What's your opinion on parody films.

[Blue Chipper]

Parody films, or "spoof" films, are a sub-genre of comedy, and they primarily focus on mocking popular culture and other movies, while the story takes a backseat. There's been many parody films, with some flopping and some flourishing; Disaster Movie was truly a disaster while Shaun of the Dead was great.

It's a genre, or sub-genre, that doesn't get a lot of discussion. So, I'd like to see what everyone thinks of it.

What's your favorite spoof film? Least favorite? Is it a refreshing genre, or simply a crude, horrid one? Personally, I think they can be good fun (if used correctly). I've enjoyed most parody films I've seen, although the technical aspects of them were pretty awful.

Regardless, all in all, I like the genre, and most of its contributions.

The Scary Movie franchise is my personal favorite. The first one, especially. It had me rolling, although a lot of the jokes were very very cheesy and immature. The acting was also pretty bad. Still, like I said, I do enjoy this genre.

So, what do you think of parody films?

 

[Rhonda Rousey's Sports Bra]

From one BC to another, I don't really have a horrible opinion on them. Sure the quality of the movies are usually the funniest part, but they can usually get a few cheap laughs out of me, which is what they're supposed to do. The original Scary Movie is my favorite because it actually had a good villian and got more than just a few laughs out of me. Shaun of the Dead was another good one since it didn't look like it was made by a couple college kids. Some of the later versions of these spoofs just haven't been good at all, a reason, not the only reason but a reason why they haven't been as good is the movies that they make fun of. Scary Movie was great because it had a great villian to go off of and they pretty much stuck to it.

 

[Megatron]

For the most part, they suck major dick. Epic Movie and Date Movie were types of parodies and they were beyond terrible. Yeah, they were trying to poke fun at some of the more famous movies, but there's a key word in there - try. Those movies are just completely horrible and unfunny, and there's not many parody films that I could sit through b/c of the fact that most of them just aren't funny.

Scary Movies 1/2/3, though, did it best. They actually did give me a good laugh. 2 was probably my favorite, though. Not only did they parody the movies well, but they kinda kept within the little story they had and had some good jokes.

But, for the most part, these types of movies blow. Hard.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

The first Scary Movie and Not Another Teen Movie were really the only funny ones IMO. After that they just got really stupid. After those they started just churning them out one after the other and they just got worse and worse. After renting Date Movie I vowed I wouldn't waste my time on any of them again unless it actually looked decent and not another thrown together terrible movie.

 

[Furyof5]

For the most part, they suck major dick. Epic Movie and Date Movie were types of parodies and they were beyond terrible. Yeah, they were trying to poke fun at some of the more famous movies, but there's a key word in there - try. Those movies are just completely horrible and unfunny, and there's not many parody films that I could sit through b/c of the fact that most of them just aren't funny.

Scary Movies 1/2/3, though, did it best. They actually did give me a good laugh. 2 was probably my favorite, though. Not only did they parody the movies well, but they kinda kept within the little story they had and had some good jokes.

But, for the most part, these types of movies blow. Hard.

Totally agree with Papa Grande here. The majority are total shit. The Scary Movie films were excellent though and captured the spirit of the spoof films expertly. I would add 4 to this as well but 3 was certainly better, Leslie Nielson is great in everything.

 

[Kenny Powers]

Parody films are a parody of themselves. I enjoyed movies like Airplane and The Naked Gun series. Scary movie 1 and 2 weren't that bad either. I'll even give credit to Not a Another Teen Movie. It is mostly full of sex and toilet humor, but at least it has something to laugh about.

Other parody movies have been terrible though. The movies that are made to mimic other bad movies are worse then the movies that are making fun of. The epic movie, superhero movie, date movie, disaster movie, and Vampires suck are just a few examples of bad parody movies that will air anything for a cheap laugh.

Do the filmmakers of those movies think that lame jokes about Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez, and the Twilight movies will be funny now or even 10 years from now? A Monty Python film or movies like Airplane or The Naked Gun are funny not matter what decade it is. The people that created those movies weren't thinking about lame cheap jokes about cheap celebrities that are only popular for that time of year.

Good parody films are few and far between. I haven't seen a good parody film in years. The way things are going know, I don't think we will see any good parody movies for a while.

 

[Attitude]

I enjoy parody movies. Well Overall I enjoy them. There are those I don't enjoy such as Epic Movie or Date Movie. The Scary Movies definately have been the best and raise the bar for all the parodies that come out today. I enjoyed all 4 Scary Movies.

I also enjoyed Meet the Spartens. It wasn't on the level of the Scary Movies though. But overall it was pretty funny IMO. Superhero Movie has possibly been the best parody film outside of the Scary Movie films. Vampires Suck is the newest one out and so far I heard it was great.

The reason I personally like parody films is that they show how lame movies are and how lame they can be.

 

[Davi323]

Parody films made by the Zucker brothers? Generally pretty good. Parodies made by anyone else? Generally suck more than a 20 dollar ****e. Once upon a time, filmmakers actually put time and thought into a parody, now its just a contest to bash as many pop culture figures as you can in an hour and a half. No thought put into it at all. I think the last truly funny parody movie was the original Hot Shots. They have been progressively getting dumber each year.

