After enduring the torturously unfunny Date Movie and Epic Movie, one could be forgiven for concluding that the art of cinematic parody was in terminal decline. This latest instalment in Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer's franchise hammers a final nail into the coffin with an utterly atrocious collection of imbecilic skits. The backbone of Meet the Spartans takes pot shots at Zack Snyder's high-camp historical war movie 300, as King Leonidas (Sean Maguire) leads his army of 13 soldiers (287 short) against Persian invader Xerxes (Ken Davitian). The resulting barrage of homophobic jokes about men in codpieces is propped up by scattershot send-ups of contemporary pop culture, from Paris Hilton to American Idol and Transformers. Moronic, offensive and likely to provoke concerns about the end of western civilisation, it's junk-food cinema at its worst. One cringes to think what future cultural historians will make of it... and us.

The heroic Leonidas, armed with nothing but leather underwear and a cape, leads a ragtag group of thirteen Spartans to defend their homeland against the invading Persians (whose ranks include Ghost Rider, Rocky Balboa, the Transformers, and a hunchbacked Paris Hilton). No one is safe when the Spartans take on the biggest icons in pop culture!