning to their seemingly bottomless well of flatulence humor, racial stereotypes, and stale pop culture gags, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer have produced what is arguably their worst Movie yet."[28] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 15 out of 100 based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".[29] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "F" on an A+ to F scale.[3]

Jason Solomons of The Guardian wrote that "Nothing can convey the grimness of Disaster Movie, which would be the Worst Movie Ever Made were it actually a movie at all."[6] Adam Tobias of the Watertown Daily Times opined, "I just don't see how anyone could not find Disaster Movie one of the worst films of all time," further adding that the title of the film was appropriate, because the movie is "a disaster."[30] The Times newspaper named the film the worst of 2008.[31]

The only positive review posted on Rotten Tomatoes was by Jim Schembri from the Australian newspaper The Age. Schembri called it "dumb but also undeniably funny in more spots than a right-thinking mature person feels comfortable admitting", the film was given 3½ stars out of five.[32]

The most positive major critic review listed on either Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes was by Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, who gave the film a C+ and remarked: "The movie is merciless sending up Juno's self-satisfied hipster gobbledygook, and it's quite funny to see Hannah Montana still promoting her tie-in products as she lies crushed and dying under a meteor."[33] Gleiberman previously contributed the only positive review listed on either site (out of 17 at Metacritic and 57 at Rotten Tomatoes) of Friedberg and Seltzer's earlier effort Epic Movie.[34][35]

In a 2017 episode of the ABC show Big Fan, Kim Kardashian revealed that she is mortified by her character's death scene in the film and she "can't watch" [it].[36]

Worst lists

It was featured in Empire's 50 Worst Movies Ever poll, in 14th place.[37] In 2012 it was included in Total Film's 66 Worst Movies Ever list.[38] The MRQE's included it on its 50 Worst Movies list, where it has a score of 19, one of the lowest scores on the site.[39] Disaster Movie became the lowest ranked film on IMDb's Bottom 100 list days after its premiere.[40][41]

Accolades

On January 21, 2009, the film received six nominations for the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards.[42] The nominations were for Worst Picture, Worst Supporting Actress (Electra), Worst Supporting Actress (Kardashian), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off, or Sequel. Kardashian acknowledged her nomination on her blog, where she commented, "It's an honor just being nominated!"[43]

Year Association Category Recipient(s) Result
2009 29th Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Picture Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer, and Peter Safran Nominated
Worst Supporting Actress Kim Kardashian Nominated
Carmen Electra Nominated
Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel Nominated
Worst Director Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer Nominated
Worst Screenplay Nominated

Home media

The DVD and Blu-ray were released on January 6, 2009. They both included an Unrated "Cataclysmic" Edition and the theatrical version, both with the same extras. About 410,934 DVD units were sold, bringing in $8,447,690 in revenue as of October 2009.[44]

See also

References
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  2. "Disaster Movie (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 13, 2008.
  3. "CinemaScore". Archived from the original on February 6, 2018. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  4. "Site picks worst movies of the decade". CNN. September 25, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2016.
  5. "IMDb Bottom 100". IMDb.
  6. Solomons, Jason (September 6, 2008). "Disaster Movie". The Guardian. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
  7. Layton, Kieran (September 3, 2008). ""Disaster Movie" is pointless parody". The Pitt News. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  8. Gilchrist, Todd (August 30, 2008). "Disaster Movie Review: A "comedy" so bad it demands creation of a negative-star rating system". IGN. here's a shortlist of some of the stuff that the Friedberg and Seltzer send up
  9. "Film Review: Disaster Movie". BRIANORNDORF.COM. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  10. Weitzman, Elizabeth. "'Disaster Movie' faces moment of spoof". nydailynews.com. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  11. Lee, Nathan (August 29, 2008). "Chipmunks With Rabies? That Is So L L Not Cool J". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  12. Bradshaw, Peter (September 4, 2008). "Film review: Disaster Movie". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  13. Moore, Roger (October 6, 2015). "'Disaster Movie': All you need to know is in the title". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  14. "Disaster Movie". Plugged In. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  15. Humanick, Rob (August 31, 2008). "Review: Disaster Movie". slantmagazine.com.
  16. Disaster Movie: Raunchy wrestling with Carmen Electra, retrieved June 17, 2022
  17. "What the F? Babalugats on DISASTER MOVIE". The-Solute.com. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  18. Disaster Movie Head On Skit, retrieved June 17, 2022
  19. "Disaster Movie (2008)". Moria. July 4, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  20. Disaster Movie (2008) - IMDb, retrieved June 24, 2022
  21. "Movies Spoofed or Referenced in "Disaster Movie" (2008)". List Challenges. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
  22. Disaster Movie (2008) - IMDb, retrieved June 24, 2022
  23. Sciretta, Peter (April 2, 2008). "Spoofing SuperBad?". SlashFilm. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
  24. Parfitt, Orlando (April 28, 2008). "Meet the Spartans Duo at it Again". IGN. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
  25. Patches, Matt (January 31, 2014). "Surely They Can't Be Serious? - The unlikely rise of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, Hollywood's majorly hated, hugely successful kings of the modern-day spoof". Grantland.com. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
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  28. "Disaster Movie (2008)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
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  30. Tobias, Adam (September 5, 2008). "Disaster Movie one of the worst films of all time". Watertown Daily Times. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
  31. "Turkeys! The 100 Worst Movies of 2008". The Times. December 8, 2008. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
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  33. Gleiberman, Owen. "Movie Review". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2008.
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  35. "Epic Movie (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved August 30, 2008.
  36. Beresford, Trilby (January 17, 2017). "Kim Kardashian admitted the thing she's now most embarrassed of, and we actually don't think it's all that bad". Hello Giggles. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
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