I’ve not seen any of the previous Scary Movie films and wouldn’t have been interested in this one – but then I found out that Jim Abrahams and David Zucker (who were behind Airplane!), and had an 80 year-old Leslie Nielson playing the President of the United States, I thought it must be worth a look. I haven’t seen our Les in anything since the extremely disappointing Naked Gun 33 ½ but have mostly liked his films, and the trailer did look very funny. So, the decision was made, and off to see Scary Movie 4 we went.

The action starts off with some very bizarre goings on including Charlie Sheen overdosing on… erm… the wrong medication, while Shaquille O'Neal and Dr. Phillip C. McGraw being trapped by an evil character with only 120 seconds to escape. Meanwhile, the main plot runs along the theme of Cindy Campbell (Anna Farris) starting to work caring for someone in a house with a strange past and secret, while falling for next door neighbour Tom Ryan (Craig Bierko), who is desperately trying to be a good father. In the midst of all this the world is invaded by Tripods, who play 80’s music and destroy mankind…

Let’s get one thing straight right now. Scary Movie 4 is a very, very silly film. Don’t expect anything other than non-stop daftness or you’ll be disappointed. If you’re easily offended, it’s probably best to give this one a miss, as it unfortunately has quite a lot of scenes that some will find objectionable. (Not only are they objectionable, they are not funny either – though I have to admit that one or two are.) Strangely the American ratings board gave it a PG-13 while the UK board gave it the stricter 15 (which usually is equated to the US “R” rating). Usually the British film board are much more lenient with their ratings. (This info is admittedly not particularly helpful, but oddly interesting.) For the most part though Scary Movie 4 consists of a lot of daft humour, a lot of slapstick / physical humour, much spoofing, and the inevitable gross humour, plus some sexual humour which makes up the bulk of the objectionable content I mentioned. There is too much reliance on certain types of humour but this film still had my laughing a lot, there are plenty of very funny scenes in this film.

Though the cast list is absolutely packed with star names, quite a few have little more than cameo roles (Charlie Sheen, Carmen Electra, and Bill Pullman particularly, though at least the latter’s character was, unlike the first two, relevant to the plot.) The main reason the humour and the film works for the most part is the performance of the two leads, Anna Farris and Craig Bierko. They play every scene dead straight, no matter how ridiculous everything is that’s going on around them. If they’d hammed it up the whole thing would have fallen flat on its face. Nielson is pretty funny as the President though his character sometimes seemed to be a rather cruel caricature of Ronald Regan in his later years.

Several recent films were spoofed here, including (I think) Brokeback Mountain, Wars of the Worlds, and The Village, and quite possibly Dawn of the Dead. (Actually I’m pretty sure they were spoofed here but as I’ve not seen any of them yet it’s not possible to say definitively!) Million Dollar Baby was ripped off in a very funny scene. Probably several slasher flicks were spoofed as well but as that’s not a genre I watch I didn’t pick up on any specific references. For those who’ve watched the previous Scary Movie films there also seemed to be a fair amount of self-parodying going on.

Overall this is a very daft film that manages to be very funny in several places. It’s not a classic, but it will certainly have you laughing and some parts are close to being inspired. I may even watch the previous movie on the basis of this one (you’ll know when if you see a review!) Think I’ll leave the first two scary movies alone though.

Recommended, but with the reservations mentioned above.



Related Links

Top Ten Spoof Movies

Bill Pullman

Alien Autopsy
Spaceballs
Thunderbirds

Craig Bierko was misguidedly cast as Lister in the US pilot of Red Dwarf. He's a good actor and all, but totally wrong for that role. The US version bombed, though many Americans love the original version so why they felt they had to change it I'll never know!

Official website: http://www.scarymovie.com/


UPDATE (part of the Update 2008 Project)

I just couldn't live with myself for giving this 4 stars. I mean, it did make my laugh quite a lot, but also some of it quite terrible. Therefore I'm changing the rating to 3 stars, though I still think it is (in places) a very funny movie - just not enough places.

Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age