There isn’t much to say about Meet the Spartans that you couldn’t figure out by watching the trailer. It aims to be a so-called spoof of 300 but only succeeds at being a commercial for idiocy, with products like Dentyne Ice and Budweiser thrown in for good measure. The filmmaking team of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Date Movie and Epic Movie) can reference various films and television shows better than the entire run of Family Guy. They just fail to make it funny.

Sean Maguire stars as Leonidas, the mortal king of Sparta, who declares war on the Persians, as they threaten to take over his kingdom and turn his men into slaves. He does so without the approval of a mysterious oracle, Ugly Betty (yes that one), and the kingdom’s council. So, just like in 300, Leonidas secretly enrolls some of his trusty men and heads to battle. Only 300 didn’t use America’s Top Model to see if certain warriors were worthy enough of this mission (and it was all the better for it).

This film ends up being about 70 minutes long (and that includes credits). Some jokes are so repetitive that another 20 or 30 minute cutting would have helped it keep people in the theater. A good portion of the footage in the trailer didn’t even make it to the cut but can be found during the end credits. Ironically, most of that stuff is better than what actually found its way into the film. Not like it would have made it an actual “good” film or anything, but still, it would have helped from making the actual feature so unbearable to watch.

The cast of Spartans includes Kevin Sorbo, Ken Davitian (of Borat fame), Diedrich Bader and Carmen Electra. It appears that Team Friedberg/Seltzer is having a harder time convincing others to be in their epic comedies. Even the acting in this film is strangely carefree; as if these people know how terribly unfunny this material is.

We’ve come a long way from the glory days of Jim Abrahams and the Zucker Brothers. This troupe, which crafted the hilarious Airplane (1980) and The Naked Gun (1988), knew how to mix slapstick with referential humor rather brilliantly, while also exuding a skill for filmmaking that elevated these pictures from being just another satire. Here, like Epic Movie before it, the jokes are made for the simple sake of making them. There is no thought behind any of them, nor is their humor.