The Legend of Awesomest Maximus (National Lampoon's) (2010)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2010
Running Time	87:14
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Jeff Kanew
Studio Distributor	Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Jason Burinescu Kristanna Loken Rip Torn Shalaina Castle Sophie Monk Will Sasso Ian Ziering
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$19.95	Music	Scott Glasgow

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes, the weed
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Awesomest Maximus (Will Sasso) is the general of the Trojan army, married to the haughty Hottessa (Kristanna Loken), daughter of King Looney of Troy (Rip Torn). The king’s son, Orlando (Gary Lundy), is keener on boys than girls and Hottessa has plans to become Queen of Troy. Maximus and Orlando visit the court of King Erotic (Khary Payton) and his wife Ellen (Sophie Monk) in Greece. Orlando just loves Ellen’s dress sense and persuades her to return with them to Troy. King Erotic collects an army including the invincible fighter Testiclees (Ian Zierling) and attacks Troy to get Ellen back. During the fighting Maximus is captured by slavers, sold to Approximo (Eddie Pepitone) and returns to fight as a gladiator in the games commissioned by King Erotic. Can Maximus defeat Testiclees, avert the destruction of Troy, and get into his wife’s bed?

     National Lampoon’s The Legend of Awesomest Maximus is a spoof set in the ancient world, with three parts Troy, two parts Gladiator and bits of 300 and Braveheart thrown in for good measure. King Erotic, for example, is costumed to resemble Xerxes in 300, the Ephors put in an appearance, and the pre-battle speech from Braveheart gets a workout. The mixture of plot-lines is pretty silly, the sets are minimal, the dialogue (except that taken directly from the other films) full of profanities and the acting, even from veterans like Rip Torn, deliberately hammy. Kristanna Loken, perhaps best known as the female terminator in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, is basically superfluous to the plot and has nothing to do. The names of the characters alone show that much of the humour is very juvenile and sections are indeed gross out, yet there are certainly some laughs to be had and some scenes, such where Testiclees (costumed exactly like Brad Pitt’s Achilles) and his men approach the Trojan beach recycles some of the dialogue from the same scene in Troy with funny results. A further attraction is the beautiful topless women on show.

     The Legend of Awesomest Maximus is very uneven. Many of the jokes are juvenile and fall totally flat, some are gross, the sets are shoddy and the acting indifferent but there are enough amusing moments to keep the film moving along. While not high art, it is not as bad as some reviews made out.

Video

     The Legend of Awesomest Maximus is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is16x9 enhanced. The original theatrical ratio is not listed in the IMDb but this looks to be pretty close to the original ratio.

     There is no problem with the print. It looks soft, but detail, brightness and contrast are fine. Colours and flesh tones are natural, blacks and shadow detail good. Artefacts are mostly absent.

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a Dolby Digital 2.0 track at 192 Kbps, surround encoded. It is quite good and gets the job done. Dialogue was easy to understand while the surrounds were used constantly for effects and music. There was no sub woofer use.

     The score by Scott Glasgow is suitably stirring and Gladiator like and fits the intentions of the film.

     I did not notice any lip synchronisation issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     Absolutely nothing

     The Region 1 US release is apparently similar although details are sketchy.

     National Lampoon’s The Legend of Awesomest Maximus is a spoof set in the ancient world. It is juvenile and gross but does have some laughs and topless women. While not high art, it is not as bad as some reviews have made out. The video and audio are acceptable, there are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall