Back
in 1980, The Zucker Brothers picked up the "Parody Ball" from Mel Brooks
and ran with it--creating the hilariously brilliant Airplane. Since, we've seen
the equally funny Naked Gun, two decent Naked Gun sequels, a couple of entertaining
Hot Shot films, and a plethora of Leslie Nielsen's efforts that should never have
been made.
A
few years back, Keenan Ivory Wayans and his crew sent-up the urban gangster flick
with Don't Be A Menace In South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood,
a sporadically entertaining parody that, ultimately, didn't work. Since that film,
The Farrelly Brothers have burst on to the scene and have delivered a new kind
of comedy in the form of Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, There's Something About Mary
and the recently released Me, Myself, and Irene. Now, Wayans strikes back with
Scary Movie, a low brow take on the recent onslaught of slasher films (Scream,
I Know What You Did Last Summer, etc.)
Scary
Movie takes its cue directly from Scream as a group of high school kids are picked
off one by one, by a masked killer whose identity remains a mystery until the
film's end.
Of
course it's quite hard to critique acting in a film like this because we're dealing
with parody. In the end, the only way I can really judge this film is by asking
whether or not it made me laugh. The answer is--not nearly enough.
Wayans
is obviously a fan of film because there certainly are some funny moments here
that are inspired by past movies. Aside from Scream, we get inside jokes dealing
with the Budweiser "What's Up" guys, the bullet time effect from The
Matrix, and even an ode to a classic film from the 90's that I don't want to give
away.
A big problem
with Scary Movie is that it is essentially a send up of a send up. Much of the
plot, is directly lifted from the Scream series, and that in itself just isn't
funny. It also seems that much of the time, Wayans and his staff of writers are
out to shock you with obscene bathroom humor, rather than bombard you with the
comic energy of a Zucker movie.
Like
Me, Myself, and Irene (The worst of The Farrelly efforts), Scary Movie isn't consistent
as a comedy. There are three or four naughty moments, and maybe five or six other
times where I actually laughed. Unlike Naked Gun and Airplane (which constantly
have your stomach in a knot), Scary Movie can't sustain the manic energy needed
to make a film of this type work. Still, for a film of this genre, it's much better
than completely forgettable efforts such as Spy Hard and Wrongfully Accused.
On
a special side note, this film was originally titled Scream If You Know What I
Did Last Halloween, while Scream actually went by the title of Scary Movie at
one point.
