Ghost Movie

Funny and straight-forward. jokes don't all hit but made me laugh a bunch (2 viewings)

The writing was already on the wall. With paranormal found footage films being all the rage recently, there's bound to be a comedian out there who would amalgamate most elements found in various films, put them all in a comedic spin, and make a feature film out of it. This time, Marlon Wayans beat the crowd to put something out there first, co-producing, co-writing and starring as the lead in this madcap comedy that pokes fun primarily at the Paranormal Activity films, with the usual politically-incorrect, toilet humour all making their way into the story- line, if you can call it that.

Those who are not Paranormal Activity fans may not come to enjoy the loads of silly references made in A Haunted House, where CCTV camera footage, and a hand-held videocam, together with VHS tapes and a web camera, provide choice footage in and around the home of Malcolm (Wayans). Against good advice, he welcomes his girlfriend Kisha (Essence Atkins) to co-habitate with him, only for her to bring along her excess spiritual baggage which includes an invisible friend from long ago. Things start to go the Paranormal Activity way with the closing of doors, strange sounds, and the playing with bed linen at night.

While the jokes come thick and fast most of the time, they do seem to be focused around the theme of sex, especially when Malcolm thinks having Kisha stay with him is that open doorway to passionate love each night. And that's where the unexplained ghouls come knocking on their door to exhibit some of the most outrageous physical comedy for the screen. When dialogue comes into play, then it goes the direction of poking fun at the expense of stereotypes, from an effeminate psychic (Nick Swardson) to a gangsta preacher (Cedric the Entertainer), and even more sex-laced comedy no thanks to their swinging best friend couple (Andrew Daly and Alanna Ubach).

Don't expect too much from this comedy and it's alright, although I had the niggling feeling that most of the best bits were already included in the trailer, which will leave you with anticipation for more, but didn't get delivered for that ultimate laughing high. This is one film that you'll either love if you're in the mood for nonsensical comedy, or after that hard day's work, otherwise you may find yourself frowning at just about any antics that the comedians start to pull off. Me? Crass comedies are my guilty pleasure, so I'm lapping up A Haunted House already.

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.

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.

*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.