You’ll have to follow my chain-of-thought to see why I picked Ares as the fractal for today’s post. (As chains go, this one is fairly simple.) “Ares” (the God of War and most favored of the Spartans. I will be reviewing Meet the Spartans so I chose Ares. (It’s not like I had a lot of other choices but still…)-
As long as there has been Drama there has been parody. When movies were invented it was inevitable that parody would make its way to the screen. And if ever there was a movie ripe for parody it was 300, Therefor it was pretty much inevitable that Meet the Spartans would come to theaters.
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Meet the Spartans follows the basic plot of 300--it is a parody after all. The movie aims low, going for the obvious jokes. It gleefully and frequently skewers the blatantly homoerotic elements from the other movie (of which there are many.) It also throws in references to many other popular movies, televisions and pop culture. (There is almost as many punches at American Idol as there are at 300.) There are quite a few laughs but many of the jokes made me cringe (and I wasn’t the only on cringing in the crowded theater where I saw the film) but that is only to be expected in a movie like this. A few sequences went on too long but most scenes passed quickly enough so the viewer doesn’t have a chance to get bored.
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British Actor Sean Maguire looks pretty and seems to have fun in his role as King Leonides. Carmen Electra as Queen Margo isn’t called on to stretch her talent (or much more than look hot) but she does a fine job. Former Hercules hunk Kevin Sorbo looks vaguely uncomfortable as Captain (yes, that’s the title of his role) through the whole movie. I loved watching him his French kiss and his comment of “man boobs” was one a real highlight for me. Ken Davitian (the fat guy from Borat) as Xerxes gets the single best joke in the movie (which I won’t repeat here.) The rest of the cast seems to have fun with their parts and totally gets in to the movie: none of them will win Oscars for their work but they do well for what they are asked.
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Is Meet the Spartans a movie for the ages? Not hardly. Is it a fun, mindless movie for a rainy afternoon or dull Saturday night? Absolutely! Should you make a special trip to “Blockbuster” to rent it when it comes out on DVD? (sarcasm on) No--but if you happen to pick it up it’s a nice-enough diversion for fans of low comedy.
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FINAL GRADE: C
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