Scary Movie 4

As a big fan of the first film in this series I have to say that I was disappointed by parts 2 and 3. This 4th film is a step in the right direction, but it's still not quite up to par with the original. It mainly parodies War of the Worlds, Saw, The Grudge and The Village, but it throws in jokes about Brokeback Mountain, Million Dollar Baby and even Tom Cruise's "Jump the Couch" incident on The Oprah Winfrey Show. There are some classic moments to be found within (Charlie Sheen's Viagra problem as well as the alien invasion scene), but there are too many pratfalls where someone hits their head on something and too many BM jokes (Carmen Electra's explosive diarrhea scene comes to mind) and that kinda ruins it for me when I know that the makers of Airplane! and The Naked Gun are capable of so much more. Still, it's pretty amusing (even when the jokes are flat) and worth watching at least once. It’s 1000 times better than Date Movie! Plus it doesn't hurt that Anna Faris is as cute as a button and makes looking like a fool as effortless as her Sarah Michelle Gellar impersonation.

2 out of 5


*written 4/15/06