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Scary Movie 3

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 star in the country showed up at one point or another, but if you're like me and have no idea who they are, it will go right over your head because the filmmakers make no effort to point these things out to you. Which, I agree makes for a better movie.

The DVD is PACKED and I do mean PACKED with behind-the-scenes information. Deleted scenes, outtakes and bloopers, 2 making of featurettes, director commentary and probably the most interesting is the alternate ending which takes the film in a completely different direction than the actual ending.

In the alternate ending, director David Zucker pulls out a monster sized parody of The Hulk as Simon Rex's character gets angry"¦ very, very angry when the aliens invading Earth keep him from Cindy and he is forced to fight them off. An enormous amount of time and money went into this unused ending as they also try to wrap up the Matrix Storyline which involved as you can imagine, tons of special effects as did The Hulk with tons of prosthetics for both the Hulk and the Alien invaders.

The original ending of course works much better for the film in that it's simpler and with a movie like this you can't get too complex otherwise you risk losing your target MTV generation audience that has been enjoying themselves for the past 90 minutes. On the upside for the alternate ending though for women and gay men, you do get to see Simon half naked and in ripped boxer shorts! C'mon you know you were all waiting for it!

Movie Grade: B

DVD Grade: A-

Overall Grade: B+

Synopsis:

The Scary Movie gang is back for the third installment in this spoof series, but they are no longer content to stick to the horror genre. Everything from “Lord of the Rings” to “8 Mile” is up for skewering.

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