Scary Movie 3

A ridiculous amount of spoofs of other movies which is great! To me this is great fun throughout, so damn funny, well written in a few aspects, and heartwarming mindless entertainment! David Zucker is legendary for the spoof type even though these whacky movies aren't always appreciated. I love how hilarious some parts are quite satisfying.

...that when you stop worrying about being just plain filthy and start caring about being funny you make a better comedy. I was not a huge fan of "Scary Movie", although it had it's moments. "Scary Movie 2" was just awful. A real disappointment. Then, I was not sure when I saw the Wayans weren't returning and the film was rated PG-13 if it would work at all. Finally caught the film last night and I laughed more 5 minutes of this sequel than I did during the others.

It was great to see that David Zucker can still make a really funny parody movie. It was even more refreshing to see an attempt being made to not just out-gross, out-filth the previous film, and simply focus on making a truly funny comedy.

A funny thing happened on the way to the movie theater tonight. The third installment of the Scary Movie series is not only PG-13, but is directed by comedy legend/genius David Zucker. Although he took over a series from the Wayans Brothers, Zucker turned it around into something almost completely new. It isn't quite in the same vein as his one true classic, Airplane!, but it shows how he should stay away from movies like My Boss's Daughter and go back into the spoof genre which got him, and his team, off the ground.

The first movie based its main parodies around Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, and the second was mainly revolved around The Haunting. Scary Movie 3 has two central spoofs: The Ring and Signs. The protagonist from the first two, Cindy (Anna Faris), is now an anchorwoman who investigates a mysterious videotape while odd crop circles appear. Many celebrities have cameos in parodies of recent movies.

Instead of extremely crude sexual humor, Zucker knew that you don't need lewdness to make people laugh. One of the reasons why Airplane! was so great is because it was only rated PG; almost all of the humor was situational and not just shock value. Sure, Scary Movie 3 had its share of crude humor, but it wasn't as over-the-top and unnecessary as the other two's were. Instead, what he did was take his parodies and make them seem possible. For example, George Carlin plays The Architect (a parody of The Matrix Reloaded) who spends all of his time alone in a giant room. He gets so lonely, he `bonds' with his chair, what most people would do.

Also, what made Scary Movie 3 funny is how it pointed out the faults of the movies that it is spoofing. Throughout Signs, Mel Gibson doesn't even mention farming once, although he lives out on a farm. Charlie Sheen, who mocks the Gibson character, continuously talks about it for the first few minutes he's on screen. In 8 Mile, one of the things I hated about it was how everyone was speaking with huge words; here, parodies of those characters do exactly this.

Scary Movie 3 did have some gags that didn't work, especially around the middle of the film. It seems that Zucker just wanted to move as quickly as possible and instead of making it even 90 minutes (it's about 75) he just wanted to make a quick, short parody film. Although Carlin's character was okay, Eddie Griffin and Queen Latifah's characters (as characters from The Matrix) weren't utilized as much as they should have been. Also, Leslie Nielsen, who has been in most of the Zucker spoofs, has a small role as the President and plays a typical Nielsen character. I would have liked to have seen more of him, but at least he was able to deliver a classic Airplane! line.

Scary Movie 3 is one of the funniest movies of the year, with its almost continuous laughter. It's probably the best one out of the three in the series.

My rating: 7/10

Rated PG-13 for pervasive crude and sexual humor, language, comic violence and drug references.

Scary Movie 3 (2003) is a movie in my DVD collection that my wife and I recently rewatched on MAX. The storyline follows a family that live in a midwestern town that is experiencing crop circles and doesn't know if it's real or a hoax. Meanwhile, a single mom is raising a unique little boy who has unique visions and perspectives. As they both try to get to the root of their problems, they discover working together may help them get to the bottom of both family's issues...

This movie is directed by David Zucker (Ruthless People) and stars Anna Faris (House Bunny), Charlie Sheen (Major League), Regina Hall (Girls Trip), Pamela Anderson (Barb Wire), Jenny McCarthy (Dirty Love), Kevin Hart (Ride Along) and Anthony Anderson (The Departed).

This movie is way better than it gets credit for. This is a tremendous horror parody with a fun mashup of Sixth Sense and Signs (with a few others mixed in like The Ring). The acting is excellent and Charlie Sheen and Anna Faris are tremendous. The horror skits are awesome and the cameos thorough out are impressive. Kevin Hart, Queen Latifah, Eddie Griffin, George Carlin, Leslie Nielsen and Anthony Anderson all deliver strong cameos that are hilarious.

