Alright, alright, so you already know that "Scary Movie" is chock full of extremely crude humor, and that as most critics have argued, it should have definitely been given an NC-17 rating. Yes, the Wayans brothers have created perhaps the crudest comedy to ever hit the mainstream market. You already know that it is a parody of "Scream" and so many other recent teen horror films and other hit movies. But for some reason, you are still interested. You still want to put down your eight bucks to go see it. Well, you know what? Just do it. I doubt anything I say here will change your mind. However, for those of you who have not yet made up your mind whether or not to go, please read what I have to say and be advised.
"Scary Movie" spoofs an enormous number of "hit" movies from the last few years, from the entire "Scream" trilogy, the "I know what you did..." films, "Matrix," "Blair Witch," "Sixth Sense," and many more, but the greatest of these is undeniably "Scream." The ironic thing you must keep in mind though is that "Scream" itself is spoof of horror films, and it is really the only one that has ever worked.
I know this is the portion of the review where I am supposed to discuss the plot, but to be quite frank with you, there really is no plot. Alongside the basic idea of your masked killer stalking and stabbing high school students one after another, there are just endless gags and (mostly) obvious jokes thrown at you one after another. To be fair, some of the gags and direct spoof lines in "Scary Movie" do work and generate some good laughs, but most of them miss and quickly become tiring. Many aspects of Carmen Electra's opening scene, ala Drew Barrymore's in "Scream," are right on target and quite funny. Some of the talk among the students about how they are or are not involved in a horror movie work as well.
Unfortunately, we encounter numerous problems with the humor. First of all, most of the best jokes work only as quick individual shots as in the trailer (which is where most all of the best gags are as well). When put in the movie, most of them are extremely forced and provide no payoff. A lot of them, including the "Blair Witch" and "Matrix" parodies, have zero use for the main direction of the film and even appear like they were thrown in during post production just to rip on the most current films possible. The sexual gags, which come at you (no pun intended) over and over again, are extremely tiring. It is one joke material endlessly repeated seemingly just to gross you until you are forced to laugh. This is not a good thing.
A few aspects of the film are successful however, and I must point them out here. The whole gag on the black girl at the movie theater watching "Shakespeare in Love," running her mouth and annoying the audience, is right on target. And as I mentioned earlier, so is the opening scene. While most of the performances are sub-par, as you would expect in a film such as this, Anna Faris is pretty good in the lead role of Cindy, which not surprisingly sounds a whole lot like Sydney, Neve Campbell's character in the "Scream" films.
Gross-out comedies seem to be in full swing lately, but let's hope they do not get any more extreme than "Scary Movie." Hopefully, the immediate box office success of this film, due in a large part to the admittedly hilarious trailer, will not encourage the studios to produce a third generation parody. To cleverly lampoon horror movies in "Scream" was smart. To distastefully lampoon "Scream" and like films in "Scary Movie" was not. To go any further with the trend would be horrendous. So please, stop the madness!
Rated R for strong crude sexual humor, strong language, drug use and comic violence
This hilarious, must-see comedy smash places Carmen Electra (TV s Baywatch), Marlon Wayans (Senseless), Jon Abrahams (Boiler Room, The Faculty) and so...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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