My Big Fat Independent Movie

I don't expect movies like this to be good, but I don't expect them to be this bad. This was awful. It was an extremely disjointed, low budget spoof of independent films, including Pulp Fiction, Amelie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Memento and many more. Where I enjoyed all of those films, I hated this with a passion. It was painfully unfunny and not one of the stupid jokes made me laugh. It had a cast of some semi-known celebrities including Jason Mewes from the View Askew films doing the voice of an answering machine, and Clint Howard (from practically everything) as the mechanic. I found all of the movies this parodied funnier than this.

My rating: 0/****. 98 mins. Rated R

No. Just no. If you're thinking about being in the same city as this movie, no. Don't do it. My friend held the remote hostage and forced me to watch it. I will never get that time back. I wish I could get struck in the back of the head and forget that it was ever created. Oh yeah, it's that bad. To explain it's horrible quality further, the movie just makes retarded allusions to other horrible movies. I felt like eating my own heart to end it quicker. The only slightly redeeming quality is that the black protagonist's hair made me chuckle. It's kind of like a sponge wrapped around his head. Or even better, it's like a quarter of an afro. But that's all. I only wish that the 10 scale could be a 1,000,000,000,000 scale so I could give it a lower rating.

Though it puts me in the minority to say so, the successful independent films of the past dozen years have been pretty awful. For every great picture like Clerks, there's a vast number of unwatchable ones like The Good Girl, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Memento, Waking Life, and The Blair Witch Project. The talent behind My Big Fat Independent Movie realizes that just because a movie is independent and successful, it doesn't that the flick is any good. Taking a cue from the relatively recent hit parodies such as the Scary Movie franchise and Not Another Teen Movie, screenwriters Chris Gore (editor of Film Threat) and Adam Schwartz along with director Philip Zlotorynski have crafted an enjoyable, well cast, and occasionally hilarious spoof of most of (if not all) the indies of the 1990s and 2000s so far. Some of the best material comes from the Pulp Fiction and Reservior Dogs jabs, but where 'Independent Movie' really hits gold with its low brow, bluer than blue humor. It's very easy to make a jokes about excrement and sex. It takes certain skill to make the joke actually funny without seeming unnecessary. Finally, a comedy that knows exactly how to use its raunchiness correctly. None of that American Pie "let's throw it in there to meet a running time" found here. However, like with most spoofs, 'Independent Movie' runs pretty thin by the hour mark. Once the final act begins, the laughs become almost nonexistent. For that, I can only recommend the R-rated version as a rental. The unrated version may be slightly better. 6/10

The problem with this movie is that it's parodying something that really can't be parodied or doesn't want to be parodied. To parody indie movies means that there's a style to an indie movie that every indie movie has. But that's not the case which is why this movie loses a lot of the humor that comes from a great comedy like Airplane. A disaster movie, a superhero movie or a similar genre has a structure that's similar across all movies of its genre. But an indie movie doesn't have a similar structure. A early Weinstein period piece is very different from a Tarantino flick which is very different from a mumblecore movie. To say that all Sundance movies are alike means that there's a formula for Sundance movies that you just have to follow and you can get into Sundance. Perhaps that is what the screenwriter is trying to say. There may be some truth to that but he hasn't found the right vehicle to satirize that.

This was one of the absolute worst films I have ever seen. Every single "joke" had no substance. The film makers expected that pointing out what characterizes Indy films would be funny enough to not have to actually write a movie. The jokes weren't jokes, but explanations of plot techniques used in the films it satirized. On top of that, a good amount of what it made fun of for being "unoriginal" were unique elements giving the films the "Indy" feel. Films like Pulp Fiction, Amelie, and Reservoir Dogs are films whose worst offenses are starting cliché's, not supporting them. I will say that i laughed at seeing Pauly Shore. But a cameo shouldn't be the highlight of any movie, comedy or not. I can't urge you enough not to see this film. Granted, parodies are hard to make work. But this was so bad it was embarrassing. Movies like this shouldn't be paid attention.