Overall, the focus on M. Night Shyamalan, especially during this era, was brilliant. This is more creative than it gets credit for. I would score this a 7-7.5/10 and strongly recommend it.

Scary Movie 3 is largely a spoof of five films, The Ring (2002), Signs (2002), 8 Mile (2002) and to a lesser extent, The Matrix (1999) and The Matrix Reloaded (2003). It begins with a spoof of the first scene from The Ring, then cuts to Tom's (Charlie Sheen) discovery of the crop circles on his farm ala Signs. As a bridge between the stories, Cindy Campbell (Anna Farris) is a television news reporter who is doing a story on the crop circles, and who is the guardian of a young psychic boy, Cody (Drew Mikuska), similar to Aidan of The Ring. The two stories turn out to be intimately connected. Tom's brother, George (Simon Rex) is a white rapper, ala Eminem in 8 Mile, and he strikes up a romance with Campbell. Meanwhile, President Harris (Leslie Nielsen) also becomes involved as the security of the country is threatened.

I used to make it a point to not read any other reviews before I wrote my own, but recently, I've become curious when I watch a film I really enjoy, like Scary Movie 3, that many other people seemed to dislike. I find it informative to read the negative reviews to try to figure out why people dislike the film.

The negative reviews for Scary Movie 3 weren't very helpful. The most popular complaints seem to be that the trailer ruined the film by "giving away the good parts" and that the film has fun at the expense of some people's sacred cows. Additionally, many people made a comment to the effect that you'd only enjoy the film if you're, say, 13 or under.

I never watch trailers before I see a film any longer. I have also had trailers ruin many films for me in the past, so I just stopped watching them; I recommend that you do the same. If you don't know already, think about commonalities in the films you tend to like. Get an idea for the genres, directors, actors and so on that you usually enjoy. That's the only guide you really need to determine if you should see a film. It's not a guarantee, but what is? I actually look away when trailers appear on screen before the feature when I'm watching a film in the theater, and I try to mentally block out the sound. It's pretty easy to do, as trailers tend to be heavier on sound effects than dialogue. If trailers appear on television, I quickly change the channel. At any rate, it doesn't make the film you're considering any worse just because you watched a trailer first. Scary Movie 3 isn't bad because the trailer ruined it for you.

Next, it's not a good idea to watch these kinds of comedies (we might call them "absurdist comedies", or "outrageous comedies") if you have any sacred cows--that is, anything that you feel one should not joke about, or that one could go too far in joking about. I don't see it as the film's fault if you haven't analyzed yourself and/or if you do not research the kinds of films you're considering viewing so that you don't expose yourself to something that you're going to consider offensive. If you're sensitive about certain things then you need to learn how to avoid them. If you're allergic to nuts or shellfish, you're going to be careful to not eat anything containing nuts or shellfish, right? It's not the chef's fault.

Finally, I'm definitely older than 13--I'm in my late 30s, and I loved Scary Movie 3. I came very close to giving it a 10 out of 10--it was at that score until the climax, which I felt unfortunately lost a bit of the comic momentum that preceded it, and which arrived a bit too soon for my tastes (I prefer longer films).

It helps to be familiar with the films being spoofed. Believe it or not a lot of the jokes are fairly subtle jabs at elements of the source material--for example, the pillow fight of the opening scene, which has connections to the almost lesbian subtext of the same scene in the original Japanese version of The Ring, Ringu (1998); or the character and camera "spins" when Tom first exits his farmhouse, which pokes fun at the stylistic cinematography of Signs. There are also many quicker references to other films. These will have far less payoff if you're not familiar with the source material. For example, during the climax of Scary Movie 3, there's not only a reference to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), but also the climax of Motel Hell (1980), which features an infamous chainsaw "duel".

There is a stylistic difference between the first two Scary Movies and this one, which is undoubtedly correlated to the change in directors. Rather than the Wayans Brothers, David Zucker directs here. Zucker is the exclamatory wiz who also helmed Airplane! (1980), Top Secret! (1984), and The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988). Scary Movie 3 is much more in the vein of Zucker's previous work than the other Scary Movies. I can't imagine why someone would like the one style and not the other, but if so, that might help you decide which Scary Movies to see, if any.

Finally, there were also some complaints over the plot of this film, especially the combination of such seemingly disparate plots from the source material. It's important to remember that this is absurdist comedy, with an emphasis on absurd. The crazy segues from one plot to the other, with them meeting in the middle thanks to Cindy, President Harris and a number of other crazy devices, was beautifully ridiculous. I want ridiculous when I watch a film like this. That's largely what attracts me to the genre. If you're at all a fan of absurdism, you should find much to enjoy here.