Scary Movie (2000)

The Long Review:

When you saw Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Blair Witch Project, and The Sixth Sense, did you feel like jumping out of your seat, warping into the screen, and dissing the hell out of the characters you were watching? Do you have a pent-up desire to tear up shows such as Dawson's Creek, sick of all the sighing and weeping? Well, Scary Movie promises something even better. It gets other people to do the dirty work for you. This film, directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, takes the plot of Scream, throws in and twists around key phrases from well-known films, blends in the graphic humor of American Pie, and delivers one funny parody.

I went to see Scary Movie thinking that I'd seen all the goods in its previews. I mean, can a preview be that funny and still leave room for gut-splitting humor in the movie? Yup. Seriously? Yup.

Scary Movie is funny. As in wet-your-pants kinda funny. It opens with the infamous scene featuring Carmen Electra playing Drew Barrymore's character in Scream 1. Here, she hilariously and very willingly botches her sex pot image by letting out gas while talking to the masked killer. Yup, hottie Carmen Electra farts. What has this world come to?! But man, oh man, was it ever good for a laugh. And the fun doesn't stop there.

The scenes that follow are a mockery after mockery of the key scenes of Scream. Combine that with sick, twisted screwball humor and a whole lot of sexual content, and what you get is a wet pair of pants. Was there anything that this movie missed? 'Don't think so. It even makes fun of the thirty-something year-olds who play roles of people half their age…using thirty-something year-old actors who are doing the exact same thing. Now that's rich.

The team-up of the whole Wayans clan is a godsend to those who just wanna sit and laugh…and laugh some more. Some of the scenes they deliver, you just cannot believe they thought of, much less aired! We're talking bearing both skin and sex organs, bodily functions gone awry, total political incorrectness…You name it. It's there. And it works. The Wayans humour shines through. If any other attempted to pull of the gags and stunts that they did, it would come out just plain corny, even offensive.

Scary Movie is meant for people with a sense of humor. If you don't qualify, don't bother. You'd either be really lost or really offended. And the genius of the movie's makers will be wasted. And that is a real shame. One of the best things that a movie could do is make fun of itself. And that's what Scary Movie does. Only it does it better…'cuz the joke is really on the movie it is based on. [sigh] Isn't Hollywood great?

Ebert's satisfaction:

ebert says	moviegurus say
I saw the movie, I laughed, I took notes, and now I am at a loss to write the review.	We saw the movie, we laughed, didn't take notes, and we were at no loss whatsoever to write the review.
Shall I discuss the plot? There is none, really…The characters? They are all types or targets, not people. The dialogue…is mindlessly functional, serving only to advance the plot…The satire…is more mindless…	We agree on all counts. But it was funnnnneeeeee!!
The bottom line in reviewing a movie like this is, does it work? Is it funny? Yes, it is.	Ol' Ebert almost seems ashamed to admit that he found this movie funny. We knew that deep, deep, deep down inside, he had a sense of humour! It just takes sex and sex organs to make it come out!!