Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

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Jason Friedberg (born (1971-10-13) October 13, 1971 (age 41) in Newark, New Jersey, USA) and Aaron Seltzer (born (1974-01-12) January 12, 1974 (age 39) in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) are a film director and screenwriter team known for making parody films. They were part of the writing team for Scary Movie and Spy Hard. They have also written and directed films such as Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, Disaster Movie, and Vampires Suck.

Contents

Filmography [edit]

Year Film Directors Producers Writers RT Approval
Rating		 Metacritic Budget Worldwide
Gross
1996 Spy Hard
YesY
 7% 25/100[1] $18,000,000 $26,960,191
2000 Scary Movie
YesY
 53% 48/100[2] $19,000,000 $278,019,771
2006 Date Movie
YesY
YesY
YesY
 6%[3] 11/100[4] $20,000,000 $84,795,656[5]
2007 Epic Movie
YesY
YesY
 2%[6] 17/100[7] $20,000,000 $86,865,564[8]
2008 Meet the Spartans
YesY
YesY
YesY
 2%[9] 9/100[10] $30,000,000 $84,646,831[11]
Disaster Movie
YesY
YesY
YesY
 2%[12] 15/100[13] $20,000,000 $34,816,824[14]
2010 Vampires Suck
YesY
YesY
YesY
 4%[15] 18/100[16] $20,000,000 $79,658,108[17]
2013 Best Night Ever[18]
YesY
YesY
The Starving Games[19]
YesY
YesY

Date Movie has been the pair's best-selling movie so far. It opened with $19.1 million and earned $48.5 million overall.[20] Disaster Movie opened with $5.8 million and earned $14.2 million total in the United States.[20] Vampires Suck, which opened on a Wednesday, earned an estimated $18.7 million in its first five days.[20] Freidberg and Seltzer announced that they are making two new movies, including one that will spoof The Hunger Games (called The Starving Games). Filming commenced in 2012, and the film will be released in theaters in 2013.

Critical reception [edit]

"Yes, we all know that a lot of movies put aside the more artistic aspects of film making to solely make a profit; we're not naive. But, the films that these two directors make are so blatant at being nothing more than a juvenile finger pointing at an image or mention of a popular trend that, to me, they seem exploitive of a young culture raised to have an ever-decreasing attention span, thanks to the internet and channel surfing and, this may sound a little crazy, but, I think it shows a slight de-evolution in what people will accept as entertainment."

—Korey Coleman of Spill.com, 2010.[21]

The critical reception of Friedberg and Seltzer's movies has consistently been almost entirely extremely negative.[22][23] Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans were rated the two worst films of 2008 by The Times newspaper.[24] Additionally, every film they have directed has made it into Rotten Tomatoes' "Worst of the Worst" for the 2000s, only scoring one spot outside of the bottom 25.[25] The duo received a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Screenplay for Epic Movie at the 2007 Razzies[26] and were nominated for Worst Picture, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay for both Meet the Spartans and Disaster Movie at the 2008 Razzies,[27] as well as nominated for 'Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel at the 2011 Razzies for Vampires Suck. The pair appears on noted British film magazine Empire's fan voted top 50 worst movies of all time more often than any other person. Almost all of their movies appear with a rank, and all are mentioned in the full review text.[28]

Critic Josh Levin of Slate commented that "Friedberg and Seltzer...are not filmmakers. They are evildoers, charlatans, symbols of Western civilization's decline..."[29] Josh Rosenblatt of the Austin Chronicle said that "Writer/directors Friedberg and Seltzer are a scourge. They’re a plague on our cinematic landscape, a national shame, a danger to our culture, a typhoon-sized natural disaster disguised as a filmmaking team, a Hollywood monster wreaking havoc on the minds of America’s youth and setting civilization back thousands of years."[30] Korey Coleman of Spill.com has claimed that he is "bothered" by the duo's films, as he believes they are dumbing down the film industry and popular culture in general.[21]

