Masada - The Complete Epic Mini-Series

• An epic true story of Jews fleeing Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Pursued to a mountain stronghold of the Herods, they face lives enslaved, or suicide. This is the full-length television miniseries. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION Rating: NR Age: 741952648291 UPC: 741952648291 Manufacturer No: KOC-DV6482

The hilarious hi-jinks begin when a hapless group of orphans from curious backgrounds come together to embark on an adventure that takes them to a special chocolate factory where they fall into an enchanted wardrobe and wind-up in a magical land. Here, hilarity ensues when the bungling bunch run into a colorful collection of characters including a flamboyant pirate and a gang of wizardry-apprentices who they join forces with to overthrow the wicked White Bitch of Gnarnia.

By dint of the inexplicable popularity of their send-up of movie genres in the parody movies Sca! ry Movie and Date Movie, writer/director duo Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer probably got an epic-sized bucket of cash for this hastily stitched pastiche of drive-by entertainment. There's no particular variety of movie they were sent to send up this time, unless big box-office grossers has now become a genre in and of itself. If so, Epic Movie may well qualify as part of that league itself. Very little expense has been spared to make so-called "comic" references to a slew of mostly recent blockbusters--The Chronicles of Narnia, Borat, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the X-Men and Harry Potter series, Superman Returns, Nacho Libre, and The Da Vinci Code to name a few--and it's assumed we've seen them all. In a goofy thread of a story about four orphans plucked from some of the above, battle must be done through various bastardized plots from same so tha! t a prophecy can be fulfilled and they can assume their rightf! ul place as rulers of a sacred land. Lots of crotch kicks, fart, urine, and vomit jokes speed by as we pass through Willie Wonka's factory and a magical wardrobe with an unusually interesting assortment of look-alikes and name actors caught up in the gag mix (some of it legitimately funny). Darrell Hammond, Crispin Glover, David Carradine, Kevin McDonald, Carmen Electra, Kal Penn put on game (and sometimes gamy) faces, and it's definitely a hoot to watch comedy improv alums Fred Willard and Jennifer Coolidge as Aslo the Lion and the White Bitch do battle in a Narnian good vs. evil character smackdown. As lame as you already expect a movie like this to be, anything that can throw together an homage to C.S. Lewis alongside MTV's Punk'd in less than 90 minutes can't be all bad. --Ted Fry

Epic Movie Extras

Watch the writers and producer talk about how adding song and dance made Epic Movie a smash.

Beyond Epic Movie

More Comic Spoofs

More Kal Penn Films

More From 20th Century Fox

Stills from Epic Movie

The hilarious hi-jinks begin when a hapless group of orphans from curious backgrounds come together to embark on an adventure that takes them to a special chocolate factory where they fall into an enchanted wardrobe and wind-up in a magical land. Here, hilarity ensues when the bungling bunch run into a colorful collection of characters including a flamboyant pirate and a gang of wizardry-apprentices who they join forces with to overthrow the wicked White Bitch of Gnarnia.

By dint of t! he inexplicable popularity of their send-up of movie genres in the parody movies Scary Movie and Date Movie, writer/director duo Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer probably got an epic-sized bucket of cash for this hastily stitched pastiche of drive-by entertainment. There's no particular variety of movie they were sent to send up this time, unless big box-office grossers has now become a genre in and of itself. If so, Epic Movie may well qualify as part of that league itself. Very little expense has been spared to make so-called "comic" references to a slew of mostly recent blockbusters--The Chronicles of Narnia, Borat, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the X-Men and Harry Potter series, Superman Returns, Nacho Libre, and The Da Vinci Code to name a few--and it's assumed we've seen them all. In a goofy thread of a story about four orphans plucked from so! me of the above, battle must be done through various bastardiz! ed plots from same so that a prophecy can be fulfilled and they can assume their rightful place as rulers of a sacred land. Lots of crotch kicks, fart, urine, and vomit jokes speed by as we pass through Willie Wonka's factory and a magical wardrobe with an unusually interesting assortment of look-alikes and name actors caught up in the gag mix (some of it legitimately funny). Darrell Hammond, Crispin Glover, David Carradine, Kevin McDonald, Carmen Electra, Kal Penn put on game (and sometimes gamy) faces, and it's definitely a hoot to watch comedy improv alums Fred Willard and Jennifer Coolidge as Aslo the Lion and the White Bitch do battle in a Narnian good vs. evil character smackdown. As lame as you already expect a movie like this to be, anything that can throw together an homage to C.S. Lewis alongside MTV's Punk'd in less than 90 minutes can't be all bad. --Ted Fry

Epic Movie Extras

Watch the writers and producer talk about how adding song and dance made Epic Movie a smash.

Beyond Epic Movie

More Comic Spoofs

More Kal Penn Films

More From 20th Century Fox

Stills from Epic Movie

Genre: Comedy
Rating: UN
Release Date: 6-JAN-2009
Media Type: DVDEven within the subgenre of grab-bag comedy, Disaster Movie sets a new bar for free-associative lunacy. To what degree there is a plot, it's vaguely stolen from Cloverfield: A handful of twentysomethings try to rescue someone in a city assaulted by an incomprehensible threat--in t! his case, falling asteroids. But that's just a thread on which to string a long and increasingly tedious series of gestures towards recent movies (ranging from High School Musical to Enchanted to Sex and the City to Kung Fu Panda) and pop culture figures (Amy Winehouse to Flavor Flav to Dr. Phil to, of course, perpetual punching-bag Michael Jackson). No one over 30 will recognize more than a fraction of the movie's references, but the movie's bigger problem is that there are hardly any actual jokes--the filmmakers seem to think that simply alluding to Hancock or Jumper is funny in and of itself... and it just isn't. Disaster Movie will probably appeal to its primary audience of high-school students and repressed frat boys, for whom the mere mention of homosexuality prompts jittery laughter and who find generically pretty girls and studly boys in tight clothing titillating. It's a wasted opportunity; there are mo! ments that, through sheer incompetence and desperation, sugges! t a surr eal stream-of-consciousness. A filmmaker like Luis Bunuel or Federico Fellini could have turned such raw matter into a satirical aria that would genuinely critique a culture that worships Paris Hilton. Instead, we get this. Featuring, as ever, Carmen Electra.--Bret Fetzer

