SCARY MOVIE 4
US, 2006, 83 minutes, Colour.
Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Craig Bierko, Bill Pullman, Anthony Anderson, Leslie Nielson, Molly Shannon, Michael Madsen, Chris Elliott, Carmen Electra, Shaquille O’ Neal, Cloris Leachman.
Directed by David Zucker.
What is there to say about a movie spoof except to say whether the reviewer found it funny and to indicate what are the targets of the satire.
The important caveat is that it will really be intelligible only to those who have seen and enjoyed the movies lampooned.
On the first count, it seemed to me to be quite funny, mostly in a chuckling kind of way. The recent Date Movie made the mistake of simply re-doing some of the funny sequences in romantic comedies only proving that the originals were much better and cleverer. The Scary Movies don’t simply imitate. They exaggerate and put into a comic context the originals. The first two movies tended to be over-scatological in their humour, too ‘gross-out’. While there are some lavatory jokes (this time a literal one at the expense of The Village), this time the aim is parody that most people can enjoy.
And the references? It starts with a funny skit on Saw with Shaquille O’Neal? and TVs Doctor Phil happily sending themselves up (and the action comes back to the dungeon of Saw). The main plot concerns Anna Faris (once again showing herself to be a good sport, not just a dumb blonde or a blonde in dumb situations). She gets a job like that in The Grudge. However, next door is Craig Bierko who works on the docks, clashes with ex-wife and children – just like Tom Cruise, only taller – and experiences the War of the Worlds, which is the main part of the plot. And any film which belts the Dakota Fanning character from pillar to post could not be all bad! Meanwhile, Anna and her friend are waylaid into The Village.
There are also some shots at George Bush, especially at the school where disaster is announced and he wants to hear the end of the story about the ducky, and an address to the United Nations. Leslie Nielson does his usual deadpan as the President.
While the President may not be a great fan of Scary Movie 4, Tom Cruise will be even less so – after the War of the Worlds comes the parody of his jumping and laughing turn on the Oprah Winfrey show.
