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| Source: rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup | | Rating: 4
| Not since "Kentucky Fried Movie" (written by the Zucker Brothers, directed by John Landis) in 1977, has a parody flick been so gleefully vulgar. "Scary Movie" pushes the limits of the R rating even further than last year's "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut." It's also pretty funny in the Zuckers' tradition - if one joke falls flat, two or three more will come along rapid fire that work.
The story most closely follows the plot of the original "Scream," with Carmen Elektra gamely appearing in the infamous first scene (her character's appropriately named Drew), being tormented by the Edvard Munch masked killer over the telephone as she makes popcorn. Within minutes, the Wayans have established good will by larking on the likes of Dennis Rodman, Jiffy Pop, and teen flick T&A.
Cut to seven friends. Cindy and Bobby (nudge, nudge) are the Neve Campbell/Jennifer Love Hewitt, Skeet Ulrich standins with virginal Cindy leading on the always enthusiastic Bobby. Regina Hall ("Love and Basketball") is Brenda, a "Clueless" standin and girlfriend of the sexual identity-challenged Ray (Shawn Wayans, getting one of the best laughs early on while asking for fashion advice). Greg's (Lochlyn Munro) obnoxiousness teamed with girlfriend Buffy's (Shannon Elizabeth, "American Pie") beauty queen dreams recall the "Last Summer" couple played by Ryan Philipe and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Marlan Wayans is Shorty, a stoner who tries to remind the others how a black man can survive a horror flick.
Just by the character's name (Gail Hailstrom), it's easy to guess who SNL'er Cheri Oteri is spoofing, although she only gets to shine in the Wayan's refreshing brief (and therefore more effective) "Blair Witch" reference. Hilariously over-the-top, to the point of near cruelty, is their handling of "Scream's" Dewey (played in those films by David Arquette) as Doofy, although actor Dave Sheridan gets to redeem Arquette's name in an amusing coda.
David L. Lander (TV's "Laverne & Shirley") has a cameo as Principal Squiggy (take that, Henry Winkler!) and Jayne Trcka gets the loudest howl as the girls' gym coach, Miss Mann.
Along the way, the Wayans have a ball with the "Scream" killer and his mask, particularly in a scene where he gets stoned off an aquarium bong set up by Shorty and his pals after receiving an invite that spoofs a popular TV ad. The essential mask changes shape to fit the mood, such as the killer's befuddlement at some of his victim's utter stupidity.
It's a credit to the Wayans (Keenen Ivory directs and cowrote with Shawn, and Marlon as well as Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer) that even cultural references which seem already overmined for parody still come off well in their hands.
It's tight, it's outrageous and it's definitely not for small kids. "Scary Movie" will have audiences screaming - in either laughter or in surprise at the lengths the filmmakers go to gross people out.
By : Laura Clifford
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| | Source: rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup | | Rating: 3
| SCARY MOVIE's least obvious joke -- and this is a film that never met an obvious joke it wasn't willing to beat to a slow, bloody death -- is its title. SCREAM, one of the 1990s horror films that inspired this genre parody, went into production with the working title of ... SCARY MOVIE. SCARY MOVIE, on the other hand, went into production with the working title SCREAM IF YOU KNOW WHAT I DID LAST HALLOWEEN. That title may have rolled off the tongue slightly easier than that of Shawn and Marlon Wayans' previous genre parody, DON'T BE A MENACE TO SOUTH CENTRAL WHILE DRINKING YOUR JUICE IN THE HOOD, but that ain't saying much. These particular members of the Wayans clan seem singularly fond of spelling out not just the general type of film they're sending up, but each and every individual film they're going to acknowledge within that send-up.
I'm not sure whether the entire concept of scattershot genre parody is beyond my appreciation at this point, or whether SCARY MOVIE simply made me feel like that was the case. I do know that it ended up making me cringe more often than it made me laugh. The set-up involves a group of high school students reacting to the murder of one of their classmates (Carmen Electra). Virginal heroine Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) wonders whether the killing may be related to an accident the previous year, in which Cindy and several friends hit a pedestrian in their car and disposed of the body. Her friends pooh-pooh the idea, but one by one they begin dying terrible deaths with very familiar m.o.'s. Who will be next? Cindy's sexually frustrated boyfriend Bobby (Jon Abrahams)? Her best friends Brenda (Regina Hall) and Buffy (Shannon Elizabeth), and their boyfriends Ray (Shawn Wayans) and Greg (Lochlyn Munro)? Or maybe Buffy's "slow" brother and honorary deputy Doofy (Dave Sheridan).
As much as SCARY MOVIE owes to the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team in its basic structure, it may owe even more to the Farrelly brothers. Simply put, this is as breathtakingly crude and tasteless a film as you'll see without going into the curtained-off area of your local video store. It's not that some of the crude sight gags aren't funny; a few of them are worth big embarrassed chuckles. Unfortunately, far more are either lazy or get really old really fast. SCARY MOVIE boasts not one, not two, but three flatulence jokes, in addition to not one, not two, not three, etc. but at least half a dozen oral sex jokes. And that's saying nothing of the entire GLAAD protest's worth of cheap sexual orientation gags. I suspect the Wayans Brothers know their audience well enough to know that nothing will get the guffaws going better than an effeminate football player, or a butch girls' gym teacher, or a forest of overgrown pubic hair. I also know I've rarely felt as pandered to for so little playful pay-off.
When the Wayans' finally do turn their attention to gags with specific reference points -- the SCREAM trilogy, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, even an improbable nod to THE USUAL SUSPECTS -- their batting average doesn't improve much. Inevitably at least a few gags are going to hit, most of which involve the pre-title attack on Electra. Others are seemingly obligatory swipes at already-tired targets like THE SIXTH SENSE's "I see dead people" line, TITANIC's "king of the world" line, Heather's confession in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and the ubiquitous "Wassup" guys from the Budweiser ads. There's rarely any confusion over the source of any referential gag, because director Keenen Ivory Wayans will usually let a scene run on for two or three minutes of set-up before ever getting to the punch line. A film like this has to jab and move, letting its gags stand or fall without someone pointing to them and shouting, "Hey, isn't _that_ funny?"
Before SCARY MOVIE's release, several critics wondered aloud how it could satirize a film that was itself a satire of other films. The premise wasn't entirely accurate, since SCREAM was always a horror film itself, albeit a deconstruction of horror films within the genre. SCARY MOVIE's problem isn't that it tries to do things SCREAM already did better, but that it's not funny enough often enough. Perhaps if more of the humor had hovered around the margins (like the labels on a restroom condom machine) instead of over-staying its welcome (like the fate of a talkative movie theater patron), SCARY MOVIE could have felt less like a marketing hook in search of some actual comedy. It doesn't take much creativity or wit to nudge an audience with pop culture references. It just takes naming your film something obvious like SCREAM IF YOU KNOW WHAT I DID LAST HALLOWEEN.
By : Scott Renshaw
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