Film reviews
Title: Scary Movie 4
Director: David Zucker
Stars: Anna Faris ; Regina Hall ; Craig Bierko
Reviewer: Matt Eccles
Rating (out of 10): 2
Review:
After the hit-and-miss first Scary Movie and its execrable sequel, which was itself followed by possibly the worst spoof film in recent memory, logic would usually dictate that the studio pumping these out would know when to give up. However, somehow the series has proved to be enduringly popular and hence has made an enormous amount of money. Regrettably then, despite the first film’s tagline promise of “No sequel”, it appears this is a franchise that will run on interminably despite no apparent efforts to actually make it funny.
Scary Movie 4, with an exasperating predictability, is another case in point. Its spoofs, of such movies as Saw, War Of The Worlds, The Grudge, The Ring, The Village and even Million Dollar Baby, are so feeble and lazy that they really could have been conceived and written by mischievous school kids. It is extraordinary that the team who gave us the unforgettable high of Airplane! could plunge to such depths with this turkey.
The only mildly redeeming features are the lead performances of series stalwart Anna Faris, still braving her way through the role of Cindy Campbell with admirable gusto, and Craig Bierko, as hero and love-interest Tom Ryan, who provides most of the film’s pitifully few amusing moments in a skit on Tom Cruise’s infamous appearance on Oprah. But the breathtakingly poor script ensures that this 83 minute movie feels like a gruelling test only those with a stratospheric boredom threshold could hope to endure.