We all know the movie Scream and its subsequent sequels. We also know of the
And now we have a parody of the parody.
That may seem redundant, but hey, if any movie series has cried out for parody
Enter the Wayan brothers, best known for their work on the sketch-comedy series
The Wayans have been working in television and movies ever since. Not much of
(and if the above paragraph sounds at all racist, I do apologize; I'd not like
The humour in the movie itself is questionable at best. If you thought There's
That's not to say it's not funny. It is. It's just that a lot of the jokes are
What's it about? Does it really matter? No, and even the characters will admit
What am I saying? There are some funny parts. There are some smart parts. There
The end verdict? If you like the Wayans, go and see this movie. If you like crude
All I can say is this: It needed more of the killer, only then would it have been
Pun intended.
many movies that series has spawned. There's the I Know What You Did Last Summer
duology. There was that brief Halloween movie, H20, or something like that.
Suffice it to say, many of them are forgettable, with the exception of the first
Scream, which was smart and saavy not to mention genuinely scary and quite
funny. It poked fun at the very genre, the teen-slasher-flick, that it was an
integral part of.
more than Star Trek, it's Scream and the horrible sequels which it has spawned.
which launched their careers, as well as Jim Carrey's, In Living Color. This
was a funny series, one which did the genre justice. And then it got cancelled.
their material has been successful, save perhaps one or two movies that I haven't
seen or heard of (me being a single white 20yr old male, I'm not exactly the
demographic they're aiming at, so that makes sense). This movie, however, parodies
the teen-slasher-horror-flick genre regardless of race, so it's pretty much open
to any and all.
to come across as some sort of prick, but the fact remains that the Wayans' material
tends to be aimed at young black people instead of young white people or young
people of both races; it's not meant to be racist, just a statement of fact, a fact,
by the way, which is quite understandable, justifiable, and more than welcome)
Something About Mary was raunchy, rude, and pushed the envelope for tasteless humour,
then, if you'll pardon the expression, you ain't seen nothin' yet. If Mary pushed
the envelope, Scary Movie pisses in it before setting it on fire. This movie is
ruder, cruder, and just plain... well... nasty at times. You thought the scene where
Ben Stiller's character from Mary gets caught in his zipper was something you didn't
want to see? Scary Movie tops it. You thought the semen-as-hair-gel was just plain
wrong? Scary Movie tops it (and quite literally sticks it to the ceiling). I won't
get into specifics for you, here, but there's a lot of dick, a lot of raunch, and
a lot of... well... just a lot.
of the rude-and-crude fashion. Only some of it is smart parody, and most of those
scenes are the ones with the killer in them. Actually, to tell you the truth, the
scenes with the killer are by far the best ones in the movie. Funny as hell, every
single one of 'em. There's a killer (no pun intended) Matrix parody right near the
end of the flick that was simply priceless. I'd rent it just for that scene alone.
to the fact that plots in horrors have never really mattered, and the plot in this
parody-of-a-horror-parody doesn't matter either. Some hackneyed little thing which
makes fun of the first I Know What You Did Last Summer, but nothing more than an
excuse to parody (and parody it quite well, I might add) a scene from that movie
where the gang of young'uns hit some guy with their car and debate what to do with
the body.
are some downright hilarious parts. But a good portion of it is just rude and crude.
And while people will compare this to Mary, and claim that Mary started it all, I'll
say to you that it did. I won't argue that point. But the movie itself, for all
its crudeness, had a genuine heart to it. It was a nice little love story, when you
really look at it and remove the crudeness. And even with the crudeness, its heart
shines through. Even American Pie, for all of its raunch, had a warm heart to it
that shone through the nastiness and the sexuality of it all. Scary Movie doesn't
have that. It's just rude and crude (if you'll pardon the over-use of the terms),
with a few smart parodies tossed in there to keep it kind of balanced.
humour, go and see this movie. If you want smart parody, don't bother. While the
movie does have a few good, smart scenes, overall it's only really worth a rental...
though that scene with Miss Man (a "female" gym teacher) even makes me doubt that
one (though, I suppose that's what the "fast forward" button is for).
a "killer" movie.