The Unseen Movie Review: Scary Movie 4

Movies Columns

By Robert Dixter Apr 11, 2006, 19:09 GMT

A job, a wife, a baby and no free time. I haven’t seen the films but based on what I’ve heard and know, we’ll see if the movie is worth it.

Weren’t we just talking about the gag films? I know Scary Movie 3 was back in 2003 but it seems like these films are coming out every other week. These films pop up faster than Kevin Federline procreates. I’m probably mixing this up with Date Movie, although I don’t see how that is possible since the two films could not be more different than comparing Lawrence of Arabia and Ishtar.I think Hollywood was thrown for a loop when the first Scary Movie cleaned up back in 2000. They had not seen that kind of surprise success story since The Blair Witch Project made me so nauseous I puked in the parking lot. But the sequel was a pale imitation with few jokes hitting their marks, like acting with Robert Downey Jr. back in the day. So Dimension films did a smart thing and turned the franchise over to David Zucker and flipped it from an R to PG-13 rating. David Zucker is no longer the genius of the ZAZ team from back in the day (Kentucky Fried Movie and Airplane) but he still has enough guffaws in him to get you laughing at least a few times in a movie. It’s like seeing a movie starring Jenny McCarthy, you know she’ll take off her clothes at some point so you sit through all her crappy acting until she gets naked. I went to see Scary Movie 3 with few hopes since part 2 was so bad, and I must admit I caught myself laughing more times than Liza Minnelli and David Gest had sex while married.There are 2 big problems facing part 4. The first is that this whole genre has become diluted with cheap knock offs like Date Movie. When we first saw the quick gag genre (before the crazy internet) the only guys doing these kinds of films were the ZAZ guys. Now these things are coming out so fast, Leslie Nielsen doesn’t have time to cash his checks. The second problem is Anna Faris. I don’t have anything against her personally except her comic timing is lacking compared to either Mr. Nielsen or even Charlie Sheen. Why did they keep her around through all the films? Is she the only thing that ties the whole franchise together? Have you noticed how she hasn’t really done anything else other than Scary Movies (and please don’t write in and tell me how great she was in Lost in Translation since that whole movie turned on Bill Murray and Scarlett)? But I have laughed at this series more than a few other comedies in recent years so if I do get a chance I’ll try and check it out otherwise I’ll be waiting until June to see a comedy when The Break Up with Vince Vaughn hits theaters.

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RavaApr 12th, 2006 - 01:24:01

You are 100% entitled to your opinion of Anna Faris and her performance in 'SC4.' Although I think you're going to eat your words when you see her in Gregg Araki's new pic, 'Smiley Face.' She's funny. Really funny.

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