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April 2006

Scary Movie 4

By Kam Williams

Scary Movie 4

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Distributor: Dimension Films
Director: David Zucker
Screenwriters: Craig Mazin, Pat Proft
Cinematographer: Thomas E. Ackerman
Composer: James L. Venable
Cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Carmen Electra, Leslie Nielsen, Simon Rex, Shaquille O'Neal, Dr. Phillip C. McGraw, Craig Bierko, Chris Elliott
Rated PG-13 for profanity, sexuality, crude humor and horror violence.
Running time: 83 minutes
   

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Slapstick Galore in Zany Spoof of Horror Genre and More

The formerly flagging Scary Movie franchise, revived an installment ago after being placed in the capable hands of director David Zucker, continues to thrive in spite of the absence of originators Shawn, Marlon, and Keenen Ivory Wayans. Zucker, who along with his brother Jerry practically invented the parody genre in the first place, was the brains behind not only Airplane, but The Naked Gun series.

Scary Movie 4 not only features take-offs of recent horror flicks like War of the Worlds, The Grudge, Saw and The Village but it also mocks some readily recognizable skits based on Brokeback Mountain, Million Dollar Baby and other pictures which don't exactly qualify as horror flicks.

Zucker relies on the services of an expanded principal cast plus a boatload of celebrity cameos to keep his clever combination of slapstick, sight gags, and bodily-function humor unfolding at a rapid fire pace. Among the Scary Movie alums reprising their roles are co-stars Anna Faris and Regina Hall, as well as Anthony Anderson, Kevin Hart, Chris Elliott, Leslie Nielsen, Carmen Electra, Charlie Sheen and Simon Rex. Among the newcomers to the ensemble are Bill Pullman, Craig Bierko, Molly Shannon, DeRay Davis, Michael Madsen, TV-shrink Dr. Philip McGraw, NBA All-Star Shaquille O'Neal, James Earl Jones and gangsta' rappers Andre 3000 and Chingy. And don't be fooled, a few of the famous faces here are played by impostors, such as the look-a-likes delivering decent impressions of Mike Tyson, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Katie Holmes and Oprah Winfrey.

To appreciate this film fully, it would help to have seen the movies mentioned above, but all that's really necessary is a rudimentary understanding of each one's prevailing theme. The gruesome gags begin with a spoof of Saw in which Dr. Phil and Shaq are chained to the floor of a dungeon and one of them has to saw off a leg in order for them to escape. Enough said about that hilarious opening, rather than spoil it. Next, it's Sheen reprising a scene from The Grudge, but as a suicidal soul who mistakenly overdoses on Viagra instead of sleeping pills, before toppling off a terrace due to an imbalance caused by his sudden tumescence. Then there's the Brokeback moment shared by Anderson with the shivering cowboy he invites into to his hillside tent with the assurances that "I ain't on the down-low or nothing." The big joke in this case comes when he reaches between the surprised guy's thighs to retrieve a bag of cashews, explaining, "I'm just trying to grab some nuts."

In perhaps the picture's funniest sequence, Mike Tyson goes ape during a prize fight and proceeds to chew off the ears of almost everybody in attendance. 80 year-old Nielsen does what must be the first nude scene of his career as a nit-witted President of the United States. Suspiciously similar to you know who, he also decides to finish reading the rest of a children's tale called "Rumpelforeskin" with a classroom of grade school kids rather than respond to the fact that country is under attack by aliens. As you might have suspected by now, there's precious little linkage from one sketch to the next, as the scriptwriters never bothered to ground the production with the rudiments of a plot. With the storyline rendered irrelevant, this means that Scary Movie 4 is an experience best savored from moment to moment. So, there's no need to try to make sense of any developments or to be upset when a joke falls flat. For another one which might just work for you will be waiting right around the cinematic corner.

A low-brow comedy chock full of cheap laughs.