Review of Scary Movie 4 (2006) by Vali T — 02 Jun 2011

Scary Movie 4. Is it an example of good film-making? No. Will future film students study this movie and its revolutionary techniques? No. Could I have written this script in half an hour while stoned? Yes. Can I remember the last time I laughed this hard? No.

The key to enjoying a Scary Movie is to see it as a series of sketches based on popular movies, rather than a stand-alone film. The spoofs are extremely obvious and require as little thought to understand as it must have taken to write them. But as far as juvenile humour and crude visual jokes go, David Zucker does it right. You might question Zucker's actual skills as a director, but I dare you to call any of his movies unfunny.

Another reviewer mentioned that he missed the Wayans' style of comedy and brought up the scene where a blind Carmen Electra mistakes a church seat for a toilet as one of the funny scenes. Funny how I thought that was the only scene in the entire movie where the comedy fell on its face. The Wayans' relied far too much on lame sexual humour and gross-out jokes and I enjoy slapstick far more than that.

Not that Scary Movie 4 doesn't have its fair share of (hilarious) crude jokes. I won't spoil all the fun for you, so I'll just mention my favourite: Charlie Sheen, haunted by his past, tries to commit suicide, unfortunately the sleeping pills he swallowed turn out to be Viagra. That's the level of the humour in this movie, and if you are entertained by violent slapstick, people getting hit by cars, sexual jokes, and brilliant dialogue such as:

"I saw this face...".

"With a nose?".

"Yes.".

"Hmm. Sounds like a face.".

...then this movie is worth buying a ticket for. But if you can't stand lowbrow, dirty, and obvious comedy, you better stay away. Personally I thought 4 was the funniest in the entire series, after #3. If a movie can make me laugh for an hour and 22 minutes, I can't hate it. While Scary Movie 4 definitely isn't a "good" movie, it's hard to put down comedy this funny. Craig Bierko does a very good Tom Cruise impression, as well. If you liked the other movies, especially 3, this is a must see.