Ghost Movie

*1/2 out of **** (ROTTEN)

Channel the New Year. Already in the second week, the Tomato Meter is at its lowest- a dashing seven percent, and with a spoof movie. This cannot end well. I will admit, the trailer had me chuckling. I'm big on stereotypical humor, and from time to time I like to succumb myself to just stupid, dumb fun. Being a fan of the first Scary Movie certainly doesn't hurt matters.

With that being said, "A Haunted House" is exactly what you'd expect... and not much else. In terms of humor, the ratio's about 2:5. That might seem like a bad mark, which it is, but for a film that aims at the lowest common denominator and scores a higher denominator, it's not too shabby. Acting/story, well, you don't go to these kinds of movies for that. Same goes for editing/choreography.

There's not much you can say about this film. This is one of those cases where you either are the audience FOR this film or you're not. If you're a fan of the first two Scary Movies, have an admiration for the Wayans brothers, and dig the advertisements for this film, you'll walk out of there with some good laughs here and there. If you completely despise these movies, or this type of humor in general, you'll walk out feeling cheated.

However, be warned, this is NOT a kids film (ala a Jason Friedberg/Aaron Seltzer production or even the last Scary Movies that were PG-13). Tons of sex scenes (played for laughs though), nudity, drugs, and such abound.

All in all, it's not as bad as you're led to believe, but it's still pretty flimsy.

There were some funny moments (most can be seen in the trailer), but they went for the maximum gross-out/shock value too often, and then tried to milk these jokes for too long. There are a lot of funny ways you can spoof Paranormal Activity, and they only really nailed a couple of them. They also couldn't seem to decide whether the plot was supposed to be "believable" or a vehicle for spoofing the genre like Scary Movie, which I thought was a lot funnier. Cedric the Entertainer was the only supporting character that really stood out. Nick Swardson's character was annoying and not used effectively. It was good for a few laughs, but I wouldn't recommend paying to see it in the theater. Several parts were about as vulgar and disgusting as you will see in a wide release movie.

A Haunted House (2013)

*** (out of 4)

Malcolm (Marlon Wayans) moves his girlfriend Kisha (Essence Atkins) in with him and soon they start to encounter the paranormal. Look, I'll freely admit that I walked into A HAUNTED HOUSE with incredibly low expectations but within the first minute I had tears running down my face from laughing so hard. I'll admit that I'm shocked at how much I enjoyed this thing but unlike SCARY MOVIE and other spoofs, this film here isn't just a copycat of the films it's spoofing but instead it's actually a well thought out comedy that has a lot of imagination that takes it down various funny roads. If you've seen SCARY MOVIE (or countless other spoofs) then you know there's always going to be some pot jokes. Well, this film here contains a pot gag and it was one of the funniest scenes I've seen in any movie in a very long time. The majority of the gags really hit their mark, which is so impressive considering that they're being thrown at the very every few seconds. As you'd expect the majority of the jokes are vulgar and cheap but what's most important is that they're funny. We get fart jokes, gay jokes, racial jokes as well as making fun of countless horror movies and they all work. Wayans turns in one of his funniest performances is ages and his scene in the bathtub is just downright classic in oh so many ways. Atkins is also extremely good in her role and takes a lot of abuse but the two have such great chemistry that you can't help but laugh. Nick Swardson, David Koechner, Dave Sheridan and Cedric the Entertainer play the people who get involved with the ghosts and all add some terrific laughs. A HAUNTED HOUSE wasn't made to win Oscars or be taken serious. It's a spoof and for the most part it's actually a lot better than many of the films that it's making fun of.

"You made a deal with the devil for a pair of shoes? Not shoes Malcolm!!! Louboutins OK, they've got red soles and they make my calves pop. I really needed them OK!" Malcolm (Wayans) and Kisha (Atkins) have moved in together and are excited to start their new life together. When strange things start to happen they look for answers and narrow it down to one thing. A ghost is messing with them. This is another movie that is pretty much what you would expect. Funnier then the recent Scary Movie movies but after a half hour it seemed to run out of ideas and started to repeat itself. The first half hour was really funny though. The movie spoofs the Paranormal Activity and Last Exorcism movies so if you have seen those this will be funnier. The dialog is funny and this is worth watching but don't expect to laugh all the way through, unless you like the same joke over and over. Overall, very funny for awhile then runs out of steam. I give it a B-.

Let's get this straight right now: I appreciate good movies. Was this a good movie? No, in fact it was pretty stupid. Will people hate it? Absolutely. Did I enjoy it? A whole lot. I don't know what it was about this movie, but at times I could not stop myself from laughing. In my head I knew it was stupid, but I just didn't care. It's immature, raunchy, and ridiculous, but I loved it. The only Marlon Wayans movies I like, along with this one, is the first Scary Movie, and White Chicks. All three of them were pretty stupid. But that's the point. Sometimes you just have to see those movies that are obviously not good, but will entertain you. I love good, well made movies as much as the next guy, but I also enjoy just kicking back and watching a movie that will keep me smiling for 90-120 minutes. So if you're bored, have $7-$10, and an hour and a half to burn, watch this movie.