The latest spoof from knucklehead screenwriting team and first-time directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who are also responsible for the scripts for the three Scary Movie s and last year's Date Movie, Epic Movie once again proves that, given just one year, they can fill 80 minutes of screen time lampooning Hollywood blockbusters and American poop, um, pop culture — just not very well.

Trashiness abounds from the opening scene, a Da Vinci Code rip off in which Lucy (Jayma Mays) trips over her father, a recently murdered museum curator (David Carradine sighting), and finds he has a pentagram carved in blood on his chest, along with 2Pac's infamous “Thug Life” tattoo. She is soon attacked by the “albino” assassin, an African-American who talks trash in Latin.

The “story” then jets from scene to scene, poking fun at Hollywood's biggest, glitziest, over-hyped “epic movies” of the past couple years with transitions that lack any semblance of wit or creativity. Here's a quick rundown: Da Vinci begets Willy Wonka (with a rare, delightful Crispin Glover sighting as Johnny Depp's confectioner), leading into Nacho Libre, begetting a confoundingly uninspired Snakes on a Plane riff, then X-Men, and finally settling into a Narnia theme with asides from Pirates of the Caribbean (another spoof of a Depp character, which, one might note, is already a send-up of Keith Richards), Harry Potter and Click.

Friedberg and Seltzer borrow from Christopher Guest's stable of comedians by casting Jennifer Coolidge as “The White Bitch/The White Witch” and Fred Willard as “Aslo/Aslin.” Former Kids in the Hall cast member Kevin McDonald is perfectly creepy as an over-the-hill Potter. Epic Movie provides these luminaries with a nice paycheck and a little publicity between better projects. But, other than that, the best part of Epic Movie is its mercifully un-epic running time. Distributor: Fox
Cast: Kal Penn, Adam Campbell, Jennifer Coolidge, Jayma Mays, Faune Chambers, Crispin Glover and Tony Cox
Directors/Screenwriters: Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer
Producer: Paul Schiff
Genre: Comedy Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language and some comic violence
Running time: 86 min.
Release date: January 26, 2007