I decided to go with my wife and my brother to go see a movie today. Since it's a holiday, this is one of the few times that I actually get a day off that I can enjoy with anyone else. I'm planning on seeing Cats and Dogs later, but I was wrangled into seeing Scary Movie 2 first. As always, format goes like this: I'll give my Pre-Viewing thoughts, a synopsis of the plot, as well as Post-Viewing thoughts. So here we go...

Pre-Viewing Thoughts: Going in, I had pretty high expectations. I thoroughly enjoy the original Scary Movie, and the commercials I had seen were funny enough. Admittedly, I’m a bit of a stick in the mud with the fact that I don’t like toilet humor and sexual sight gags, but I figured maybe the Wayans brothers would keep that portion of the movie down to a minimum, and let the good old spoofing carry the rest of the flick. All of my hopes were dashed when the box office lady asked my wife and I for some ID before selling us the tickets. Mind you, my wife and I are both 20, wearing our rings, and look even older than we are. The fact that they are carding that strictly lets me know in advance that this one is going to be bad. What have I gotten myself into?

The Plot: We start off with some funny scenes spoofing the Exorcist with some good stuff by Andy Richter and James Woods as priests trying to exorcise the demon inside a girl. Funny stuff ensues between the characters that leads absolutely nowhere in the overall movie, but was well worth the five minutes of viewing. Ah, if only the whole film was this good.

We cut to college, where our survivors from the first movie are all still friends and in close contact. I’m not going to get into how any of these people survived after being mercilessly killed in the first one, or even how if Ray (played by Shawn Wayans) had survived, he wouldn’t be in jail for his part in the killings, because this is a Wayans movie, and we can’t be slowed down by the details. Anyway, one of their professors (played by Tim Curry) is looking for some guinea pigs to go to a haunted house, so he talks them into it by promising A’s in a supposed sleep deprivation experiment. Oh yeah, I can see the writing on the wall already here.

Anyway, to make a long story short…well, there isn’t a plot to talk about. The movie is so disjointed and lacking in direction, I’m not really sure how to describe it. Maybe we should just move along.

Post-Viewing Thoughts: Well, if you read my review of the original Scary Movie, you know everything I thought they did right the first time. Now take what they did there, and go with the exact opposite, and that is Scary Movie 2. Without fixing any of the errors of the original, the Wayans brothers have managed to corrupt everything that they did do right in SM 1. Oh Keenen Ivory, what were you thinking this time?

First off, the thing I liked the most about the first film was the cohesiveness. Stick with a couple movies mainly to spoof, and throw in minor jokes about pop culture and other movies sparingly to keep it moving. Not here the second time around. This time, there is no one set movie that we go with from start to finish, spoofing all the way. No central storyline to follow and laugh with as they endlessly mock some other awful movie. Nope, what we get is one stupid joke after another, jumping from one culture reference to another, one movie to another, with no end in sight. This is not the way to make a funny spoof my friends.

Secondly, what you won’t see here is anyone getting killed. I take that back, we do get to see Tori Spelling and Tim Curry knocked off by the end, but the story really doesn’t talk much about them anyway. In the first film, we have people knocked off one at a time leaving us with our final climatic battle between dumb and dumber, err, good and evil. Here, no one is getting killed, so by the end, we are bouncing between scenes with six different people. There is no time to focus on any one character or develop any of the jokes. The writers are so busy trying to keep all our main characters moving, there is no time left for them to actually write anything funny into the script.

Now let’s say just for a moment that we aren’t comparing the good and the bad with the last film, for this movie is awful all on it’s own. Most of the spoofing really isn’t all that funny, the acting isn’t really all that good, and the dialogue itself is so incredibly stupid that you actually want to weep after watching this one. The special effects were pretty good I guess, but most of the time you are too busy wondering what the hell is going on to notice them.

But why spend all of my time ripping into the production crews and the directors when there is a whole cast just waiting to be talked about? Anna Faris isn’t nearly as good this time around, Marlon Wayans is abysmal to no end, Regina Hall is as annoying and obnoxious as the first time around, and Christopher Masterson was the casting choice from hell. Shawn Wayans wasn’t all that bad here, but he does everything the exact same as before, with no advancement or development whatsoever.

Now don’t get me wrong, not all the casting was bad. Chris Elliott single handedly carries every funny moment after the first five minutes of the film. He is a comedic genius as Hanson, and is probably the only reason that this film got more than one star from me. Andy Richter and James Woods play small parts that are extremely funny, but are nearly forgotten after seeing an hour and a half of absolute crap. And I can’t do this movie it’s fair justice without mentioning that Kathleen Robertson is absolutely gorgeous. Her entire part for the movie was to be eye candy, and she pulled that part off to perfection. Being married, that is all I can say about that.

Not to be overshadowed though, there is more stupid sexual references and sight gags than in the original. None of them are remotely funny to anyone with the maturity level over age 14, so don't even waste your time. And since no one under the age of 18 should ever be allowed to see this movie, that really isn't a good sign. I know I personally loved seeing a father bringing in his two sons to this movie. They couldn't have been older than ten. Pitiful.

Overall, this movie lacked direction, wasn’t funny in the least, and sucked more levels of bad than most films ever dream of. If it weren’t for Chris Elliott, this one would be looking down the barrel of one star, but I’m going to be generous because of him and give this film two stars. All and all, so far it’s been a very disappointing day, and I can only hope that Cats and Dogs is a lot better. Till then, HAVE A NICE DAY!


Recommended:
No

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age