Third 'Scary Movie' installment is not the charm

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

SCARY MOVIE 3 (PG-13) Two Stars (Fair) The latest installment in the series of parody films, poking fun at the current crop of horror and supernatural films. David ("Airplane!") Zucker replaces the Wayans brothers, with mixed results. Charlie Sheen and Queen Latifah are among the ensemble that includes Anthony Anderson, Regina Hall, Denise Richards, Simon Rex, and Eddie Griffin. Dimension, 90 minutes.

Just in case you think we're talking horror films, forget it. "The Scary Movies" are comic parodies, though the targets are admittedly the fright flicks and supernatural dramas of the day. "Scary Movie 3," for example, goofs on "The Ring," "Signs," "The Matrix," and "8 Mile." (OK, "8 Mile" isn't supernatural. But the Eminem story isn't quite natural, either.)

The latest installment isn't your older brother's "Scary Movie." The first two films were created in 2000 and 2001 by the Wayans family with Keenen Ivory Wayans directing. But the Wayans are gone and have reportedly begun work on a competing parody series along similar lines.

Here Faris' Cindy character is a TV reporter trying to dig up a big story to boost ratings. Soon, she's covering the appearance of crop circles in a farmer's (Sheen's) field, as well a series of deaths related to the viewing of a creepy videotape. Somehow, she also gets close to a young man (Simon Rex) with aspirations of being a rap star.

"The Scary Movie" franchise has been taken up by director David Zucker. He's an experienced hand at the genre, having helped create the "Airplane!" and "Naked Gun" parody films and their several sequels, which the new "Scary Movie" resembles. The Zucker "Scary Movie" also softens the sexual references and profanity, taking the series from R ratings to a PG-13.

Parody is what comedy filmmakers resort to when they can't come up with anything funny on their own. Maybe that's why we see so much of it. The goal is to stretch or exaggerate something very familiar, making it laughable (hopefully). It's easy because the basic structure is already in place. But flamboyant films like "The Ring" and "Signs" and "The Matrix" are already close to over-the-top, which makes successful exaggeration almost impossible.

It's also a challenge to make coherent sense out of a string of seemingly unrelated shorts sketches and sight gags. (The genius of such films remains Mel Brooks. "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein" are the pinnacles of this lesser art form.)

Because the SM3 source material is all over the place, so is the movie. The scattergun humor occasionally hits the broad targets — and sometimes misses by a mile.

Why do I conclude that "Scary Movie 3" is uneven at best? I laughed, I yawned, I giggled a bit more, I wiggled in my seat, I wished I had a portable radio to listen to the World Series. You get the picture.

Rated PG-13, with profanity, innuendo, comic fright.