So egregiously awful that it not only gives a bad name to parody movies, it gives bad names to each of the individual letters used to form the words "parody movies."
The Comebacks (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:32
Fresh:3
Rotten:29
Average Rating:2.8/10
Consensus: Full of groin-centric humor and tired sports clichés, The Comebacks is poor even by parody movie standards.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] on appeal for crude and sexual content throughout and some drug material.
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Oct 19, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $13,329,782
Synopsis: A satire in the vein of EPIC MOVIE and DATE MOVIE, THE COMEBACKS, directed by Tom Brady (THE HOT CHICK), tackles the conventions of the inspirational sports movie with jock-like gusto. Led by... A satire in the vein of EPIC MOVIE and DATE MOVIE, THE COMEBACKS, directed by Tom Brady (THE HOT CHICK), tackles the conventions of the inspirational sports movie with jock-like gusto. Led by washed-up coach Lambeau Fields (David Koechner), the losers of the title attempt to become a winning football team, while referencing a dizzying array of athletic-oriented films from Hollywood history, ranging from ROCKY to RADIO--the latter shamelessly parodied by a hapless, mentally challenged character named iPod (Jermaine Williams). Gleefully goofy in its send-ups of sports movies, THE COMEBACKS revels in broad slapstick humor that perfectly suits Koechner, who is perhaps best known as the obnoxious Todd Packer on the TV series THE OFFICE. (Koechner's fellow OFFICE mate Melora Hardin is also present, though the show's downbeat, quirky humor is notably M.I.A.) Other actors in the mostly unknown cast include real-life former football star Carl Weathers (the ROCKY films and, of course, ACTION JACKSON) and Matthew Lawrence, the brother of Joey Lawrence, who plays a quarterback with distinctly non-macho tendencies. Boasting comedic moments as subtle as the school bus that plows into a character during one scene, THE COMEBACKS doesn't pretend to be sophisticated--it happily indulges in its lowbrow status, making for an enjoyably guilty pleasure. [More]
Starring: David Koechner, Carl Weathers, Matthew Lawrence, Melora Hardin
Starring: David Koechner, Carl Weathers, Matthew Lawrence, Melora Hardin, Stacy Keibler
Director: Tom Brady
Director: Tom Brady
Screenwriter: Ed Yeager, Joey Gutierrez
Story: John Aboud, Michael Colton, Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson
Producer: Peter Abrams, Andrew Panay, Robert L. Levy
Composer: Christopher Lennertz
Studio: Fox Atomic
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Reviews for The Comebacks
One of those parody movies that presume that merely making reference to another film constitutes a joke.
The Comebacks displays nothing remotely clever or effective; rather, it will make you question whether in fact you ever found David Koechner funny in all those Will Ferrell comedies.
As dumb spoofs go, The Comebacks isn't bad. It takes almost every sports movie of the last five years (Field of Dreams, too) and blends them into a single slapdash comedy.
Let's face it, folks...we need another repetitive spoof movie like a piglet needs dirty fingernails...never registers beyond aping its lazy connect-the-dots jocularity.
An exceptionally lame genre parody that plumbs depths of ineptitude heretofore charted only by the marginally less abysmal Date Movie.
Keep your head down, your expectations low and, maybe, good things will happen. We repeat: Maybe.
Each scene exists solely to check a sports-movie cliche off the list; nothing builds.
Composed entirely of gags you might have come up with your friends on a lazy Saturday afternoon drinking beer in a basement.
One of the worst excuses for a mainstream comedy to be found this year...a loathsome filmgoing experience, created by the brain-dead for the brain-dead.
Does it surprise anyone in America that a film like The Comebacks sucks?
There are a few fleeting moments where you may find yourself chuckling, but it's more out of pity than pleasure.
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