The best way -- the last way -- to get any fun out of that exhausted "movie genre spoof" is to count the number of films the latest "Scary Movie"/"Epic Movie" sends up. Then count the laughs. If the latter outnumbers the former, you're golden.
No such luck with "Meet the Spartans," a k a "Epic Movie 2." These cut-and-paste comedies are so worn out that they long ago ran out of genre movies to goof on and now have devolved to simple pop-culture riffs in the "Mad TV" sketch-comedy vein. Some "Mad TV" cast members show up to do their celeb impersonations here.
There are still more movies referenced than laugh-out-loud moments in this latest, a homophobic "300" parody.
A C-list cast including Carmen Electra, Kevin Sorbo, Diedrich Bader and "that fat guy from 'Borat'" don Greek wear, "banana hammocks" and fake six-packs and flop around in front of blue-screen effects -- to little effect.
It's as played as a Britney Spears head-shaving gag, as dated as a Paris Hilton sex tape. The humor is aimed low, with the future King Leonidas (Sean Maguire) battling a trash-talking penguin to prove his manhood (birdy bowel movements), then meeting his future queen, who burbles, "Sign my rack! They're real!" (Carmen Electra, of course).
The Persians aren't impressed by these sophomoric mincing Spartans prancing hither and yon like Monty Pythons in search of fresh coconuts. "Backstage at an Elton John concert," one cracks.
So Leonidas tosses them down the "pit of death," and we're off.
This Fox production takes more shots at Fox TV's "American Idol" than it does at "300," even as we follow 13-not-300 Spartans to the "Hot Gates," where they fend off the advances of Xerxes (Ken Davitian from "Borat"). Jokes about Lindsay Lohan in rehab, Brangelina's yen for Third World babies, starlets who wear no underwear and product plugs for Coke, YouTube and Dentyne Ice fill out the 70 or so minutes allocated for boring us.
