I have to say I really was pleasantly surprised by this film. Normally I prefer my comedy to be a bit higher brow than the Scary Movie films have been, but once I settled in and prepared myself for the slapstick, toilet humor style that has served them so well in the past, I found myself actually laughing out loud at points.
As with the first two in the series which mirror modern day horror classics like Scream, I Know What you Did Last Summer and The Exorcist, this film begins as a direct parody of the wildly successful (though I could never understand why) DreamWorks film, The Ring. From there, every parody imaginable finds its way into the fold; and they are not limited to other horror films. Basically, any film that could be successfully mocked in this style can be found. Some of the films more prominently poked at were Eminem’s 8 Mile with an added American Idol bonus thrown in for good measure, M. Night Shyamalans' Signs and The Sixth Sense and of course the Wachowski Brothers’ Matrix series.
The through line for the film quickly becomes irrelevant as the audience realizes that its all about the individual parodies themselves and not so much the film as a whole. Keeping that in mind, the actors really do an amazing job of keeping a sense of continuity to their characters. Anna Faris and Simon Rex in particular are, if you’ll excuse the pun, scarily convincing as the complete half wits that really keep the movie going.
I’ve been a fan of Simon’s since the days of Jack and Jill on the WB and could not understand why he hasn’t had more luck since its premature cancellation. (Granted it could be the whole Gay Porn scandal from back in the day, but still, can’t we forgive and forget already???)
The other duo whose scenes you’re going to be waiting for are the incomparable Queen Latifah and the hysterical Eddie Griffin as our Matrix stand ins. You can tell from the chemistry on screen that the behind the scenes interaction between these two was probably ten times funnier than anything that made it to the screen.
Tons of other stars show up supporting this cast including, Charlie Sheen, Denise Richards, Anthony Anderson, Pamela Anderson, Jenny McCarthy, Camryn Manheim, George Carlin and the master of parodies himself, Leslie Nielsen as the President of the United States.
One thing that I will say is that you really need to be up on the movies that they are referencing, otherwise tons of jokes are going to fly right over head. For example, there is a reference back to Airplane with Leslie Nielsen that I would never have picked up on had my trusty sidekick Bruce not pointed it out. The same is true with a lot of the cameos in the film. It seemed like every well known rap ...