My favorite though? That's easy. Top Secret, by the Zucker brothers, and Val Kilmer's very first role. Airplane is probably the most quotable parody movie of all time, but Top Secret just amuses me.

 

[Daniel]

It really depends on what you call a parody. Shaun of The Dead doesn't really strike me as a parody film, but I guess it could be seen as one. It is a fantastic film on it's own merit due to Edgar Wright's direction, and the writing and general artistic integrity of Pegg and Wright. Same with it's sequel, Hot Fuzz, it could be seen as a parody of the cop-film genre. Austin Powers was pretty decent but I haven't seen it for years.

As for any other parody films I have seen, they have been unfunny, lowest-common-denominator films. I've seen Epic Movie and one of the Scary Movie films and was really unimpressed. Particularly with Epic Movie, a film so bad I wanted to punch myself in the face and spit on my television.

I think straight-up parody films like the ones made by Friedberg & Seltzer show a remarkable lack of original creativity (not to mention humour) as they pick up already created characters from other films.

 

[Hazardous]

The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It.

No I'm kidding, actually did laugh a couple times at that movie, but Scary Movie 3 is my favorite. That's when they started branching off into non-horror movie spoofs (8 Mile) but it still worked well, and played into the story.

 

[Deexter Jorgan]

My opinion of parody movies are two-fold.

When the genre started there where sublte neuances that made the genre, if you look at the roots of the genre in films such as Abbot and Costello and the carry on franchise they made the genre into something special, they kept to a subtle plot and maintained the parody wihtout copying the plot of the actual movie(s) they where parodying.

Now look into the 00's when we saw the genre make a resurgence into the mianstream.

You have the Scary Movie franchise which helped elevate the genre into new heights, the only issue that it had was that it kept to the same plot of movies such as scream, the whole plot line mocked the entire movie which in itself was a parody of the horror genre.

I actually loved the Scary Movie franchise but have started to hate the slew of movies that are coming out following the same concept, movies such as Epic Movie, Love Movie etc, these movies are baseless, they basically have no idea what they are apart from the fact that they are copying an entire film plot, it literally annoys the hell out of me to the extent that i have stopped watching this type of parody as a whole.

don't get me wrong, films such as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Austin Powers are all apart of this genre and are the reason that i didn't turn off in the 00's but nowdays, it seems like all we get are full movie parodies that have no point or real plot.

 

[Davi323]

I don't think Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz or Austin Powers count as parody movies, at least not in the Epic/Date/Superhero Movie kind of way. In the case of Shaun of the Dead, that plays to me as more of a genuine comedic homage to zombie movies, lovingly done by Simon Pegg, not a parody meant to poke fun of it. Hot Fuzz seems kind of the same, although I think I would call it a comedy with cops as the main characters. It didn't really strike me as a parody movie when I saw it.

Austin Powers is like Shaun of the dead...a comedic tribute to the genre, as opposed to mocking it. Mike Myers didn't make them to disrespect spy movies, they were made because he wanted to play a spy, but since he is Mike Myers, he had to do it his way.

All three of these movies were made without any disrespect intended...the ridiculous parody movies coming out now are all about ripping celebs, and are just mean spirited in general. They are only concerned with tearing down...a good parody movie can lampoon the source while still showing it respect. The Robot Chicken and Family Guy Star Wars episodes come to mind. Yes, they have fun with the Star Wars culture, but it is obvious that both Seth McFarlane and Seth Green LOVE Star Wars. And that is why they are so damn funny. Its good natured.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I tend to despise most parody films, and that's mainly because most of them suck. I chuckled at Scary Movie 1 & 2, but I thought the other films were complete and total garbage. I also thought Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, Date Movie, Meet The Spartans, and Superhero movie were are steaming plies of shit. And I don't understand why so many people like Shaun Of The Dead. I didn't find it to be funny at all.

You can only make fun of the same thing so many times. The media, comedians, and late night talk shows tear apart many celebrities on a very consistent basis. The jokes in these films aren't usually funny, and the acting is usually terrible. Take Disaster Movie for example. When Kim Kardashian is one of your leading actresses, then that can't be looked at as a good sign. These films are always corny as corny can be. The majority of them aren't funny. They're just bad films. But hey, these parody films have become a perfect way for Carmen Electra to get a paycheck and stay relevant.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

And I don't understand why so many people like Shaun Of The Dead. I didn't find it to be funny at all.

Yeah I've never understood it either. It was advertised as a comedy, but they really didn't even try to be funny. They actually tried to be serious and it came off awkward and not good at all. Maybe it's just their style of humor. But because of that movie I never even bothered with Hot Fuzz or any other, if any, movies they did.

I forgot to mention the older parody films in my first post, ie Airplane, Naked Guns. The things that made these movies better than the ones nowadays is they weren't based off of specific movies so much. Yeah, they were making fun of movies, but had their own general storylines and they were their own movies. Scary Movie was directly based off of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Not Another Teen Movie used a slew of old and newer teen dramas, that's why it was funny IMO because it mixed so much in there. But sequels and general copies that followed used one or two movies, and usually bad movies at that. How they made enough money to keep churning them out is beyond me.