Quartile rating: 4/10 · 1 rating
The heroic Leonidas, armed with nothing but leather underwear and a cape, leads a ragtag group of thirteen Spartans to defend their homeland against the invading Persians (whose ranks include Ghost Rider, Rocky Balboa, the Transformers, and a hunchbacked Paris Hilton). No one is safe when the Spartans take on the biggest icons in pop culture!
Meet the Spartans is a lowest-common-denominator spoof that strings together pop culture references in place of actual jokes or narrative structure. The plot is essentially nonexistent beyond a loose parody of 300, with no coherent story arc or character development. Acting is broadly mugged and amateurish even by spoof-film standards. Cinematography is functional at best, mimicking 300's visual style without any real craft. Novelty is limited — the Friedberg/Seltzer parody formula was already exhausted by this point, offering little that wasn't seen in Date Movie or Epic Movie. The ending is abrupt and unfunny, capping a film widely regarded as one of the worst comedies of its era.