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SCARY MOVIE 3
The first two films in the franchise were lukewarm attempts at satire at best, but they nailed it in Scary Movie 3, a horror movie lampoon that works because a proven commodity in the art of movie satire is behind the camera.
David Zuker, one of the creators of the original 1980 classic Airplane! is in the director's chair this time, offering a delicious send-up of Signs and The Ring, which also offers affectionate winks at The Sixth Sense, Scream, The Matrix, Independence Day, and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy without ever forgetting the film's original intention and that is to make fun of horror movies.
Our heroine Cindy (Anna Feris) is now a television anchorwoman who finds herself in the middle of a mystery that involves a message left in a cornfield belonging to a farmer and ex-priest (Charlie Sheen) and his younger brother (Simon Rex). who dreams of escaping the farm and being a rapper. Cindy finds herself falling for the would-be-rapper whil dealing with a mysterious videotape that has put herself and her son in danger, a danger of epic proportions that becomes national and eventually involves the POTUS (Leslie Nielsen).
This movie works because Zuker and his screenwriters have gone directly to the films referenced above and taken what was ridiculous about them (and let's face it, they all contained at least a trace of ridiculous) and took it to the extreme here, making what might have been unintentionally funny in the original films very funny here and keeping the jokes moving at such a lightening pace that the viewer isn't really allowed time to analyze and figure what isn't exactly right.
Zuker has also surrounded Feris with a lot of familiar faces like Queen Latifah, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Hart, Anthony Anderson, and the late George Carlin, as well as some talented newcomers like Rex, who really seem to understand what Zuker is doing here. The absence of Shawn and Marlon Wayans, who appeared in the first two films, is never really explained and frankly, I didn't care. Other highlights include the prelude with Jenny McCarthy and Pamela Anderson and Charlie Sheen's showdown with Michael Jackson. All I know is that for the first time in this franchise, I was laughing non-stop for 90 minutes.
The first two films in the franchise were lukewarm attempts at satire at best, but they nailed it in Scary Movie 3, a horror movie lampoon that works because a proven commodity in the art of movie satire is behind the camera.
David Zuker, one of the creators of the original 1980 classic Airplane! is in the director's chair this time, offering a delicious send-up of Signs and The Ring, which also offers affectionate winks at The Sixth Sense, Scream, The Matrix, Independence Day, and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy without ever forgetting the film's original intention and that is to make fun of horror movies.
Our heroine Cindy (Anna Feris) is now a television anchorwoman who finds herself in the middle of a mystery that involves a message left in a cornfield belonging to a farmer and ex-priest (Charlie Sheen) and his younger brother (Simon Rex). who dreams of escaping the farm and being a rapper. Cindy finds herself falling for the would-be-rapper whil dealing with a mysterious videotape that has put herself and her son in danger, a danger of epic proportions that becomes national and eventually involves the POTUS (Leslie Nielsen).
This movie works because Zuker and his screenwriters have gone directly to the films referenced above and taken what was ridiculous about them (and let's face it, they all contained at least a trace of ridiculous) and took it to the extreme here, making what might have been unintentionally funny in the original films very funny here and keeping the jokes moving at such a lightening pace that the viewer isn't really allowed time to analyze and figure what isn't exactly right.
Zuker has also surrounded Feris with a lot of familiar faces like Queen Latifah, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Hart, Anthony Anderson, and the late George Carlin, as well as some talented newcomers like Rex, who really seem to understand what Zuker is doing here. The absence of Shawn and Marlon Wayans, who appeared in the first two films, is never really explained and frankly, I didn't care. Other highlights include the prelude with Jenny McCarthy and Pamela Anderson and Charlie Sheen's showdown with Michael Jackson. All I know is that for the first time in this franchise, I was laughing non-stop for 90 minutes.