Alright, Harry here... and rather than talk about SCARY MOVIE in the intro, I have a question that has been bugging me for quite some time. I've seen "00's" written many times... but how are you supposed to say that. Do you say: "Zeroes", "Double-Os", "Nils", "The Gemini Goose Eggs".... WHAT? I'm confused... everytime I come to that in a sentence... it's like... What the fuck is that? Can you help me?
Scary Movie
Damn, this movie is sweet. The best spoof film since the first Naked Gun, and the purest, most reverent spoof since Mel Brooks’ heyday, Scary Movie is one of those comedies that demands multiple viewings, if only to find out what you missed the first time while the audience was howling with laughter.
I have to admit I wasn’t terribly psyched up for this one. The spoof has fallen on hard times; most are eighth generation Airplane rip-offs produced by some old college buddy of one of the Zuckers and starring Leslie Nielsen. And Scary Movie’s history (two! two! two scripts in one!) filled me with a little bit of dread. So when the film started with a near shot for shot remake of Scream’s opener- complete with Carmen Electra playing a character named ‘Drew Decker’- I thought we might be verging into last-half-hour-of-SNL (or maybe Gus Van Sant) territory. But as the gags start piling up, and Scary Movie’s central conceit becomes apparent, I started laughing. Hard. And I didn’t stop until after the final post-credits ‘break up’ scene.
What’s that central conceit, you ask? Well, I don’t want to go on a rant here (hey, the bit’s fair game- Miller’s doing football commentary now) but the one thing that can derail a comedy faster than Carrot Top is inattention to the plot. I got a fair amount of direct and indirect crap about this in the Me, Myself & Irene TalkBack (people bitching about how M2I wasn’t supposed to be Schindler’s List, or whatever bullshit argument was used) but the fact of the matter is if plot didn’t matter, then why not cut it out entirely? Why isn’t M2I just a 70 minute clip reel of Jim Carrey goofing around? Actually, that would have been better than the film the Farrellys put together, but I’m not talking about M2I here. I’m talking about the infinitely (OK, only 58 times) funnier Scary Movie. And what Scary Movie has for a plot is... Scream. Location for location. Scene for scene. LINE FOR LINE. If there’s no joke being told, then as often as not Scary Movie uses the exact dialogue from Scream to propel it forward- that exact same, overblown Williamson dialogue we all know and love. In a couple of cases, it even uses the original dialogue to set up a joke, to hilarious effect. It’s not to say you have to have seen Scream to ‘get’ Scary Movie, but it does add a whole new level of funny.
The other thing Scary Movie has going for it is near-perfect use of the ‘scattershot’ approach of spoofs. Every spoof does this to some degree- taking shots at genres and films outside of the main target of the comedy. And Scary Movie’s aim is deadly. It features not just the Blair Witch (the set-up for that bit is hysterical, and you will NOT see it coming), Sixth Sense and Matrix bits you’ve seen in the ads, but American Pie AND Porky’s, Cheech and Chong films, and an ending that... well, the only way it could have been funnier is if Chazz Palminteri had been cast as the sheriff. And like Naked Gun, or even (dare I mention its name) Airplane, the jokes are a mile a minute and come at you from all angles- goofy dialogue, clever dialogue, total gross-out humor (that is FUNNIER than the gross-out scenes in M2I, so there), stunt cameos, brilliant spoof set pieces, visual background jokes, even Shawn Wayans doing a dead-on Matthew Lillard impersonation. And that’s not the half of it- I don’t want to spoil the Scream 2 scene, for instance, or Keenan’s cameo. You will laugh. Oh yes, how you will laugh.
The cast is very good. Shannon Elizabeth has more chops than I expected (well, more than Denise Richards anyway. Tick tick, Denise), Anna Faris does a brilliant combo Neve/ Katie Holmes thing (and shows 58 times more screen presence than Neve ever did), and Marlon and Shawn are both fantastic. They should probably get their own TV show or something- oops. Sorry, Shawn.
Scary Movie is the live-action comedy to see this summer, not M2I. Well, OK, fine, see them both if you want. But while you’re nodding off during M2I, waiting for something funny to happen, just remember you COULD be watching the first great spoof of the ‘00s- Scary Movie.
Anton Sirius
And here's Princess Buttercup's look at the film....
Hey, Harry, I don't think I've seen any reviews on your site for Scary Movie. My roommate and I saw it last night and were both surprised by how much this movie didn't suck. See, we'd seen the trailer with that great Matrix spoof, and while it had us intrigued, we both felt that the best parts of the movie were probably all shown in the trailer. We figured that it looked like a pretty good movie to watch - on video. Well, we charmed our way into a screening last night, and frankly, I don't think I've laughed this hard since American Pie. Okay, neither of us have seen the Scream/I Know What You Did Last Summer movies, but although we might've missed some of the smaller jokes, the movie was still really funny, and a lot of the jokes referred to non-"scary" movies (in fact, they were some of the best ones). Having just seen Me, Myself & Irene on Wednesday (which was a bit of a disappointment), we both thought that Scary Movie was funnier. Basically, Scary Movie is completely inappropriate family viewing, kinda cheesy, with the type of gross-out moments you'd expect from, well, a Farrelly brothers movie - and it's a hell of a good time. If you use this, just call me Princess Buttercup (aw, come on, don't laugh - who doesn't love The Princess Bride?)
