Meet the Spartans (2008)

From the creators of *Scary Movie* and *Date Movie*, *Meet the Spartans* (2008) delivers a tongue-in-cheek parody of the sword-and-sandal epics, most notably Zack Snyder's *300*. This 20th Century Fox production, written and directed by the filmmaking team of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, leans heavily into the absurdity of its source material, incorporating a barrage of pop culture references alongside its main spoof. True to form, the film hilariously depicts Leonidas with little more than a flowing cape and some leather underwear to protect him from the exaggerated dangers of his Persian enemies, amplifying the visual gags and anachronistic humor that define Friedberg and Seltzer's signature style. While not a traditional fantasy film in the heroic sense, *Meet the Spartans* finds its place on a "Best Fantasy Movies" list through a meta-textual lens, serving as a comedic deconstruction of the genre's more over-the-top, hyper-stylized aspects. By lampooning the visual grandeur, exaggerated masculinity, and often absurd tropes found in modern epic and fantasy-adjacent productions like *300*, it inadvertently highlights the conventions that define them. Its inclusion, therefore, isn't for its direct contribution to fantasy narratives, but rather for its *commentary* on the genre's aesthetic and storytelling clichés, offering a satirical mirror to the very elements that make sword-and-sandal films feel fantastical and epic, albeit through a highly divisive comedic approach.