Scary Movie (2000)

                              SCARY MOVIE
                    A film review by Christopher Null
                      Copyright 2000 filmcritic.com
                             filmcritic.com

A cynic would say any filmmaker is looking for trouble by trying to make a spoof out of another spoof.

Scary Movie is just that spoof, a Wayans brothers special that's a flat-out parody of Scream -- both of which ironically were produced by Dimension Films. Studio spoofs itself -- now that's comedy!

Oddly, I have very little to say about this picture at all. There's not much point to discussing the plot of Scary Movie (mercifully renamed from Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween). If you've seen Scream (and Scream 2), I Know What You Did Last Summer (and its sequel), The Sixth Sense, The Blair Witch Project, and, delving into more curious spoof choices like The Matrix, The Usual Suspects, and the Budweiser "Whassup" commercials -- then you'll "get" Scary Movie.

Not that there's much to it to "get." As usual with this genre, there's no story; the Wayanses simply pummel the audience with gag after gag. My humor-o-meter pegs the success rate of these jokes at about one in three, including (at best count) three fart jokes, two penis jokes, one testicle joke, and at least three jokes about Scary Movie not being real, but, you know, actually being a movie instead. And that's not to mention countless gay jokes, sex jokes, and gay sex jokes. Yeah, one in three is about right.

Ironically, Scary Movie spoofs the teen horror genre but is so raunchy it's shocking it isn't rated NC-17. I guess the old phallus-through-the-head gag is a-ok these days.

While this is the best film Keenan Ivory Wayans has been involved with since his first film, 1987's Hollywood Shuffle, that isn't saying much (did you see The Glimmer Man?). Still, if you're looking for a little gross-out raunchiness and you've already seen Me, Myself & Irene, Scary Movie may be the perfect late-night fix. Just consider yourself warned.

RATING:  **1/2

|------------------------------|
 \ ***** Perfection             \
  \ **** Good, memorable film    \
   \ *** Average, hits and misses \
    \ ** Sub-par on many levels    \
     \ * Unquestionably awful       \
      |------------------------------|

MPAA Rating: R

Director: Keenan Ivory Wayans Producer: Eric L. Gold, Lee R. Mayes Writer: Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg, Buddy Johnson, Aaron Seltzer, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans Starring: Jon Abrahams, Carmen Electra, Shannon Elizabeth, Anna Faris, Kurt Fuller, Regina Hall, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Mark Hoeppner

http://www.scarymovie.com/

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