There’s no easy way to review Scary Movie 4. On one hand it’s a disjointed, plot-lacking film held together with a series of jokes that may or may not be funny depending on your sense of humor. On the other, the jokes are usually pretty damn funny and the spoofs they gravitate towards may not be comedy gems in the eyes of most professional critics, but lose looking for a laugh on a Saturday afternoon, Scary Movie 4 fits the bill.
Returning for her fourth outing is Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) who once again has to deal with a set of unusual circumstances involving an alien plot to invade the earth. Joining her is a cast of many including cameos and holdovers from Scary Movie 3. In fact, the fourth installment in the series does an adequate job of bridging the gap between the two films by showing us where characters are only a few years later.
The main movie being spoofed here is The War of the Worlds in which Tom Ryan (Craig Bierko) takes on the role played by Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg’s underwhelming original. Complete with kids that hate him, Ryan must save his family from an alien attack after a ‘TriPod’ erupts from the street and begins to vaporize the curious human beings. There really isn’t any need for spoiler warnings, but the puppet from Saw and the dead kid from The Grudge play an important part in moving the story along.
This is really a love-it or hate-it movie, but comedy veterans David Zucker and Jim Abrahams have put together a film that is funny consistently through with enough jokes and gross out moments to keep you chuckling all the way though. Although the belly laughs aren’t as constant as you would imagine, re-watching Scary Movie 3 on cable proved that the series can remain consistently funny even years after their release.
In an auspicious bit of cameo casting Charlie Sheen reprises his role from Scary Movie 3 only to be a tormented man sleeping with three women and wanting to end his life. How he chooses to do this is one of the most awkwardly funny suicides in movie history. We also get a cameo from Carmen Electra in a bowel-moving episode guaranteed to make you vomit a little bit in your mouth. Finally, Leslie Nielson returning as the President is a welcome addition to the cast and his speech to the United Nations is priceless once his clothes are zapped off.
The series still has its edge, even though the fourth installment does show a little bit of aging. Still, with so many movies released every year, there’s plenty of material abound for the creators to pull more material for the series guaranteed fifth installment. With such worthy candidates as The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible III, and X-Men: The Last Stand all opening this summer, the next Scary Movie is one sequel I can’t wait to see.