Scary Movie 3

The third installment of the SCARY MOVIE parody film series takes the plotline of THE RING, SIGNS, THE MATRIX RELOADED and 8 MILE, and mixes it up with moments from THE OTHERS, several other movies, pop-culture reference points and anything else that one might deem funny. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t.

I’m a fan of parody movies. I consider TOP SECRET and the AIRPLANE series as some of my all-time favorite films, so I always look forward to seeing what’s next, and despite the follow-up to the very funny SCARY MOVIE not living up to its predecessor (let’s face it…it sucked), I was somewhat surprised with this go-around which had enough laughs for me to recommend (on video) to anyone who is a fan of the genre, and especially those in the film’s obvious target audience, i.e. teens. I personally could have done without all of the “gangsta” stuff, but when it came down to the parodies of films like THE RING, SIGNS and THE MATRIX RELOADED, I chuckled my way through enough jokes to balance off the less successful ones spawning from lamer spoofs of 8 MILE and anything relating to Leslie Nielsen and his President character (although the Mother Teresa bobble-heads were funny). There’s really not much more that you can say about a spoof movie, other than whether or not you actually thought it was funny, but I will also give marks to the filmmakers for properly re-creating the spoofed films’ sets and atmosphere, and for stringing along a manageable plotline involving all of the flicks. Having said that, it’s to note that simply re-shooting similar sequences from the parodied films do not make it funny…you actually have to include humor in there as well. In the case of the entire 8 MILE sequence, very little of it was funny (save for the puking), and almost took me completely out of the picture. Thankfully, Charlie Sheen, Simon Rex and Anna Faris were great as the straight leads, and kept things moving, despite slow-downs and lame jokes here and there. Faris was especially solid (as she was in the previous installments) and damn cute to boot! (her speech to the kid at the end was hilarious)

My favorite jokes in the film included several one-liners (“Hey Tom, can you give me a lift home afterwards?” and “My dream is to have a dream!”), the George Carlin architect scene, most of the stuff involving THE RING, especially the dude on the phone, some of the stuff with the aliens (the videotapes were hilarious), as well as several chuckles spread about. I didn’t think Leslie Nielsen’s character or storyline worked at all, nor Anthony Anderson, who I usually enjoy and some of the more dated jokes like the Michael Jackson stuff. Two-second appearances by Eddie Griffin, Macy Gray, Ja Rule, D.L. Hughley, Jeremy Piven and others were embarrassing as well and surely included for obvious “let’s pad the movie up with as many names as we can” reasons, while the opening sequence with Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy showed 1) how damn plastic Anderson has gotten over the years 2) how ridiculously monstrous her boobs have become and 3) how cute Jenny McCarthy is and how she should be in more comedies. I thought the opening could actually have been stronger, but enjoyed a few laughs from it anyway. The film also flew by at a zippy 78-minutes but shafted the audience with no bloopers or extra scenes during its closing credits. In the end, much like any other comedy, and more specifically “spoof comedies”, your overall enjoyment of this film will likely depend on the type of humor that you enjoy, the mood that you are in on the day that you see it and the age at which you are presently residing. Notwithstanding all of that, SCARY MOVIE 3 is definitely not a classic by any means and despite one of the Zucker brothers directing it (he of my aforementioned favorites), it is unlikely that it will be remembered as one of the more successful spoofs. My recommendation is to catch it on video and don’t expect much from it. “I just wanna wish you good luck…we’re all counting on you.” Nice nod.

PS: Thumbs waaaaaaay down to Dimension Films for showing clips of the film in the trailer that were not in the finished product. Isn’t that called “false advertising”?

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian