Todo Mundo em Pânico 4

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!

The unemployed Cindy Campbell (Anna Farris) is hired to work in a cursed house as caretaker of an old lady and meets the ghost of a boy. Meanwhile, the teenager son Robbie and the young daughter Rachel of his next door neighbor and crane operator Tom Ryan (Craig Bierko) are spending the weekend with their loser father. Cindy and Tom meet and fall in love for each other, but when Giant Tripods invade Earth, Tom escapes with Robbie and Rachel; Cindy travels to a village, trying to find the answer to a riddle to save the world; and the president of USA organizes the defense of the planet in UN under his intelligence and leadership.

As I have previously wrote, parody movies are always of the type 'love or hate' it. I am not intellectual, I love cinema as culture, but also as entertainment, so I like this genre. Further, when I see this type of movie, I know exactly what I am going to see: scatological jokes, funny and surrealistic references to other films and definitely a movie that will never be indicated for an Oscar.

I found this "Scary Movie 4" also very funny. The screenplay is a big joke with the remake of "War of the Worlds", entwined with "The Grudge" and "The Village". It also satirizes "Saw" and "Saw 2", "Brokeback Mountain" and "Million Dollar Baby". There are also references to the American pop culture that I unfortunately have not understood, like for example Dr. Phil, the Oprah talk show in the end (see Obs.) or Bruce the Bed King. Leslie Nielsen is hilarious in the role of the smart president.

This is the type of movie that you must shut down your brain and start laughing. What I do not understand and really irritates me are the reviews of persons that should never watch this type of movie. What do they expect to see when they go to the movie theaters or buy / rent a DVD called "Scary Movie 4" ("the last part of a trilogy"), directed by David Zucker and with Leslie Nielsen and Anna Farris in the cast? An art movie, with hidden messages, an epic, a classic or a film with politically correct jokes? Honestly, if I did not like this genre, I would never spend my time watching it. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): 'Todo Mundo em Pânico 4' ('Everybody in Panic 4')

Obs: My son has just forwarded "Tom Cruise Freakin Out On Oprah" in Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M08PfuP_NXs

Having seen all three previous Scary Movies I was well informed as to what to expect from the film, yet I wasn't at all bored with the film. I found my self chuckling out loud for the entirety of the movie. Some of the gags in the film were really quite funny, especially the Brokeback Mountain sketch between "Mahalik" and "CJ" was particularly funny. some of the apparently off the cuff humour was really quite enjoyable to watch including the banter between the above characters. Anna Faris was on usual form fulfilling her role as the "female title fight boxer", her missing swing at female opponent "Mike Tyson"(busy biting ears) causing nearly everyone involved in the fight and the crowd, to almost majestically, break their necks, leaving Cindy distraught and full of guilt. The overall length of the movie was quite short but I felt that it was just the right time, any longer and perhaps my interest would have been lost. The Tom Cruise character in the film was OK but his face was rather annoying sometimes, and they even managed to get in a contractual Michael Jackson kiddie fiddler crack. Overall I thought the performances were good and was a quality addition to the Scary Movie franchise.

Some movies are like a halfway filled gas tank. The part of tank that has the gas keeps the car rolling, but the empty part doesn't help the car move at all.

Such is the instance with Scary Movie 4. The first half of the film is completely void of laughs and relies on the been-there-done-that slapstick/goofy violence you'd expect to see on a re-run of a Three Stooges episode on PBS. However, the second half of the movie has quite a few laughs and had enough energy to keep me interested in the movie, but the movie needed a refill for the last few minutes, as it runs out of gas before it reaches the finish line.

This time around the plots of recent movies such as War of the Worlds, The Grudge, Million Dollar Baby, Saw, The Village, and quite a few others are intertwined to form a smudge of a comedic plot. Why explain it? Trying to compress the plot into a tiny paragraph is like trying to squash a block of cement in a vice. It just can't be done.

I don't know why Scary Movie 4 has to keep on recycling the same slap stick jokes that have been in the previous movie. The only laughs in this film come from spoken one-liners. It's as if they had no other funny dialogue to come up with, and added fart and ball jokes instead that reminded me of the previous bomb this year, Date Movie. Another problem Scary Movie 4 seems to have is a lack of knowledge of when to stop. There are many laughs, but many of the same jokes are played on for such a long time and are repeated that you feel ashamed that you laughed at them when they started. It doesn't know when to quit.

What keeps the movie alive the most is, like in Scary Movie 3, Leslie Nielsen playing the President of the United States. He again shows us how much he is needed for these kinds of movies, and there is a very funny scene in which he doesn't know what to say during a speech to the United Nations.

If you liked Scary Movie 3, most likely you'll like Scary Movie 4. I don't think anyone who found many recycled jokes in Scary Movie 3 will find anything fresh here. After all, do the movies Scary Movie 4 spoofs have much originality, even when played seriously?

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.