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"Is It Just Me Or
Does Jigsaw Resemble
Michael Jackson?" |
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Directed by David Zucker
- Written by Craig Mazin,
Jim Abrahams
Starring Leslie Nielsen,
Anna Faris, Regina Hall,
Craig Bierko, Simon Rex
Distributed by Weinston
Cos. - 2006 - 83mins -
Rated PG13 |
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They're coming. We need your support. |
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Ah! A
slightly pleasant surprise! Unlike “Scary Movie 3” which had one laugh
for every twenty jokes that fell completely flat, “Scary Movie 4” has
one laugh for every ten jokes that fell flat. That’s not great, but
it’s certainly an improvement.
As you probably know already, the “Scary Movie” films are parodies of
all that is popular in the horror genre. David Zucker took control of
the franchise with the third entry and his quantity over quality
approach continues here. This time, he’s targeting “The Grudge,” “War
of the Worlds,” “Saw, “The Village” and several others.
It’s extremely difficult to think of a film like this in critical
terms. It has no artistic ambitions, no point and it doesn’t even have
a real narrative. It’s just there for a whole lot of cheap laughs. Is
this always a bad thing? Of course not. I gave “Airplane!” an “A.” I
think that the only way to judge movies like this is to note exactly
how many of the jokes do hit. In “Airplane,” “The Naked Gun” and “Hot
Shots,” the number of gags that worked outnumbered those that didn’t.
In “Scary Movie 4,” we suffer through ten incredibly lame jokes about
gangsters and sex before a comedic jewel is unexpectedly thrown on us.
We have to see an alien probe hump a vacuum before we see Leslie
Nielsen (playing the President) decide not to act on an alien invasion
because he wants to know what happens to a duck in a children’s story.
We have to see two characters attack an group of injured people before
we get to see a comedic version of Adrien Brody’s character in “The
Village” run into a pole (it’s a lot funnier than it sounds).
I really think that these can be great parodies. The jabs at “War of
the Worlds” in particular are often brilliant. I noted that Zucker
recreated the wardrobes and sets from that film perfectly. He also
recreates exact camera shots. It’s startling, actually.
My advice to Zucker for the inevitable “Scary Movie 5”: concentrate on
parodying the films themselves. That’s funny. No one in my audience
laughed during random sex and poop jokes…they DID laugh when they
recognized a parody of “The Grudge.”
Also, kudos to Zucker for casting one of the best surprise cameos
ever…and no, I am not referring to the much-hyped Shaq and Dr. Phil
“Saw” parody. You’ll know it when you see it.
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© Written by Jacob Hall -
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