Date Movie

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Date Movie's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Date Movie completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 8 February 2006.

Overall comments and recommendations

Date Movie is a parody of romantic comedies and makeover television shows, and several recent movies and shows in this genre are referenced throughout the film. While the film does have its funny moments some of the humour wears thin by the end of the movie. There are several scenes in this movie that could well offend some sections of the community.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Date Movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• material that could offend
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Julia Jones (Alyson Hannigan), a 300 pound Greek-Jewish-Japanese-Indian-American girl is a hopeless romantic, who has been desperate and dateless for far too long. Frustrated with her self image, Julia enlists the assistance of Hitch the date doctor (Tony Cox), and after an Extreme Makeover is transformed into a true beauty. Julia appears on a TV dating game (Extreme Bachelor: Desperate Edition) and wins a date with Grant Funkyerdoder (Adam Campbell).

After a whirlwind romance the smitten couple become engaged, and while Julia is welcomed into the family by Grant’s parents, the liberal minded Bernie and Roz Funkyerdoder (Fred Willard & Jennifer Coolidge), Grant is shunned by Julia’s father Frank Jones (Eddie Griffin), who believes Julia should marry a Greek-Jewish-Indian-American boy. The relationship between Julia and Grant is further strained with the arrival of Grant’s ex-girlfriend Andy (Sophie Monk), who has every intention of stopping the wedding and winning back Grant for herself. Unfortunately for Andy, all of her plots to discredit Julia fail and the day of the wedding finally arrives with Julia and Grant still firmly committed to each other. However, when Julia arrives late for her own wedding she finds Andy passionately kissing Grant in front of the church, and thinking the worst, storms off determined never to see Grant again.

The passing of several months sees Julia again at the altar, prepared to marry the good Greek-Jewish-Japanese-American boy picked out by her father. Before the marriage ceremony is over, however, events take an unexpected turn.

Material that could offend

While aimed at being comical, Date Movie contains material that some viewers could find offensive, including:

• a sign advertising a Greek restaurant is illustrated with two men tongue-kissing a goat
  
• when the date doctor Hitch is interviewing Julia he finds her breath to be rather bad and decides to floss her teeth. While flossing, he pulls on a tiny piece of meat between her teeth, and ends up pulling a large fried chicken wing from her mouth.
  
• Hitch takes Julia to a garage/workshop for an Extreme Pimping, a cross between Extreme Makeover and Pimp My Ride. Julia’s cave-troll like toenails are trimmed with an angle grinder, excess cellulose is sucked from her body, while a PlayStation machine is nailed to her stomach
  
• a cat with human like qualities sits on a toilet while enduring severe diarrhoea. The scene includes over the top sound effects that go on and on. At the end of the episode, the cat lights a match to burn off excess fumes
  
• Grant is having dinner at Julia’s parents’ house and accidentally knocks an urn, containing the mummified remains of Julia’s grandmother, off of a mantelpiece, breaking it and spilling the remains on the floor. The family cat, the same one from the toilet scene, jumps on the dead body licking the mummified body’s grotesque tongue. The cat then simulates having sex with the dead body, and holds up a wallet from which spills numerous condoms.
  
• Grant’s mother asks Juliet’s mother “when was the last time you and Frank were intimate?” Julia’s mother replies “It’s been a while”. The film then shows an image of her upper thighs, which are completely matted and covered over with spider webs
  
• during the meeting of the parents, both fathers became engaged in a game of one on one basketball. Part way through the game, Frank Jones’s face rubs up against Bernie Funkyerdoder naked, very hairy and very sweaty chest. Frank gags on great mouthfuls of Bernie’s sweat, convulsively chokes and coughs up a fist-sized hairball.
  
• on her wedding day Julia discovers a giant grotesque pimple on her chin, which she ends up squeezing with a pair of pliers. When the pimple finally explodes, it does so with enough force to propel Julia across the room and through the wall while completely covering the wall mirror with pus.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

Date Movie contains occasional acts of violence, generally set in a comic context, but often quite brutal, including:

• in the television dating game Extreme Bachelor Grant must eliminate contestants by shooting them in the chest with a shotgun
  
• Julia and Grant play a game called ‘Bum Fight’, kicking and punching a defenceless homeless man (bum) until he is unconscious. They go through the unconscious man’s pockets, stealing a hip flask of alcohol and a wallet.
  
