Date Movie (2006)

If you go to see Date Movie, a boisterous goof on romantic comedies done in the low-down conceptual style of ZAZ and, by now, WB (that would be the Wayans Brothers), it's good to be in a White Castle mood. You have to be hungry for comedy that's salty and loud, that hits your palate with all the delicacy of hot grease. If you're in that mood, a handful of these jokes will likely be just what you crave. Take the moment that Julia Jones (Alyson Hannigan), a lovesick cutie-pie, goes out with Grant Funkyerdoder (Adam Campbell), who's like a cross between Hugh Grant and David Spade, and learns that the two of them adore the same romantic song. Softly, they begin to serenade each other...with 50 Cent's ode to fellatio, ''Candy Shop.'' Later, standing outside Julia's apartment, Grant gives her the full Lloyd Dobler boom-box treatment, only to be pelted by rotten fruit as a neighbor screams, ''It's called an iPod — get one!'' Witty? Hardly. But it might be what you crave.

The filmmakers, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, tweak such obvious targets as reality TV bachelor shows and J. Lo's booty, yet their how-crude-can-you-go hodgepodge of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Bridget Jones's Diary, Meet the Fockers, Hitch, and Sleepless in Seattle is held together by a gambit that's perceptively funny. In Date Movie, the hormones, anxiety, and princess jealousy that fuel the majority of Hollywood love stories are made so excessive that the romance itself is revealed to be...every bit as big a crock as it usually is.

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