Review of Scary Movie 3 (2003) by Harry W — 03 Apr 2015

Scary Movie 3 opens well by satirising the ignorant American teenage female and using Playboy models Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy as a front to do so, following in the traditional footsteps of the genre and not bothering to do anything more but show plenty of cleavage and set up a horror parody of The Ring. It's a good start for Scary Movie 3, and immediately sets it up to be better than its predecessor.

Scary Movie 3 soon makes it apparent that it features a more sophisticated feel than its predecessors which renders the comedy more surprising in its success, much like the original spoof comedy Airplane!. Coincidentally, this is because the Scary Movie film series has been transferred over to the hands of Airplane!'s director David Zucker to handle it, and his skill hasn't changed. He still works as a director of spoof comedies, and he breathes fresh air into the Scary Movie series in the process. He does a good job, but I'll admit I miss the presence of the Wayans Brothers, in particular Marlon Wayans as Shorty.

But David Zucker's role as director also works because it helped give Anna Faris the material she deserves to work with, and she doesn't have to dumb herself down into working with excessively crude material anymore, but rather just lets her comedic charm flow naturally into her performance, and it foreshadows much of her later work outside of the Scary Movie series.

But the screen is stolen by Leslie Nielsen. Leslie Nielsen is perfect to have in Scary Movie 3. Reuniting with director David Zucker after the comedy classic Airplane!, Leslie Nielsen does what he does best and plays his ability to work a serious characterisation into spoof comedy and making his part hilarious. To add to it is the fact that he plays the President of the United States, and he does it well. Very well, and you could expect nothing less. He provides strong comedic nostalgia.

Lastly, I don't know what Charlie Sheen is doing in there, but whatever it is makes me laugh. It's good to see him taking a shot at spoof humour again.

Unfortunately, like all films in the Scary Movie series, the humour is largely inconsistent. Mainly because of the cast, featuring lacklustre supporting actors and a lot of hit and miss jokes. The main issue is how a lot of the funny moments came from mere stupid humour, not from parodying any particular film, but there was never really any consistency. None in the humour, none in the pacing, none in anything. Scary Movie 3 overshadows its predecessor, but it doesn't have too much to be proud of on its own. Its just all over the place, and doesn't really tie itself together.

So Scary Movie 3 is better than Scary Movie 2, but too routine and scattered to be better than Scary Movie.