Film Reviews

Scary Movie 3

• Rating:
• Director: David Zucker.
• Starring: Anna Faris, Anthony Anderson, Leslie Nielsen, Simon Rex, George Carlin, Queen Latifah, Eddie Griffin, Denise Richards, Pamela Anderson, Charlie Sheen.
• Details: US / 84 mins / (15PG).

Scary Movie - not particularly funny. Scary Movie 2 - even less funny. Now one does not have to be in possession of profound powers of observation to notice a disarming trend when it comes to the quality curve of this particular franchise. Like its predecessors, 'Scary Movie 3' is a thinly veiled pastiche of the most recent horror and blockbuster movies, including 'The Ring', 'The Matrix Reloaded', 'Signs', and 'The Sixth Sense', around which a half hearted yarn is spun. Of course, due to the nature of the slapdash material, there's very little in the way of cohesion in the narrative stakes, especially when there are any number of visual jokes to contend with, including cameos from old hams like Leslie Nielsen and Charlie Sheen. To his credit, director David Zucker (responsible for the similarly themed but infinitely superior 'Airplane!') tries to use whatever tools at his disposal (Denise Richards, m'lurd) and keeps the gags flying thick 'n' fast. Admittedly, most of them aren't very funny, but Zucker's so brash and eager to move onwards that his lack of quality control is almost forgivable. It's all incredibly derivative - the reoccuring riff on '8 Mile' seems to have been included simply for the recognition factor - but if you found the first two worthwhile, then you don't need me to tell you what to do.

Review by Garreth Murphy