Film Review: Scary Movie 4

Scary Movie 4 (15)
Dir. David Zucker

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Attention: People with decent senses of humour are advised that this film contains scenes that may cause them undue distress. It’s not big or clever or even especially funny but then if it were anything other than a mildly amusing hodgepodge of sci fi and horror film parodies it wouldn’t be a ‘Scary Movie’.
Scary Movie 4, billed as ‘The fourth and final chapter of the trilogy’, is certainly a mixed bag of laughs. Lots of films get ‘made over’ here but you really need to have seen the originals to have any chance of enjoying the take offs. So here’s a quick check list so you can rate your compatibility with the jokes of Scary Movie 4, have you seen: War of the Worlds, The Grudge, The Village, Saw and / or Saw II, and Million Dollar Baby? If not then this might not be the film for you...
Entry number 4 is pure Friday night entertainment for those who don’t want to have to think too much and like the thought of seeing slightly funnier retreads of films – with added people hurting themselves to comic effect.
What can you expect? Well, you’ll cringe at the Brokeback Mountain scene, you’ll smile at Leslie Nielsen's clueless Fahrenheit 9/11 Bush-like President hearing about an alien invasion whilst trying to listen to a children’s story about a duck and laugh out loud as a Tom Cruise alike (Craig Bierko) punches a passable Oprah imitator (Debra Wilson) in the face because “he’s so in love!”– at least I did, does that make me a bad person?
David ‘Airplane!’ Zucker directs a host of cameos by people like basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal or the sexy Carmen Electra who said in the promotional blurb that she was happy with her toilet humour role because “at least I don't die in this one”. Others are here surely simply collecting their pay cheques like James Earl Jones, Bill Pullman and Michael Madsen.
One thing of note is that the production values and special effects are unusually high for such a disposable film. You may never look at your Tr- ‘ipod’ the same way again... So, whilst it’s kind of fun in a very stupid way, it’s not very scary but I’m guessing that “Mildly Amusing Movie” isn’t really a very marketable alternative title?

Darkmatt Rating: ööö (dumb but fun)


"Tom geared up for a sucker punch on Oprah..."

Darkmatters: H O ME