The Legend of Awesomest Maximus [Blu-ray]

The movie is primarily a spoof of "Troy" but tosses in some other film bits for good measure. Will Sasso stars as the blue collar Awesomest Maximus, legendary general of Troy. His wife, Hottessa (Kristanna Loken) is the princess. Her brother is named Orlando instead of Paris (Gary Lundy) who is gay. He absconds with Ellen of Troy (Sophia Monk) in order to make the King of Greece jealous. Ian Ziering plays Testiclees in the manner of Brad Pitt. His incestuous mother looks like Angelina Jolie from "Alexander." I think you get the idea of the satire.

When the movie is not spoofing other movies, the humor is overly sexual. When you divide National Lampoon films into classics and not so classics, this falls below the line. If you enjoyed the film "Your Highness" you might try this one too.

F-bomb, sex, nudity (background strippers mostly, no stars)

The first time I saw Will Sasso (it was on "Talk Soup"), my jaw dropped and my nature rose! I've asked several folk online if he's ever shows his chest or any of his naughty bits. Well, in this movie he delivers! (The only reason I give this three stars.)

Kevin Smith and Nick Frost have both said publicly, "There's some gay subculture called bears and they really think I'm hot." I don't know if Sasso has made the same statement, but I'm thinking he has the same admirers. The little that you see of his chest suggests it's smoothe, unlike the aforementioned men. (To be honest, I'm surprised Sasso is blonde and smoothe when he's of Italian ancestry. Compare him to Mark Ruffalo or Carlo Masi, or even Madonna's older brother, and you'll know what I mean.) Though both are pale, seeing his butt won't disturb viewers as much as seeing Phillip Seymour Hoffman's in "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead."

Now of course, I understand this is a spoof film. But do know they act like Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece were pretty much the same thing. The humor is incredibly puerile. There's homophobic humor here, even though this is meant to portray cultures that tolerated same-sex sexual activity between males. Let's just say this won't be winning an Oscar.

Still, if you have prayed to see Will Sasso's butt, he finally shows us the cheeks!

There was a time when the name National Lampoon meant something. It was the breeding ground for a large number of comics and writers, first with the initial magazine and later with its radio and road shows. When it took the dive into feature films it splashed big time with ANIMAL HOUSE and VACATION. But that all changed. Each item connected with the original name died out. The last to go it seems is their films. Every time a new movie comes out with the name National Lampoon attached to it I cringe just a little. And they never disappoint me: they're always bad.

The latest to have the words National Lampoon attached to it is NATIONAL LAMPOON'S THE LEGEND OF AWESOMEST MAXIMUS. The story revolves around...well never mind. It doesn't matter. This movie was so bad it would be a disservice to waste time talking about it in depth. Suffice to say its a broad parody of the sword and sandal films made over the past 20 years, everything from BRAVEHEART to 300.

The jokes told here are the type that you might have told when you were reaching puberty and the subject of oral sex and naked boobs was enough to send you into a laughing frenzy. Where as National Lampoon had a subtle sense of humor to it, a bit of class even when discussing such things, this one goes for playground mentality and achieves it quite well. If only those on playgrounds were the intended audience this movie would have made a mint. Instead it went straight to DVD and doesn't even deserve that.

Note to Will Sasso: if you continue playing a bumbling idiot in all of your roles you will play nothing but a bumbling idiot forever. So far that seems to be the case. Move on.

I honestly tried watching this movie but had a difficult time getting past the first 15 minutes it was that insulting. There is a place for crude humor, for gross out jokes and for puns based around sexual acts. That is when it is done with style. This movie has no style whatsoever.

I knew I was in trouble when watching the trailer I kept seeing National Lampoon saying their own movie was good and different actors in the cast commenting on how good the other actors were in the printed blurbs on the screen. Anyone associated with this piece of crap owes each and every filmgoer a personal apology for wasting time, space and the money it took to make it. With so many lost scripts held hostage and placed on shelves in Hollywood perhaps the person who deserves to be horsewhipped the most is the one who thought this movie was the one worth investing in. I have images floating in my head at the moment of those classic horror films where angry townspeople are carrying torches in search of the monster. We need to do this and find the person responsible for this so called movie. It truly is that bad.

Just so we're clear, the only reason I gave this movie 1 star was because zero or negative stars are not an option.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 7 reviews  3.1 out of 5 stars