Spider-Man, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four will never be the same after this outrageously funny spoof of your favorite comic book movies! Drake Bell (Drake & Josh) stars as a nerdy high school student bitten by a genetically-altered dragonfly. He stumbles hilariously through the process of becoming a crime-fighter and as his new powers grow, so do the laugh! s. Sara Paxton (Aquamarine) and Christopher McDonald (Spy Kid! s 2) cos tar as the clueless damsel in distress and the comically intense super villain, along with Pamela Anderson and Leslie Nielsen. Going from superzero to superhero has never been this much fun! Adolescent fantasy meets sophomoric humor in the latest cuisinart comedy, Superhero Movie. The story of how frustrated loser Rick Riker (Drake Bell of Drake & Josh) becomes the superpowered Dragonfly is largely poking fun at Spider-Man, but there are a handful of digs at X-Men, Fantastic Four, and other Marvel Comics superhuman flicks. What's disappointing is how few of the jokes are specific to the genre--the abundance of gags about urine, feces, horniness, and especially flatulence (long, drawn-out gags about flatulence) could have been shoehorned into a parody of pretty much anything. The strong point of Superhero Movie is the above-average cast; while there are the obligatory cameos by the likes of Pamela Anderson, the cast is mostly filled ! out with actual actors like Marion Ross (Happy Days), Christopher McDonald (Thelma & Louise), Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development), and Leslie Nielsen, who trots out his trademark deadpan one more time. As Dragonfly's love interest, Sara Paxton (Aquamarine) does a flawless and subtle imitation of Kirsten Dunst's sultry vocal mannerisms. And for fans of Airplane! (the movie that started the whole everything-but-the-kitchen-sink genre of comedy), there's an appropriate cameo by Robert Hays as Rick Riker's father. Superhero is a step above such recent tripe as Date Movie and Meet the Spartans... but sadly, that's not saying much. --Bret FetzerMultiple Directors - Starring Kal Penn, Adam Campbell, Jennifer Coolidge 20th Century Fox - Rated PG13 - 93 min - Parody/Spoof - Region: 1 (USA & territories, Canada) If forced to watch any entry in Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg's [Fill in the Blank] Movie franchise, the best (and only) way to stay entertained is to make a game of pinpointing the most recent cultural spoof, thereby identifying just how recently they coughed out the shoddy script. In the disastrous Epic Movie, that would be a Borat joke, meaning the script was probably submitted sometime in November for a January release. Boy does it show. Even if they claim to be lampooning a particular genre, these films are more interested in a particular window of time -- hence the inclusion of decidedly non-epic films like Snakes on a Plane and Talladega Nights in Epic Movie's slate of targets. The jokes are so brainlessly simple, only by aiming them at the most recent Hollywood releases is there any chance they'd seem fresh -- and even that is quite optimistic. Simply put, this is lowest common denominator filmmaking, produced on a shoestring using actors whose hunger for a paych! eck is downright embarrassing. That Jennifer Coolidge and Fred Willard didn't learn their lesson from the abomination known as Date Movie is a sad commentary on what funny actors must do to make a living -- it's the equivalent of Eugene Levy appearing in every last straight-to-DVD American Pie sequel. Discussing this slapdash production in any detail is too generous, as it gives the false impression that the film succeeds on any level. However, to dismiss it entirely ignores its $19 million opening weekend take, which indicates there are certainly viewers content enough to guffaw over such cut-rate obviousness. If any of them remembered the sublime beginnings of the parody genre, such as Airplane!, they wouldn't give this film a dime. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie GuideIn first century A.D., Flavius Silva (Peter O’Toole), commander in Roman Palestine, leads his forces in combat against the remaining Jewish Zealots who have taken refuge in the seemingly impregnable fortress! of Masada. There, the engineering and military might of Rome ! faces th e passion and ingenuity of Eleazar Ben Yair (Peter Strauss) and his people. Based on the novel "The Antagonists" by Ernest K. Gann, this epic, 4-part mini-series was shot on location in Israel.This 1981 television miniseries, based on Ernest K. Gann's historical novel The Antagonists, is a dramatization of a documented revolt by nearly a thousand Jerusalem Jews against Roman oppressors in A.D. 72 to 73. Following a city-wide siege by Rome's soldiers, Jewish Zealots move into a fortress in the mountains of Masada, from which they present a defense strong enough to convince the enemy to negotiate. Peter O'Toole, in all his golden dignity, plays Cornelius Flavius Silva, commander of the Roman legions, and Peter Strauss is Zealot leader Eleazar ben Yair. Both are outstanding as representatives from each side trying, in good faith, to find a way out of the deadlocked situation. Unfortunately, neither realizes that Rome has no intention of yielding, resulting in one of! the greatest tragedies in Jewish history. A strong cast of character actors--David Warner, Barbara Carrera, Timothy West, and Anthony Quayle--is rewardingly watchable, the action and sets are persuasive without overwhelming the story's human dimension, and direction by Boris Sagal (The Omega Man) is crisp and enthralling. This was a pleasure to watch when it was first broadcast, and it holds up very well today. --Tom Keogh"A victory? What have we won?" laments a breathtaking Peter O'Toole as the Roman warrior Flavius Silva. "We've won a rock in the middle of a wasteland, on the shores of a poisoned sea." Thus does Masada, the epic 1981 miniseries about a horrific battle in ancient Palestine, echo the terrible toll of war in general, and of the brutal conflicts in today's Middle East in particular. Masada, from the golden age of miniseries (Roots, Shogun), is a transportive viewing event--shot on location, and apparently no exp! ense spared.

The film retells (with some dramatic license)! the tru e story of an uprising in Palestine of a ragtag band of Jews, in a fortress called Masada, who refuse to surrender to the governing Romans. O'Toole, as Flavius Silva, is the brilliant commander who, over the course of several years of trying, and failing, to breach Masada, comes to regard the leader of his foes, Eleazar ben Yair (the charismatic Peter Strauss), with a certain amount of respect and awe. If left to Flavius, he might have simply leave the holdout fortress and return to the Italy he so longs for; but the Roman emperor demands victory--at any cost.

The performances are uniformly crisp and believable; the direction by Boris Sagal, economical; the screenplay, sharp and incisive. David Warner, who won an Emmy for his performance, plays the brutal Roman henchman Falco with seething determination. The location shooting is nothing short of spectacular. There is sorrow in the story of Masada, but an uplifting message in the ability of true believers to creat! e their own destiny. --A.T. Hurley

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