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Review by: Jack Foley | Rating:
One
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: 10 deleted scenes; Making of; Making
of... Fore real; Outtakes/bloopers; Hulk vs. Aliens: Behind the
Scenes of the Alternate Ending; Feature commentary with director
David Zucker.
LONG gone are the days when Hollywood was able to spoof anything
well, as too much emphasis has been placed on easy sight gags,
crass bad taste jokes and a general inability to think of anything
new.
Hence, when the original Scary Movie arrived, to parody the likes
of The Sixth Sense and Scream, the laughs that were present were
also accompanied with the reassuring promise, in the poster tagline,
that there would be ‘no sequel’.
How the hell we now have a third film is, therefore, quite difficult
to comprehend, particularly as the franchise creators, the much-maligned
Wayans brothers, decided to call it a day after the shambolic
second film in the series.
But the powers that be have subsequently approached spoof kings,
David Zucker, his brother, Jerry, and Jim Abrahams, of Airplane!
fame, to attempt to breathe new life into the ailing franchise,
by taking the proverbial out of everything from Signs
and The Ring, to 8
Mile and The Matrix Reloaded.
The result, though, is a particularly unfunny collection of gags,
ill-served by a largely tired cast of has-beens - we’re talking
Charlie Sheen and Leslie Nielsen, who continually crop up in spoofs
of films they wouldn’t get close to in original form.
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Series regular, Anna Faris, also returns, as inept reporter,
Cindy Campbell, who must contend with everything from mysterious
crop circles, deathly video tapes, and inept rappers, in the hope
of landing the ultimate scoop during television sweeps.
But most, if not all of the principal performers and star cameos
find themselves lost amid an ever-increasing tide of banality.
Things start brightly, with an entertaining prologue featuring
Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy in a mildly amusing take-off
of the opening scene from The Ring, but they quickly descend into
one tired skit after another, usually involving the same sort
of gag.
A boy is repeatedly run over by a car, while another of the lead
characters seeks to gain comedy mileage by repeatedly hitting
his head against low-hanging objects, without every really managing
to appeal to the funny bone.
The best gag is reserved for the now infamous Michael Jackson
sequence, while a framed picture of Harrison Ford, as the former
president of the United States, raises the faintest smirk, as
does the opportunity of seeing wretched Pop Idol judge, Simon
Cowell, being gunned down by a rapper during the 8 Mile segment.
But, on the whole, this is a lame exercise in exploiting better
movies for quick-fix profits, which speaks volumes for the ‘dumbing
down factor’ that seems to have crept into all aspects of
entertainment at the moment. The film performed amazingly well
at the US box office, despite negative reviews.
Genuine fans of any of the movies parodied will want to avoid
it like the plague, however, as should anyone else who values
quality, just in case we are forced to contend with the prospect
of a Scary Movie 4 in the future.
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