Epic Movie

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Epic Movie's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Epic Movie completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 25 January 2007

Overall comments and recommendations

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 Epic Movie contains the following information:

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

A synopsis of the story

The film opens with four seemingly unrelated orphans, Lucy (Jayma Maays), Edward (Kal Penn), Susan (Faune Chambers) and Peter (Adam Campbell), entering the film through parodies of other films; The Da Vinci Code, Nacho Libre, Snakes on a Plane and X-Men. Each of the four stumbles upon a golden ticket inviting them on a tour of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. When they arrive there they find that all is not what they had thought. Wily wants to chop up the four and put their body parts into his chocolates. They attempt to escape Willy's clutches via a wooden wardrobe and in doing so enter the land of Gnarnia (pronounced with a silent G).

In Gnarnia the foursome encounter the evil White Bitch (Jennifer Coolidge), Queen of Gnarnia, and from here on the film mainly parodies The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, although characters from other films continue to appear. After many adventures,the heroes emerge out of the wardrobe back at the chocolate factory only to meet their end in the film's dramatic finish.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Parody of action and adventure movies

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.

While most of the violence presented throughout the film is depicted in a comedic manner, there are concerning scenes, including:

• A man dressed as a priest (from The Da Vinci Code) whips his own back.
• The same man crashes headfirst through the glass of a vending machine.
• A small child attacks a man, breaks his arm, slaps his ears and drags him along a dinner table.
• A man runs around on a plane with a snake attached to his crotch and a woman has a snake attached to each of her nipples (as though being bitten by the snakes).
• A woman is pushed out of a plane at high altitude and falls on, and squashes, a woman standing on the ground.
• A woman (Rouge from X-Men) kills another woman by touching her.
• A young man is knocked unconscious after being slammed in the face with a school locker door.
• At the chocolate factory people have various body parts removed for the making of Willy Wonka products. A young man is tied down and then hit in the groin with a sledgehammer, a young woman is decapitated when kicked in the head and a young man has a tooth pulled out of his mouth.
• A fight amongst the four heroes involves them being punched in the head, kicked in the stomach, smashed across the head with a vase and hit across the head with a lamp stand.
• A young woman has her tongue stuck to the pole of frozen street lamp and then has her tongue ripped from her mouth when a second person yanks her head away from the pole.
• A young woman kicks a beaver in the chest, hurling it through the air.
• A young man reminiscing about being Superman is shot in the eye at close range.
• Mr Tumnus is seen as Al Pacino's role in Scarface. He indiscriminately fires a large machine gun and is shot multiple times.
• Susan shoots a man through the neck with an arrow.
• A number of different people are punched in the face throughout the film.
• Mr Tumnus slaps a young woman across the face.
• A young man accidentally stabs and slashes several women with a large sword.
• A pirate captain picks up a young man and hurls his body around like a weapon, knocking a number of other pirates to the ground.
• The pirate captain smashes a glass bottle over another pirate's head.
• A man is electrocuted with a stun gun.
• An extended martial arts fight between a half man/half lion creature and a priest involves numerous kicks and punches to the head and body and ends with the priest being punched in the groin and then having his neck broken.
• The Queen of Gnarnia stabs the pirate king with her wand.
• A young woman is shot in the chest with an arrow, another has an axe embedded in her chest.
• In the final battle in Gnarnia, the evil side is frozen in time, allowing the four heroes to shoot, slap, stab, and zap (with wands) them at their leisure.
• The pirate king, riding a giant water wheel, squashes the Queen of Gnarnia.
• The four heroes are buried beneath the rubble of a house which is crushed by the water wheel ridden by the pirate king.

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.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes that could scare or disturb children under the age of eight, including:

• The snakes on a plane have large open mouths with fangs sticking out and they drop onto people and bite them.
• The assassin priest, a parody of a character in the Da Vinci Code, is threatening and scary-looking.
• Several characters are scary in appearance, including the the Oompa-Loompas, the Queen of Gnarnia, Aslo (half man/half lion) and Mystique.
• The parody of the X-Men character, Wolverine, has knife-like claws.
• A dead cat on a plate is served up as dinner.
• Body parts, including a severed head, are used to make chocolates/sweets.
• Gross humour, such as people being vomited on.
• There is violence to animals such as a talking beaver being kicked and hurled through the air.

Aged eight to thirteen

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 in this age group may also be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes.

Over the age of thirteen

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.

Most children over the age of thirteen should be able to interpret the comic nature of the scary images and not be scare or disturbed.

