Newsfeed
Printer-Friendly ModeNew Scary Movie installment survives with same formula
April 17, 2006 —
Remember that part in Scary Movie 2 where Chris Elliot is serving the mashed potatoes with his disfigured hand? That scene was classic. Unfortunately, there are not any scenes quite so memorable in the latest installment of the Scary Movie franchise.While the first two movies were written and directed by members of the Wayans family, the third was handed over to Naked Gun director David Zucker and was tamed down to a PG-13 rating. The fourth installment in this popular spoof series continues in the same direction as the third, with Zucker again at the helm.
Scary Movie 4 follows Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) one more time as she gets a new job and new house and encounters some creepy activity resembling the stuff that happens in the blockbuster film The Grudge. A few minutes later, Cindy and the rest of the world are under alien attack, straight out of War of the Worlds. A short time after this, Cindy and fellow recurring character Brenda (Regina Hall) are living in a village like the one in, well, The Village.
As you can see, the plot just kind of jumps from one thing to another without bothering to offer closure on what happened just moments before. But this is perfectly fine in a movie like this, where things are never meant to make sense and the more ridiculous things get, the more enjoyable the movie is.
But even though numerous movies are parodied (including Brokeback Mountain for some reason), the main story is the alien attack. Just like Scary Movie 3, this latest installment gets away from true horror plotlines and settles for some extraterrestrial sci-fi junk that just does not seem to fit into the Scary Movie franchise.
Still, this is forgivable when the jokes work. But the biggest problem with number four is that there are not many jokes. Instead, there are gags. Lots of them. Of course, by this I mean that a lot of the laughs are supposed to come from characters getting smacked in the face with flying footballs or from old ladies getting sponge baths from a bedpan.
But this isn't where the humor is in the movie. The handful of lines that Anthony Anderson was blessed with are funnier than all of the physical humor scattered throughout Scary Movie 4.
And Craig Bierko, who plays leading man Tom Ryan, is not as good at the comedy as Charlie Sheen was in number three. By the way, Sheen has an extremely odd cameo in this movie, but so do a lot of others who are far more unexpected. Keep your eyes open for Dr. Phil, Shaquille O'Neal, Mike Tyson, Chingy, Dane Cook, and even the aforementioned Chris Elliot.
Unfortunately, though, Elliot is not nearly as funny in this Scary Movie as he was in the second one. He certainly does not have that one great scene that will be remembered most. No, that honor would probably go to Leslie Nielson, who reprises his role as the dim-witted president of the United States, as he recites numerous offensive racist jokes in front of United Nations representatives. This might not be of "strong hand" caliber, but it's still mighty funny.
The same could be said about the movie in general. All in all, Scary Movie 4 is funny, but not hilarious. It needed a lot more great Leslie Nielson moments and probably could have benefited from an R rating just so it had a chance to rely less on the physical comedy and more on the written comedy.
Fans of the previous three will likely enjoy this one, but even though it pokes fun at some semi-recent world events and mocks George W., this is by far the dumbest of all four Scary Movies. This is not satire; this is parody. It accomplishes everything a parody should, and the resulting movie is exactly what you should be expecting.