My Big Fat Independent Movie

Not a horrible movie, but it definitely has flaws.

The script is too self-referential. I get that this is one way to make fun of movies, but honestly 75% of the films jokes (the ones that worked, anyway) were simply making fun of movie clichés. Taken one at a time these references are done well and "funny" for lack of a better word, but it gets old (and predictable) fast. The acting was also inconsistent. Most of the leads do a great job, actually, but a few weak links really make this feel like an amateurish effort. And as with any parody movie, some of the gags worked, and some didn't. Jokes that are too obvious, out of place, or just not that funny frequently come up.

On the other hand, some of the actors do a great job, most of the gags are based on ideas that are funny (note, based on), they don't try to parody too many movies at once (epic movie, date movie, etc,), and it only dips into true-low brow humor a couple of times. The movie also has a good flow to it. I wasn't laughing much, but the movie went by smoothly without dragging. The energy and cinematography are good, although the sound was inconsistent in the beginning.

Overall, I was surprised by the production value of this movie; they nailed "independant" movie without looking like a "bad" movie. The actors are fine, the plot is adequate, the music is actually great. The humor, unfortunately, is not all it should be. I'd recommend it to fans of pulp fiction and film school students.

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.

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

Movies like this give me hope as an aspiring screenwriter because if crap like this can make it out there, there has to be hope for me. This movie sucked, make that S-U-C-K-E-D, with a capital S! It TRIES to be funny but just redoing scenes from great movies doesn't make it funny. This movie was a waste of my life and waste of my time. If I were part of this film, I would NEVER include this film on my resume. It was disastrous, boring, uninteresting and not the least bit funny. I didn't laugh once, and I laugh very easily as anyone could tell you. It doesn't take much to entertain me, however this film doesn't even come close to being entertaining. DO NOT RENT THIS MOVIE!! You'll be sorely disappointed. 1 star out of 10.

This movie was horrible. Possibly one of the worst that I have ever seen -- and trust me, I've seen countless horrible student films and indies at festivals. I got every one of the jokes. I knew all the references. None of them were funny.

It wasn't even watchable -- I'm one to respect movies that are so bad that they're attention grabbing. I also respect movies that I think were terrible but at least an attempt to do something new. This doesn't fall into any one of those categories. There wasn't one good actor who displayed any sort of charisma in this entire god awful movie. However, to their defense, there was nothing to work with to begin with. The writers thought they were hilarious and witty, but ended up trying to banter movies that they will never be worthy of being associated with in their lifetimes and I find it pathetic that they thought they were. They milked the same jokes -that weren't even funny to begin with- for all their worth (i.e. calling everything cliché, describing every film term that is being used, and complaining about goddamn voice over).

The only reason why the content in any of the movies that were spoofed is a "cliche" is because horrible and painfully unoriginal screen writers & film makers (like the ones responsible for this piece of garbage) relentlessly parody them to no end.

To the people responsible for this: UNDERSTAND THAT YOU'RE NOT FUNNY AND THAT YOU DESERVE TO DRINK A TALL GLASS OF SHAME!