Product placement

None

Sexual references

There are many instances of sexual references and crude humour, including:

• Willy Wonker's factory has a machine called the 'nutcracker' which involves strapping a man to a table, spreading his legs and bashing him the groin with a sledgehammer, after which two small nuts roll down a chute. This was followed with the comment, "Now with real nutty flavour", in reference to the chocolate.
• Lucy polishes a brass knob in the chocolate factory and says, "Willy told me he wanted his knob polished".
• The Gnarnian beaver is called Harry Beaver, pronounced, "Hairy Beaver".
• A woman crouches down with her face in front of Mr Tumnus's crotch and only the top of her head showing. This suggests oral sex, although she is actually shining his hooves.
• A reference is made to the Queen of Gnarnia not allowing gay marriages.
• During the Harry Potter parody scene reference is made to an obviously pregnant Hermione being on the pill. Reference is made to Harry getting "wasted" and "showing you his philosopher's stone".
• Reference is made to Hermione and "pussy warts".
• Peter says that he likes "big hooters" and "ghetto booty" and states, "I like a lot of junk in the trunk".

Nudity and sexual activity

Epic Movie contains sexual activity presented in a crude humorous manner and some suggestive partial nudity, including:

• The Queen of Gnarnia sucks on Edwards finger in a sexually suggestive manner. When she removes her mouth, his finger has swollen to five times its normal size and is throbbing.
• Mystique who is covered in body paint and scales, looks naked and during one scene moves in a sensuous manner, rubbing her hands over her body.
• The Queen of Gnarnia rips her vest open and flashes her breasts at a small group of people.We see only her clothed back and the viewers' facial expressions.
• Mr Tumnus shares a spa with several women dressed in sexy swimwear and responding to him in a sexual manner.
• The Harry Potter parody fondles Lucy's breasts through her clothes.
• A group of female pirates dressed in sexy clothing perform an erotic dance which involves rubbing their soapy hands over their breasts and fondling hot dogs and bananas in a suggestive manner.
• Aslo, Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edward are shown in bed together, with both dialogue and image suggesting that they have just finished engaging in some form of sexual orgy.
• Mr Tumnus and Harry Beaver kiss passionately.
• Mystique climbs into Peter's bed, telling him that she can change her shape in any way he desires. He asks her to enlarge her breasts and buttocks and it is implied that they then engage in sexual activity.
• A number of women wear tight and low cut tops, including a woman who is seen jogging in slow motion.

Other scenes which may offend

• A character either vomits or sneezes on food with the end product resembling nachos.
• While at the chocolate factory, Edward drinks from what appears to be a river of chocolate which covers his face. Willy Wonka tells him that he is drinking from the sewer line.
• We see Peter from the back with a stream of yellow urine landing on the snow. This lasts for some time, with Peter writing his name in the snow with urine and then playing a game of Sudoku. The same gag is repeated with the four heroes at the end of the film.
• Mt Tumnus urinates while watching a video screen at the bottom of the toilet.
• Aslo makes loud fart sounds while lying in bed.
• Projectile vomitting over a group of party-goers.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• The end of the film depicts a drunk Mel Gibson in jail. When asked what he is in for Mel responds by holding up a bottle of alcohol saying the words “Glug, glug, glug”, imitates the actions of driving a car, and then imitates a police siren.
• The fridge in Mr. Tumnus’s house is full of champagne.
• The Queen of Gnarnia uses magic to make a bottle of malt whisky for Edward.
• A reference is made to Harry Potter getting “wasted.”
• Aslo mixes a cocktail in front of a bar lined with various bottles of alcohol.
• Lucy drinks alcohol while being encouraged by a group of people shouting “Choke, choke, choke.” Lucy appears drunk staggering and slurring her words.
• Lucy encourages Susan to drink alcohol. A plastic tube with a funnel on the end is placed into Susan’s mouth with alcohol poured into the funnel. Susan consumes a large quantity of alcohol in this manner and then vomits over a number of people.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

• “Shit bitch…,” “God damn snakes on a god damn plane,” “Numb nuts,” “Peters too much of a pussy to stand up for himself,” “Dip-shits,” “Who’s the bloody hells that,” “White Bitch,” “Shot me in the fricken eye,” “For Christ’s sake,” “Screw Narnia,” “I’ve been such a prick,” “O bugger,” “I hate those fucking kids,” “Get your but out of my face,” “Lucy the dumb shit,” “Really F-ing creepy,” “Pump that arse,” “Sugar tits.”      

The movie's message

Epic Movie is a comedy that parodies most of the major action, adventure and fantasy films from the last three years.  The film targets older adolescents and younger adults. The film relies heavily on bad taste jokes, crude humour, and putting familiar film characters in embarrassing, but not necessarily funny situations. There is little really clever humour.