Don't You Love References?

Just hours after Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama delivered an exhilarating speech hinting at a better and brighter America on August 28, Disaster Movie hit theaters across the country. The film's release reminds us all that while we can hope for change, there are actually people willing to pay to see money for utter garbage. And those same people will be voting in November.

Date Movie. Epic Movie. Meet the Spartans. All written by the lame-brain “creative” team of Aaron Setzer and Jason Friedberg, a pair who have carved a niche for themselves in apparently idea-starved Hollywood by churning out feature-length streams of references. Not satire. References.

Say what you will about Family Guy, but at least Seth MacFarlane and his writers (manatees?) tend to know the difference between straight-up referencing something and satirizing it. Judging by the trailer and television previews for Disaster Movie (creative title, right?), the working script probably looked something like this.

“Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Hannah Montana, Paris Hilton, Indiana Jones, Sex and the City, Batman, Amy Winehouse, Juno, Amy Winehouse again, roll credits.”

Keep in mind that nothing listed above has anything to do with actual disaster movies. Early in their career, Setzer and Friedberg actually attempted to effectively spoof a genre in co-writing 2000’s Scary Movie, but it seems like these douchebags peaked creatively eight years ago. I don’t know what’s worse: the fact that these guys get to keep making movies, or that someone out there is genuinely interested in blowing ten bucks on lost time, lost dignity and lost brain cells. But, if you’re the target audience of these movies, it’s likely that none of those things matter all that much to you in the first place.

America, if you see Disaster Movie this weekend, you’re part of the problem.