Meet the Spartans (2008)

"The best thing in "Meet the Spartans" is the swift kick in the bombast it delivers to the oh-no-not-us homoeroticism of "300."  Mark Feeney, Boston Globe
"A bizarre, leering orgy of celebrity crotches, lowbrow horny gay buffoons in leather, moronic gladiator mayhem...  Prairie Miller, Long Island Press

Editor's Note Writers/producers/directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (DATE MOVIE, EPIC MOVIE) use the film 300 as the basis for their latest spoof. Born to be the perfect Spartan, Leonidas (Sean Magiure) faces numerous trials en route to becoming a man, including a face-off with the penguin from HAPPY FEET. Once he has proven himself, Leonidas not only becomes king, but also marries superhot (and slightly slutty) Margot (Carmen Electra). When Leonidas learns that Persia's King Xerxes (Ken Davitian, BORAT) plans to make Sparta his own, he has his captain (Kevin Sorbo, HERCULES) recruit Sparta's finest and prepare them for battle against invading Persian forces. Unfortunately, that amounts to only 13 half-naked men with painted-on abs who literally prance to their destination. To make matters worse, Spartan councilman Traitoro (Diedrich Bader) is, well, a traitor. Still, Leonidas and his men face their enemy in battle, riffing on STOMP THE YARD, GHOST RIDER, TRANSFORMERS, and numerous other films along the way, as well as the video game GRAND THEFT AUTO. Freidberg and Seltzer poke fun at virtually every recent cultural phenomenon and pop culture personality, including Britney Spears, Kevin Federline, Paris Hilton, DANCING WITH THE STARS, AMERICAN IDOL, and DEAL OR NO DEAL. Even UGLY BETTY makes an appearance. Be prepared for an abundance of gross-out humor, spurts of bodily fluids, some sexual innuendo, and multiple jokes about homosexuality. Stick around after the musical finale as the credits start to roll: the deleted scenes prove to be some of the most amusing in the film.

	Carmen Electra
	Diedrich Bader
	Ike Barinholtz
	Ken Davitian
	Kevin Sorbo
	Method Man
	Nicole Parker
	Sean Maguire
	Aaron Seltzer - Director
	Aaron Seltzer - Writer
	Arnon Milchan - Executive Producer
	Christopher Lennertz - Original Music By
	Jason Friedberg - Director
	Jason Friedberg - Producer
	Jason Friedberg - Writer
	Peck Prior - Editor
	Shawn Maurer - Cinematographer
	William A. Elliott - Production Designer
	William Ladd Skinner - Art Director

The Village Voice 5 of 10
Mike Judge predicted this bulls*** would happen in his dystopian satire Idiocracy, in which Americans had become so dumb that the multiplex headliner was something called Ass: just two hours of a naked, farting rump. Depressingly, he was off by about 500 years. Here and now, the writing-directing team of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (see also: Date Movie, Epic Movie) water down their own blend of pop-comic diarrhea in this witless, tasteless, formless spoof of 300's homoerotic box-office warriors. So infuriatingly lazy that its leads don't even earn Mad Magazine-clever nicknames, the movie pits King Leonidas (Sean Maguire) and his chest-waxed army of 13 against pierced Persian Xerxes (Ken Davitian), stopping every 30 seconds to make random media references from 2006 through summer 2007: Heroes, Britney's vagina, Ugly Betty, Paris's vagina, Spider-Man 3, Lindsay's vagina, repeat ad nauseam. Carmen Electra proves herself a national treasure as our highest-priced whore, Kevin Sorbo makes a Herculean fool of himself, testicles are bitten, penguins defecate, the countless man-on-man gags land every time with a "gay is gross" eww response, at least six corporate products are placed--and, at its most offensive, a death cry of "Say hello to Anna Nicole." I'm moving to Europe. - Aaron Hillis