SCARY MOVIE
Review by John Beachem
* * *
Directed by: Keenen Ivory Wayans Written by: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Aaron Seltzer, Phil Beauman, Buddy Johnson, Jason Friedberg
I'm going to keep the plot summary fairly short, because "Scary Movie" is really nothing more than a mix of different slasher films rolled into one. Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) is your typical high school student. Her problems include: dealing with school; her overly amorous boyfriend, Bobby (Jon Abrahams); a pushy reporter (Cheri Oteri); a psychotic, though inept, serial killer stalking the student body; and the fact that she and her friends, Buffy, Brenda, Ray, and Greg (Shannon Elizabeth, Regina Hall, Shawn Wayans, and Lochlyn Munroe respectively), ran over a fisherman and dumped his body in the ocean. They've all managed quite well to move on with their lives after killing that fisherman, but problems are developing. Now the serial killer is after the group, and they can't help but think it may be - oh forget it - if you've seen "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and/or "Scream", you know the rest. Those two current teen-slasher films are the main targets of "Scary Movie".
Someone at the MPAA should be fired (preferably everyone) for allowing this movie to hit theaters with an "R" rating. Children shouldn't have been allowed to view this film, and I saw several in the audience. The movie features such colorful scenes as a girl being plastered to the ceiling by her boyfriend's, um, release while the two are having sex; or a character being killed by a male's, uh, organ being shoved through his head. However, none of that really matters, because "Scary Movie" is intended for adults. So how does it succeed on that level you ask? The results are varied. When it's spoofing other movies, "Scary Movie" can be fairly amusing. When it starts hurling gross-out jokes at the audience, it falls flat on its face.
So what films fall victim to this most recent spoof's attacks? Obviously, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Scream" are the primary targets, but "Final Destination", "The Usual Suspects", "The Blair Witch Project", "The Matrix", and a dozen or so others take a beating as well. How well these jabs work seems to depend on the film being spoofed. "The Blair Witch Project" is hit fairly well, with Cheri Oteri talking into the camera ala Heather Donahue's now famous moment. The small jab at "The Usual Suspects" doesn't work half as well because it doesn't fit in with the rest of the film. "The Matrix" takes an interesting hit; while it works brilliantly at first, the scene drops dead when Anna Faris starts doing an Irish jig in mid-air, for no apparent reason.
This is the part of the review I usually devote to an analysis of the acting in a film. However, that's a touch more difficult with a movie like this because it's difficult to tell if the actors are intentionally acting badly, to add to the satire, or if they simply cannot act. So I've decided to rate the actors based on their comic abilities and timing. Marlon and Shawn Wayans (best known for starring in the WB's horrendous "The Wayans Brothers") give two very different, though equally irritating performances. Marlon (in the role of Randy, made famous by Jamie Kennedy from "Scream") overacts to the extreme, while Shawn (as the gay boyfriend - that's funny right?) underacts to the point where we believe he's dead long before the character actually bites the dust. Newcomer Anna Faris gives an interesting turn, switching from a horrible performance to a great impersonation of Jennifer Love Hewitt in a split second. The film's best performance comes from Shannon Elizabeth ("American Beauty") as the school's resident phony. Watch for the scene where she confronts the masked killer for one of the movie's best moments. Kurt Fuller ("Wayne's World") shows up in an amusing performance as the town sheriff, and watch for a cameo by David Lander ("Laverne and Shirley") as the school principle.
The only times "Scary Movie" really works well is when the jokes are clever observations about the faults in horror films. The movie fails when these observations are about as idiotic as possible, and this happens fairly often. The joke about David Arquette's character from "Scream", Deputy Dewey, is one of these moronic jokes. Gee, we'll make his character handicapped in this one and have him drool - that's funny too, right? The quick jab at "Final Destination" is more unexpected than funny, but that's more than we get out of most the film's jokes. "Scary Movie" runs a quick 88 minutes, but it feels a bit longer than that. I'd recommend it only to those who are big fans of the Wayans brothers (assuming there are any out there) and fans of gross-out humor. I did notice that even people who found that kind of humor amusing seemed to get tired of it after a while. When the movie started the audience was cracking up, but by the end this had died down to nervous chuckles. For a lot of wasted opportunities, I give "Scary Movie" three out of five stars. By the way, if you enjoyed this movie I'd suggest seeing 1981's "Student Bodies", assuming it's possible to find it anywhere.
Comments? Send to: johnbeachem@dependentfilms.net
Past reviews can be found at: http://www.all-reviews.com/reviewers/JohnBeachem.htm, http://www.epinions.com/user-elerad?public=yes or http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?John+Beachem
* * * * * - One of the best movies of the year. * * * * - Great flick, try and catch this one. * * * - Okay movie, hits and misses. * * - Pretty bad, see it at your own risk. * - See this one only if you enjoy pain.
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