Scary Movie 2 is now in theaters around the country. It is the sequel to "Scary Movie" which came out last year. The first installment did so well, that the team behind it decided to give it another try. This one has not let them down at the box-office either, as everyone is flocking to see it. As with Part I, I was talked into going to see this one by one of my friends. I had actually forgotten a lot about the first one (goes to show you just how good it was), and was in for a surprise when this one got underway.

Scary Movie 2 stars Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Anna Faris, Tori Spelling, and a cast of notable names that have seen better days in their careers. Most of the characters are holdovers from the first movie, and this movie picks up where they have made it to college. It becomes quite obvious from the start that this movie had no originality, but rather was going to duplicate the sequel to "Scream" in more ways than one. For those who have not seen the first one, the whole premise behind these movies, is that they poke fun at as many movies as they can within the 90-minute time limit of their movie. They go from making fun of Titanic, all the way to making fun of their own movie.

The movie is directed by yet another one of the Wayans brothers, Keenen Ivory Wayans, and is even written by Shawn and Marlon Wayans who are two of the main characters. While sitting through this monstrosity that is called a "movie", I began to think that indeed this movie was rushed through production, so that they could have it out this summer. There was lacking anything that remotely resembled a plot, and I was even lost on the humor to some of the jokes. Besides rehashing jokes from the first movie, there really is not any new material that they explore. All of the jokes in the film have been done before, and they do a terrible job of even trying to duplicate them.

All of the characters in the film are invited to spend a weekend in a haunted house, where a professor is going to give them course credit if they can last the whole weekend. That professor is played by Tim Curry, and his assistant in the house is Chris Elliot. They both play over-the-top characters who are more interested in "hooking-up" with someone of the opposite sex, than actually doing anything else. They both fail in their attempts to be funny, and the scenes where they are present seem to just drag on forever. But, as I said they are all in the haunted house (a spoof of House on Haunted Hill), and they all begin to start having experiences with the paranormal entities within the house itself.

The story does not investigate the character back-grounds, but leaves it to the audience to hopefully form stereotypes about them. This is evident when the attempted “plot” starts to unfold. A husband and wife had been living in the rather large home a long time ago. The husband had been fooling around with the babysitter (it turns out they did not even have kids), and the wife had walked in on the both of them. Seeing this, she had gone into a rage and killed them both, and now it is the theory that they both haunt the house. Now the kids and everyone else must try and survive the weekend in the house in order to get a good grade in their class, and in order to stay among the living.

Each person in the group is then over-dramatized about something specific in their personality, and everyone is made dumber by just watching it. The Wayans brothers and Spelling go too far in their efforts to try to be funny, and I found myself more bored than laughing while watching the movie. Andy Richter and James Woods also make appearances in the film as priests trying to exorcise one of the demons within the house. They too try to hard for the laughs, and fall flat. This film lacked anything close to good taste as well, because they try to be as gross as possible. Their intent is more along the lines of making people feel ill rather than scaring them.

The only bright spot in the entire movie was Anna Faris who plays Cindy Campbell. Her character is modeled after the main character in the "Scream" trilogy, and she actually looks to be a good actress. Having not seen her in any movies other than the two Scary Movies, I cannot really determine if she would do better. But, from the looks of it, she would probably be able to become a comedic star if she was given the write script or story line. Her character is one of the few that is actually likeable in the movie, and it was at least bearable when she was on screen.

If you are going to miss one movie this year, then I am telling you that this is the one to miss. It failed in any spectrum that might be considered to making a movie good. Bad acting, bad story, bad setting, bad special effects, and even bad animals are what make this film the worst of 2001. Avoid it at all costs, and save yourself the money.












Recommended:
No

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age