• a workman shoots himself in the head with a nailgun after watching an obese Julia dancing in a sensual manner
  
• Julia accidentally knocks hits Grant across the head with a coffeepot, knocking him unconscious
  
• Grant’s father accidentally knocks Juliet’s mother and father unconscious by kicking them in the head while demonstrating a form of martial arts
  
• a woman brutally attacks a man (meant to be Michael Jackson) punching him about the body and then repeatedly smashing his head on the side of a dumpster
  
• Julia punches Andy in the face, knocking her down a flight of stairs.

• I’ll take your bitch arse down to 145th street and bust your arse
  
• What happens when your whore won’t give up her cash? Smack her across the face.
  
• Boy, I’m gunna take this lollypop and shove it up your arse

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

While set in a comic context, the violence depicted throughout the film, as described above, could scare younger children.

Aged eight to fifteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

While set in a comic context, the violence in the film is quite brutal, and may scare children at the lower end of this age range. Children closer to the age of fifteen years will be more able to interpret the comic context of the violence, but could still be negatively influenced by it.

Sexual references

Date Movie contains continuous crude sexual references and sexual humour, including:

• when Julia first meets the date doctor Hitch, his motto is ‘Feeling all alone, Hitch will find you someone to bone’.
  
• Julia and Grant, after having made love the night before, wake up in the morning and find an old woman staring back at them through the window of the apartment across the street. The old woman says, “She faked it, but I didn’t”
  
• when Grant visits Julia’s parents, her mother asks Grant “Have you ever knocked anyone up? I want grandchildren, how do I know if he is shooting blanks!” She then hands Grant a specimen container and a pornographic magazine.
  
• a Michael Jackson look-alike is shown attempting to lure and proposition young boys
  
• Grant’s mother tells the story of how Grant lost his virginity to the housekeeper. Grant’s mother then introduces the housekeeper, a young Brazilian male, who bends over in front of Grant while wearing revealing shorts
  
• Grant’s mother makes reference to the size of her husband’s penis by holding up a large carrot stating, “Picture this with four pound of hair.”
  
• Andy describes to Julia how she first met Grant, showing pictures of him dressed as a female prostitute being propositioned by Andy. Andy stated “I’ll give you a hundred bucks for the weekend,” Grant’s response, “I have a little secret; I have hepatitis C.”

Nudity and sexual activity

Date Movie contains some partial nudity and numerous sexually suggestive scenes, including:

• Andy walks towards Grant and Julia in slow motion, wearing an extremely revealing bikini. When she reaches the couple she states, “Excuse me I want to get out of these wet clothes”, and removes her bikini. She sits down naked next to Grant and Julia. Although only side views of her naked body are shown and she holds a glass in front of her breasts to obscure the view, the images are provocative.
  
• Julia’s naked breasts are shown, covered by images of screen print
  
• Julia and Grant are shown in bed making love, although they are covered by bed clothing at all times.
  
• a couple, fully clothed, act in an intimate manner in an elevator
  
• Andy is often scantily dressed
  
• Andy is shown wearing a bikini, and doing different activities such as bouncing up and down on a jackhammer, covered in soapsuds while bending over a car, kneeling down while smearing a hamburger all over her breasts, and rubbing soap all over her body in a suggestive manner.

Use of substances

Some alcohol consumption in a restaurant.

Coarse language

Date Movie contains relatively infrequent low to medium level coarse language and putdowns, at times was attached to sexual humour, including:

• hell no, idiot
  
• shit
  
• Goddam
  
• bitch
  
• arsehole
  
• jerk.

The movie's message

Date Movie is a spoof or parody of romantic comedies and as such, does not contain any meaningful take-home messages. Parents may wish to question and discuss the manner in which the film places such an importance on physical appearance and sensuality, and the depiction of Andy as a person who uses, or abuses her sensuality to influence or for personal gain.