Recurring cast members [edit]

Actor Date Movie
 Epic Movie
 Meet the Spartans
 Disaster Movie
 Vampires Suck
 Best Night Ever
Diedrich Bader NoN NoN
Carmen Electra NoN NoN NoN NoN
Adam Campbell NoN NoN
Matt Lanter NoN NoN
Tony Cox NoN NoN NoN
Ike Barinholtz NoN NoN NoN
Crista Flanagan NoN NoN NoN NoN NoN
Nicole Parker NoN NoN
Jennifer Coolidge NoN NoN
Fred Willard NoN NoN
Jim Piddock NoN NoN
Tad Hilgenbrink NoN NoN
Nick Steele NoN NoN NoN NoN NoN
Jareb Dauplaise NoN NoN
Martin Klebba NoN NoN

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Spy Hard on Metacritic". Retrieved 2011-08-12. 
  2. ^ "Scary Movie on Metacritic". Retrieved 2011-08-12. 
  3. ^ "Date Movie on RT". Retrieved 2010-07-10. 
  4. ^ "Date Movie on Metacritic". Retrieved 2010-08-28. 
  5. ^ "Date Movie on Box Office Mojo". Retrieved 2010-10-14. 
  6. ^ "Epic Movie on RT". Retrieved 2010-07-10. 
  7. ^ "Epic Movie on Metacritic". Retrieved 2010-08-28. 
  8. ^ "Epic Movie on Box Office Mojo". Retrieved 2010-10-14. 
  9. ^ "Meet the Spartans on RT". Retrieved 2010-07-10. 
  10. ^ "Meet the Spartans on Metacritic". Retrieved 2010-08-28. 
  11. ^ "Meet the Spartans on Box Office Mojo". Retrieved 2010-10-14. 
  12. ^ "Disaster Movie on RT". Retrieved 2010-07-10. 
  13. ^ "Disaster Movie on Metacritic". Retrieved 2010-08-28. 
  14. ^ "Disaster Movie on Box Office Mojo". Retrieved 2010-10-13. 
  15. ^ "Vampires Suck on RT". Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
  16. ^ "Vampires Suck on Metacritic". Retrieved 2010-08-28. 
  17. ^ "Vampires Suck on Box Office Mojo". Retrieved 2010-10-13. 
  18. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2499414/
  19. ^ "Hunger Games Gets the Scary Movie Treatment". 2012-05-10. 
  20. ^ a b c Stewart, Andrew (2010-08-22). "'Expendables' tops crowded B.O". Variety. 
  21. ^ a b Vampires Suck Audio Review | Spill.com
  22. ^ Catsoulis, Jeannette (2008-01-26). "Doing Battle on the Field of Parody". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-05. 
  23. ^ Scott, A. O. (2007-01-27). "Bravely Setting Out to Mock Others". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-05. 
  24. ^ The 100 Worst Movies of 2008 The Times Accessed 12-12-08
  25. ^ "Worst of the Worst 2009 – Fear Dot Com". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-08-09. 
  26. ^ John Wilson (2008-01-21). "Razzies – 2007 Nominees for Worst Screenplay". Razzie Awards. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
  27. ^ John Wilson (2009-01-21). "RAZZIES.COM 2008 Nominations". Razzie Awards. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
  28. ^ "The 50 Worst Movies Ever". Empire Magazine. 2010-01-29. Retrieved 2010-02-01.  Text "Helen O'Hara, Alastair Plumb, Phil De Semlyen" ignored (help)
  29. ^ Levin, Josh (2008-08-28). "Yet another terrible spoof movie from Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. – By Josh Levin – Slate Magazine". Slate.com. Retrieved 2010-08-09. 
  30. ^ "Film Listings". AustinChronicle.com. 2008-09-05. Retrieved 2010-08-09. 

External links [edit]

Works of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer
Films
Screenplays
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