DATE MOVIE
Year: 2006
USA & UK: Twentieth Century Fox
Cast: Alyson Hannigan, Adam Campbell, Jennifer Coolidge, Tony Cox, Lil Jon, Carmen Electra, Sophie Monk, Marie Matiko, Judah Friedlander, Josh Meyers, Fred Willard, Eddie Griffin, Meera Simhan, Mauricio Sanchez, Beverly Polcyn, Valery Ortiz, Charles Dell, Dana Seltzer, Tom Lenk, Scott Bridges, Tom Fitzpatrick, Susse Budde, Nadia Dina Ariqat, Nick Steele, Edward Moss, Jasen Salvatore, Diane Klimaszewski, Elaine Klimaszewski, Michael Brooks, Worthie Meacham, Nancy Anderson, Allison Kyler, Anthony Natale, Andrea Ferrell, Chris Harrison, Nina Avetisova, Brittany Buckner, Michell Misty Lang, Connor Lewis, Joni Avery, Mark Chadwick, Jeff Danoff
Director: Aaron Seltzer
Country: USA
USA & UK: 83 mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for continuous crude and sexual humor, including language
UK Certificate: 12A contains moderate sex references, language and gross humour
USA Release Date: 17 February 2006
UK Release Date: 24 February 2006
UK Distributor
Synopsis
The twisted minds of two of the six writers of SCARY MOVIE - Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg - skewer the romantic comedy genre in DATE MOVIE, a film for people who love date movies and people who hate them. Seltzer and Friedberg tell the story of hopeless romantic Julia Jones, who has finally met the man of her dreams, the very British Grant Funkyerdoder. But before they can have their BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, they'll have to MEET THE PARENTS; hook-up with THE WEDDING PLANNER, and contend with Grant's friend Andy - a spectacularly beautiful woman who wants to put an end to her BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING.
For years, there have been comedies that poked fun at sports films, spy flicks and scary movies. But where, wondered Friedberg and Seltzer, was the romance? The duo sold their first "spoof" screenplay, SPY HARD, just out of college, and a few years later they contributed to the screenplay for the box-office smash SCARY MOVIE. Now, they've set their sights on the romantic comedy genre.
Their central character is Julia Jones. The moniker is a play on the names of superstar Julia Roberts and fictional character Bridget Jones, and it represents a blend of actor and character that audiences love to watch fall in love. Julia is the heart of DATE MOVIE.
The filmmakers were determined to weave their myriad gags into a believable story. The box-office smash MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING provided significant fodder for spoofing. In the 2002 film, Nia Vardalos' traditional Greek parents insist that she marry a Greek. Similarly, DATE MOVIE's Julia Jones' family provides major obstacles to her finding "Mr. Right." Julia's parents insist that she marry someone within their culture - no easy task because the Jones family takes multi-culturalism to a new level: Julia's father is African-American, her mother is Indian, and her sister is Japanese. It's impossible for Julia to please them all.
While Julia's father wants her to marry his hand picked suitor, she holds on to the ideal of true love. She finds it with Grant Funkyerdoder, whom the filmmakers named in honor of real-life actor Hugh Grant and fictional MEET THE FOCKERS / MEET THE PARENTS protagonist Greg Focker. The filmmakers also drew from MEET THE FOCKERS by introducing the very British Grant Funkyerdoder's American parents, Bernie and Roz - a riff on the characters played by Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand in MEET THE FOCKERS.
Before Julia finds true love with Grant, she consults a date doctor, Hitch, a nod to the 2005 comedy hit HITCH starring Will Smith. Hitch in turn hooks her up with a makeover that melds the popular reality shows PIMP MY RIDE and EXTREME MAKEOVER. Here the writers take the standard homely-girl-becomes-attractive plot point and turn it inside-out. Julia is not someone who needs only to pluck her eyebrows, or lose the hooker get-up to become the swan she really is. At 300 pounds, Julia needs a little bit more than that - and she gets it.