Scary Movie 4 (2006) Reviews

• OK - so its not great art!

  hesketh272007-06-11

  Its pointless trying to analyse this film as some reviewers have obviously tried to do here. Its not hilarious by any means but it does pass an amusingly enjoyable 80 minutes of time. The gags are mostly clichéd and predictable, there's lots of tired old slapstick but when there's nothing else on TV (which is why I watched this) it certainly fits the bill. As for the appearance of 'Michael Jackson' in the film, I'm still laughing every time I think about it - heaven knows how they got away with it, but its certainly a funny moment!! Im' glad that I had seen all the films that this tries to spoof and the re-creation of the sets for War of the Worlds is fantastic. Its so close to the original.

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• No brains were harmed during the making of this production.

  Torgo_Approves2006-04-17

  Scary Movie 4. Is it an example of good film-making? No. Will future film students study this movie and its revolutionary techniques? No. Could I have written this script in half an hour while stoned? Yes. Can I remember the last time I laughed this hard? No. The key to enjoying a Scary Movie is to see it as a series of sketches based on popular movies, rather than a stand-alone film. The spoofs are extremely obvious and require as little thought to understand as it must have taken to write them. But as far as juvenile humour and crude visual jokes go, David Zucker does it right. You might question Zucker's actual skills as a director, but I dare you to call any of his movies unfunny. Another reviewer mentioned that he missed the Wayans' style of comedy and brought up the scene where a blind Carmen Electra mistakes a church seat for a toilet as one of the funny scenes. Funny how I thought that was the only scene in the entire movie where the comedy fell on its face. The Wayans' relied far too much on lame sexual humour and gross-out jokes and I enjoy slapstick far more than that. Not that Scary Movie 4 doesn't have its fair share of (hilarious) crude jokes. I won't spoil all the fun for you, so I'll just mention my favourite: Charlie Sheen, haunted by his past, tries to commit suicide, unfortunately the sleeping pills he swallowed turn out to be Viagra. That's the level of the humour in this movie, and if you are entertained by violent slapstick, people getting hit by cars, sexual jokes, and brilliant dialogue such as: "I saw this face..." "With a nose?" "Yes." "Hmm. Sounds like a face." ...then this movie is worth buying a ticket for. But if you can't stand lowbrow, dirty, and obvious comedy, you better stay away. Personally I thought 4 was the funniest in the entire series, after #3. If a movie can make me laugh for an hour and 22 minutes, I can't hate it. While Scary Movie 4 definitely isn't a "good" movie, it's hard to put down comedy this funny. Craig Bierko does a very good Tom Cruise impression, as well. If you liked the other movies, especially 3, this is a must see. Dirty, juvenile comedy is rarely this funny. Strongly recommended if you're in the mood.(r#16)

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• Still got the jokes...!

  when_anna_attacks2006-04-13

  I went into this film a little hesitantly...How can there possibly be a fourth Scary Movie that still keeps its humour? Well, it was (half) possible. Although the overall structure isn't as tight as the other three, the jokes are often still 'fresh' and there's a lot of slapstick, which, although predictable, is still funny! Anna Faris (Cindi), as always, is still on top form, as is Regina Hall (Brenda) and together, they deliver some fantastic comedy. If you're looking for a new, original comedy, perhaps this isn't for you. However, if you're a fan of Scary Movie 1, 2 and 3, then how could you boycott this one?! Go for it, even if it's only 80 minutes for a laff and a haff!

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• Extremely surprised!

  LoneWolfAndCub2006-04-14

  I went to this movie with very low expectations. After watching the trailers, I thought this looked pretty lame and a real waste of money. Boy was I wrong!! This turned out to be an extremely funny movie, which does an extremely good job at parodying movies such as Saw, Saw II, The Village, The Grudge and War of the Worlds. This movie has a plot, but it is all over the place. It starts off with Dr. Phil and Shaq chained in a bathroom, for anyone thats seen Saw, they cram the bathroom scenes into a 2 minutes. We then go to our hero from the first three, Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), who has taken a job looking after an old lady in an old mansion. She meets Tom Ryan (Craig Bierko) and they bond pretty quickly. A few days later the world is under attack by TrIpods. Cindy and an old friend, Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall) go on a quest to try and defeat the aliens. As I said before, I was VERY surprised by this movie. I found myself cracking up at most of the jokes, some of which were very clever take offs. The acting is OK (Leslie Nielson particularly funny as the whack President of America) for this type of movie and we shall be expecting a fifth installment shortly. I would rank this second out of the series, just under the first one. 3½/5.

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• "By keeping the parody and humour so tightly focused, they've generated more laughter than any other movies this year.. so far.

  I_Like_Turtle_s2006-04-14

  The Scary Movie parody wagon has been rolling since 2000, when the Wayans Brothers pooled their considerable comedic talents and came up with a kitchen sink flick that riffed on mainly horror movies — with just a little Matrix thrown in. The second Scary Movie, also from the brothers Wayan, riffed on The Exorcist, The Legend of Hell House, Poltergeist, Little Shop of Horrors, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Shining, and Hannibal. Non-horror targets included Dirty Harry, Charlie's Angels, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and again, The Matrix. A couple of years passed, and the directorial torch was passed to Airplane! genius-with-a-joke David Zucker for Scary Movie 3. Without Wayans, the genre widened a bit to add even more non-horror movie spoofs and much more current films. It was a box-office hit, so of course you knew what was coming… Scary Movie 4, with all the core regulars back in action, makes fun of War of the Worlds, The Grudge, The Village, Saw and Saw II, Million Dollar Baby, and Brokeback Mountain. With a better through-line connecting all the stories than its predecessor, Scary Movie 4 is a refreshing (albeit rank) addition to the series. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back as the clueless Cindy Campbell, and the sex-crazed Brenda Meeks, respectively. When Cindy takes a job as the caretaker of an elderly woman (Cloris Leachman), she runs into some scary ghosts with a grudge. But things start looking up when she meets her handsome new neighbor, Tom Ryan (Craig Bierko). Unfortunately, Tom is distracted by troubles of his own — namely a bitter ex-wife, two clingy kids, and, oh yeah: An alien invasion, sparked by the ground-breaking appearance of the "iPods". When Tom, his family, and Cindy are forced to flee and find a way to beat the huge, deadly alien-machines, they take a few side-trips. One such trip takes Cindy and her best friend Brenda into The Village, a place where time stands still and the resident blind girl (Carmen Electra) can't find the outhouse. Returnees from Scary Movie 3 include Charlie Sheen (spoofing Bill Pullman The Grudge; turnabout is fair play, so Bill Pullman is also in Scary Movie 4), Simon Rex, Leslie Neilsen as our Commander in Chief, and Anthony Anderson and Kevin Hart who've changed their Eight Mile tune to the Brokeback Mountain hoe-down/get down. I was impressed not only by the logical knitting of the story lines (only Brokeback Mountain is forced to fit, but it's okay as a flashback), but by the attention to detail. The sets and set design, especially for The Grudge and Saw, are flawless and even the costumes are perfectly fitted to the characters for each skit. The only bet they really missed was a zombie movie spoof (when Brenda returns from the dead — The Ring curse killed her in Scary Movie 3 — it's just glossed over). Despite too much scatological humor (just a personal bias of mine), Scary Movie 4 is a laugh-out-loud funny, well-directed and well-acted comedy that's a perfect kick-off to the summer popcorn season. To say much more would spoil the surprises, so all I'll say is: If you like the Scary Movie franchise, be sure and catch this one on the big screen.

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