Remember how, when I wrote about The Haunting of Winchester House, how GREAT I thought it was that The Asylum was finally getting out of the mockbuster trend and no longer Asylumizing movies?

Sadly, that’s all gone as The Asylum releases 2012 Supernova, which is pretty much taking on 2012.  The only problem is that, of course, The Asylum doesn’t have anywhere NEAR the cash required to make those kind of special effects.

The plot, though, is actually pretty interesting–two hundred years ago, a star exploded and launched an enormous wave of radiation.  Sadly, two hundred years ago was apparently during the War of 1812, because it’s about to hit in much-popularized 2012.  So now a group of scientists is out to launch a whole load of nukes into the upper atmosphere so they can augment the Earth’s natural anti-radiation shielding.

I’ll admit, though, that The Asylum clearly does the best it can with what it has to work with.  What baffles me, though, is that they try to take on this monster projects with the most minimalist budgets you can imagine.  It’s like trying to eat a Ho-Ho the size of a Buick, and doing it with a knife and fork.

The result, however, of trying to load a bunch of AA batteries in a space designed for a Diehard is that the whole thing has this vaguely repetitive feel in which a simulated disaster happens, then we react to that disaster, then another one happens, and so on and so forth without much in the way of an overarching plotline to hold it all together.

There will be plenty of thrills here–watching people try to escape from things blowing up and whatnot–but are these thrills going to be enough to hold the overall picture together?  Well, that’s your call, in the end.

The Screenhead Ten Scale, meanwhile,  isn’t so impressed and thus hands the newest Asylum knockoff a fair enough five out of ten.  it clearly tried, but it just couldn’t tackle what it set out to try.

I confess, I knew when I grabbed a copy of Disaster Movie off the shelf at the local video store (yes, I still use the local video store from time to time) that I was probably in for a truly stupid ride.  After all, I’d seen Date Movie.  I’d seen Epic Movie.  I knew what I was in for.

What I thought I was in for was a cheesy plot that made little sense with a quantity of movie parodies thrown in throughout.  I got the cheesy plot in spades–a group of attractive twentysomethings are having a party when they’re besieged by a series of natural disasters.  What will follow is a series of half-baked movie parodies until they can figure out the cause of the natural disasters and fix it.

And yet, I really didn’t.  I really had no idea what I was in for.  For example, I had no idea I was in for quite this quantity of Mad TV alumns.

Like Ike Barinholtz.  Mad TV fans–all eight of us–might well remember the comedian from his various roles on that show.  And he’s all over Disaster Movie.  He’s got like seven, eight parts that I can remember off the top of my head.  Nicole Parker’s also in on this with three roles.  Same with Crista Flanagan at two roles.  I’m amazed they didn’t trot Michael McDonald out in the Speedo for a round of “Look what I can do!”

I also had no idea that they could fit quite so many movie parodies into one movie.  Disaster Movie really isn’t so much a movie as it is a kind of experiment to see just how many movies can be parodied in a single movie without the audience getting up and walking out.  I think the count is somewhere around fifteen or so.  When a movie can allocate five whole percent of the first ten minutes of a movie to an Amy Winehouse look-a-like (Nicole Parker in her first of three roles) belching and generating wind strong enough to rattle a caveman’s dreadlocks, you know they’re not concerned about things like “character development” or “a strong, coherent plotline”.

This isn’t to say that there isn’t some fun to be had in Disaster Movie.  It’s not so much funny as it is patently ludicrous.  A twenty five year old man having a super duper sweet sixteen party because he never had one?  Ludicrous!  His girlfriend cheating on him with Flava Flav, a midget named Jojo and a Calvin Klein model in the space of ten minutes?  Ludicrous!  Kim Kardashian actually having a speaking role in a movie?  Ludicrous!  Okay, maybe that last one’s not quite so ludicrous.  She actually got top billing on the video box, and that should’ve been the clearest sign something was gravely wrong here.

But you’ve got to hand it to these guys–they tried.  Man, did they try.  They probably tried TOO hard, in fact.  You’ve got Alvin and the Chipmunks recast as some kind of rabid psychopaths, and the last five minutes are devoted to a musical number that’s just…well…ludicrous.

Actually, that’s probably the best way to describe the whole movie.  Ludicrous.  Laughably unrealistic, for those who don’t want to go digging out the dictionary. It’s so wildly over the top that the top can no longer see it with the naked eye.  This may not make for a classic comedy romp, but it will make for a few cheap laughs.  And at the end of the day, is that really so bad?

Check out this interesting new clip from Disaster Movie, the latest genre spoof from filmmakers Jason Friedbeg and Aaron Seltzer, the team that parodied the teen-horror genre in Scary Movie, cliche romantic comedies in Date Movie, overblown blockbusters in Epic Movie, and the ultra-macho 300 in Meet The Spartans. Disaster Movie stars Matt Lanter, Vanessa Minnillo, Carmen Electra, Kim Kardashian, G-Thang, Nicole Parker, Crista Flanagan and Ike Barinholtz.

Ebay is having a huge auction of movie posters that are signed by stars of the movies.  The movies include The Spirit, Disaster Movie, Saw V and Punisher: War Zone. 

Simply go to the official auction web site and bid on your favorite poster and signature.

Here is a signed poster from Gabriel Macht. 

Okay, I have posted several Disaster Movie posters at this site. Now, here is the official poster for Disaster Movie, the latest genre spoof from filmmakers Jason Friedbeg and Aaron Seltzer. Disaster Movie follows the comic misadventures of a group of ridiculously attractive twenty-somethings during one fateful night while every known natural disaster and catastrophic event – asteroids, twisters, earthquakes, you name it “the works” – hits the city and their path.

The movie opens August 29^th.
 

This is the final teaser poster for Disaster Movie — this is by far my favorite!

I have no an idea of how movie folks react to teaser posters to promote movies. Does it encourage people to talk or blog about the film? Obviously, I am blogging about the movie. What do you think? With a film like “Disaster Movie,” teaser posters these comedies depend upon the hype.  This particular poster is a funny take on “Indy.”
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Take a look at the the second teaser poster for DISASTER MOVIE, the latest genre spoof from filmmakers Jason Friedbeg and Aaron Seltzer, the team that parodied the teen-horror genre in Scary Movie, clichéd romantic comedies in Date Movie, overblown blockbusters in Epic Movie, and the ultra-macho 300 in Meet The Spartans. DISASTER MOVIE stars Matt Lanter, Vanessa Minnillo, Carmen Electra, Kim Kardashian, G-Thang, Nicole Parker, Crista Flanagan and Ike Barinholtz.