Meet the Spartans – Blu-ray Disc Review
May 31, 2008 – 12:59 PM - Posted by: Justin SlussTags: BD-J, Carmen Electra, Diedrich Bader, FOX, Kevin Sorbo, Parody, Rotten Tomato
has an average rating of 2.4 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 25gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
are AS CRAPPY as the movie itself!
– 
– 2008
– 87 minutes
– FOX
Buy it for $27.95 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by Justin Sluss
The Movie Itself is a an “attempt” at a parody of the successful film “300” that manages to achieve only one thing, not being funny in the slightest. This film like past disasters comes from two guys named Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. In the past two years they also managed to tarnish the idea of a comedic parody with absolute crap films like “Date Movie” and “Epic Movie” which are some of the most “rotten tomatoes” out there. I have no clue why Hollywood Studios (namely FOX) continue to “green light” the stupid ideas for films these guys bring in. I’m not even going to waste one bit of my time ranting anymore here or bother giving you a synopsis because afterall, it is a shitty parody of “300” so I think you can do a little bit of imagining and save yourself the trouble of actually sitting through (watching) this horrid film. I will however give you some interesting numbers to ponder upon. This film over at IMDb has an average rating of 2.4 stars (out of 10) and has a insanely low 2% (out of 100%) rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This is officially crap and EVERYONE seems to have realized it and to believe this actually outdid “Rambo” the opening week theatrically!
Video Quality on this release is 1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a BD-25 (25 gigabyte Single Layer Blu-ray Disc). Wow, this I first have to start off by saying brings back a memorable quote from Beavis & Butt-head to mind, “you can’t polish a turd, no matter how hard you try.” This actually proves that theory to be wrong as they have this heaping pile of cow dung looking decent (as much as I hate to admit) in it’s 35mm to High Definition transfer. The flesh tones, color palette and black level are are solid here and look fine. They do a somewhat decent attempt at copying the visual style of “300” with their set and wardrobe but they do not manage to achieve the style visually in form of cinematography. This looks better than you’d expect and really doesn’t show too many signs of compression to be only on a 25 gigabyte disc. This earns a decent “4 Star Rating” for overall video quality.
Audio Quality on this release is in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. This DTS-HD mix actually boasts some roaring bass, in fact it’s a bit too much bass and seems to overwhelm everything else at times. When the bass isn’t overworking itself you’ll find the dialogue (as ignorant as it is) being delivered clearly through primarily the front center channel, music coming mostly through the front left and right channels and some decent rear channel presence as well for music and sound effects. I’ll give this a “3 1/2 Star Rating” for overall audio quality here but the content itself isn’t worth but that one half of a star. Go figure.
Bonus Materials are mostly ALL presented in High Definition video using AVC MPEG-4 and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound. The bonus materials that are not using the before mentioned specs will be noted below in their description.
- Audio Commentary by Cast and Crew
- “Prepare for Thrusting” (5 minutes) includes an interview with Kevin Sorbo who claims that since he played Hercules on some shitty TV show for 7 years he’s a fitness expert and capable of kicking all the guys from “300” asses. Talk about making an ass out of yourself. Poor pathetic out of work actor making fun of the other poor out of work actors. Guys from “300” , if you see Kevin out and about or the writers / filmmakers feel free to kick their asses on my behalf.
- “Tour the Set with Ike Barinholtz” (7 minutes) gives you an annoying tour around the set of an annoying movie hosted by an annoying guy that was on MadTV which is crappy itself, which FOX airs. Hmm, I wonder? Eh, forget it. This isn’t worth too much thought.
- “Gag Reel” (4 minutes SD) is some really funny stuff NOT as “Borat” would say. This is the only of the bonus materials presented in Standard Definition (480p) video using MPEG-2.
- “Know Your Spartans Pop Culture Trivia Game” gives you a series of questions about annoying celebrities that you’ll ge to eventually kick off into the “pit of death.” This is repetitive, unoriginal and just all around a lame excuse for a game. This begins FOX decision to waste BD-J technology and include the first of 3 games on this Blu-ray.
- “Celebrity Kickoff Game” is the exact same thing all over again except you’re the kicking celebrities off into “the pit of death” … oh, wait that’s the EXACT SAME THING all over again.
- “Super Pit-of-Death Ultimate Tactical Battle Challenge Game” is the third and final BD-J effort on this release. I’d like to tell you this game is something completely different but I’d be lying to you, it’s not. This is exact same thing over again. Pathetic attempt and if it was intended as a joke it’s not even close to funny. I like though how they mentioned the “300” game that was exclusive to now dead rival format HD DVD.
- “Meet the Spartans: The Music” gives you a half-ass attempt at a jukebox to select one of your eight favorite musical numbers from the film which I totally know you’re wanting to do, right? Yea, sarcasm aside these are in High Def but who seriously wants to watch what they just saw in the movie all over again aside from the people who like the games on here?
- “Trivial Track” is a lame excuse at a pun on the words “Trivia Track” which is what this is. This shed’s some light onto what it took to make easily one of the worst films of 2008.
- Theatrical Trailers (2 minutes) receive Dolby Digital 5.1 @448kbps surround sound. You can watch both of these and get as much of a laugh in 2 minutes as you will in the 87 minutes you’ll waste watching this entire film.
Overall you get yourself 3 crappy attempts at BD-J games, some crappy attempts at HD featurettes. In the end this leaves you realizing what a complete waste of technology bringing this to High Definition on Blu-ray Disc was on behalf of FOX. They own the rights to stuff that actually IS funny like “Borat” and “Super Troopers” which I personally suggested to them to release last year in Hollywood yet they chose to bring this absolute PURE crap out.
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