The Wayans brothers should have known better. "Scary Movie" is a spoof of "Scream", which was itself a spoof of the concept of the "80's teen slasher" movie genre, which itself was a spoof of the cheesy Roger Corman exploitation horror movie genre of the late 50's and 60's. Sounds great, huh?
If you thought "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1", "Fatal Instinct", "Hot Shots Part Deux" and "Silence of The Hams" were bad, you ain't seen nothing yet! The writing here is awful, the good jokes in this movie (like the funny ode to the Usual Suspects) are few and far between and the rest of the jokes for the most part are stupid and designed to not exceed beyond the intellect and comprehension of the average 8th grader. In short, this movie sucked.
Shawn and Marlon Wayans can be funny (and have been in the past). They were clearly in their element when they wrote "Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood" in ode to the utterly ridiculous, black stereotyping "hood" movie craze of the early 90's. That movie was funny because they actually made it in line with films like "The Naked Gun" and "Top Secret" -- It was a true spoof. The jokes in there were well thought out and well timed. The movie was well written. It was a film that had to be made, eventually, given how utterly ridiculous these "hood" movies were starting to get.
"Scary Movie" on the other had was a film that didn't need to be made. The original "Scream", as it is, was a great spoof of the teen slasher genre already, filled to the brim with self aware pop-culture dialogue that made even Tarantino shake his head at the utter pretentiousness of it all. It was great. It spawned a whole genre of the exact same types of self-aware slasher films that never took themselves seriously in the first place. Making a film like "Scary Movie" would be like making a movie spoofing "Austin Powers". It relies solely on a couple of unfunny offensive sight gags with no comical timing whatsoever (which are surprisingly non-subtle, given the knack for comic timing these guys displayed during some of the scene's in "Don't Be A Menace") and on a bunch of dumb jokes about `weed' and other current pop-culture things (those insipidly stupid "Wuzzzup" commercials, The Matrix, etc....). I think I laughed thrice during the entire duration of this film. As one other person here said, I can't imagine the feeling watching a movie like this 20 years from now. Its movies like this that make you appreciate a good "spoof" film. The genre was very overdone for awhile, but a film as witless as this makes you yearn for a good ol' Mel Brooks film and another film staring Leslie Nealson. It also makes you cringe at the glaring double standard in Hollywood. If you an make interesting, intelligent and unconventional film like "Eyes Wide Shut" or "American Psycho", you will probably have to censor vital scene's of the film to avoid an NC-17 rating, but if you want to make a buffo box-office, brainless, laughless and witless teen comedy, you can include all the tasteless "dick" shots and "cum" shots you want and still get an "R" Rating, since we know an NC-17 would cut into your core audience. I give it a 2 out of 10.
If you thought "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1", "Fatal Instinct", "Hot Shots Part Deux" and "Silence of The Hams" were bad, you ain't seen nothing yet! The writing here is awful, the good jokes in this movie (like the funny ode to the Usual Suspects) are few and far between and the rest of the jokes for the most part are stupid and designed to not exceed beyond the intellect and comprehension of the average 8th grader. In short, this movie sucked.
Shawn and Marlon Wayans can be funny (and have been in the past). They were clearly in their element when they wrote "Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood" in ode to the utterly ridiculous, black stereotyping "hood" movie craze of the early 90's. That movie was funny because they actually made it in line with films like "The Naked Gun" and "Top Secret" -- It was a true spoof. The jokes in there were well thought out and well timed. The movie was well written. It was a film that had to be made, eventually, given how utterly ridiculous these "hood" movies were starting to get.
"Scary Movie" on the other had was a film that didn't need to be made. The original "Scream", as it is, was a great spoof of the teen slasher genre already, filled to the brim with self aware pop-culture dialogue that made even Tarantino shake his head at the utter pretentiousness of it all. It was great. It spawned a whole genre of the exact same types of self-aware slasher films that never took themselves seriously in the first place. Making a film like "Scary Movie" would be like making a movie spoofing "Austin Powers". It relies solely on a couple of unfunny offensive sight gags with no comical timing whatsoever (which are surprisingly non-subtle, given the knack for comic timing these guys displayed during some of the scene's in "Don't Be A Menace") and on a bunch of dumb jokes about `weed' and other current pop-culture things (those insipidly stupid "Wuzzzup" commercials, The Matrix, etc....). I think I laughed thrice during the entire duration of this film. As one other person here said, I can't imagine the feeling watching a movie like this 20 years from now. Its movies like this that make you appreciate a good "spoof" film. The genre was very overdone for awhile, but a film as witless as this makes you yearn for a good ol' Mel Brooks film and another film staring Leslie Nealson. It also makes you cringe at the glaring double standard in Hollywood. If you an make interesting, intelligent and unconventional film like "Eyes Wide Shut" or "American Psycho", you will probably have to censor vital scene's of the film to avoid an NC-17 rating, but if you want to make a buffo box-office, brainless, laughless and witless teen comedy, you can include all the tasteless "dick" shots and "cum" shots you want and still get an "R" Rating, since we know an NC-17 would cut into your core audience. I give it a 2 out of 10.