My Big Fat Independent Movie

Plot

A black man molesting a white man who has trouble remembering events for more than 15 minutes at a time. The film then cuts forward in time to two talkative hitmen, Sam (Neil Barton) and Harvey (Eric Hoffman), who mistakenly believe Johnny Vince (Darren Keefe), a hipper-than-thou swingin' hepcat and band trombone player, to be the third member of their gang, assembled by their evil crime boss to pull a "botched robbery" in Las Vegas. Along the way, they take a beautiful demented hostage – the lovely, desperate and lonely cashier Julianne (Paget Brewster). They are unaware that she will forever change their pathetic lives. During the journey, the foursome encounter a variety of characters inspired by famous independent films, including a bald genius, a forgetful thug, a jogging red-head, a bound and gagged girl, rabbis on a mission, lots of lesbians, Project Greenlight's Pete Jones, a crazed though well-dressed mechanic (Clint Howard), a horny answering machine (Jason Mewes), a naive mariachi, an obnoxious practical-joking love-struck French girl, and finally Pauly Shore as himself.

Reception

My Big Fat Independent Movie was a box-office bomb, earning only $4,655 in box office receipts during its world-wide run with an estimated budget of $3,000,000. The film was poorly received by the consensus of critics who reviewed the film, receiving a low 23% rotten rating over at Rotten Tomatoes. Internet debate soon erupted over the film's lowbrow treatment of independent film classics and caused backlash from die-hard independent film fans. Chris Parry, entertainment journalist and film critic for efilmcritic.com, found that the movie targeted films that were too well liked by its intended audience, and a larger (more mainstream) audience wouldn't recognize the referenced films. Controversy over the film ensued after the producer's former publication "Filmthreat" (who co-produced the film) gave the movie a perfect 5 star review. In light of the controversy and public backlash, the company distanced itself from the movie. Before its limited domestic release, the film had been pre-screened on the festival circuit including Cinequest, South by Southwest, San Diego Film Festival, Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, Worldfest Houston, and the Temecula Valley Film Festival.