Does that make it an artistic success? Should I give them high marks for creating the kind of film where star Anna Faris is hit in the face by a ball (twice), simply because they chose not to aim any higher?
And what of the entertainment value? I can tell you that there was exactly one moment in “Scary Movie 4” that I found truly amusing: Craig Bierko in his back yard splitting Duraflame logs with a hatchet. The rest of this comedy is an utter disaster- the film, like it’s predecessors, exists mainly as a framework to string together parodies of recent horror films. In this edition the chief targets are “War of the Worlds,” “The Grudge,” “Saw,” and “The Village,” although “Brokeback Mountain” and “Million Dollar Baby” (among others) also take hits.
In general I enjoy parody, from the collected works of “Weird Al” Yankovic, to the earlier films of “Scary Movie 4” director David Zucker and his ZAZ cohorts. Unfortunately Zucker has come a long way from “Airplane!” and the first two “Naked Gun” films- those films had a spark of originality that lifted them above the pointless imitation of “Scary Movie 4.” Back then it wasn’t enough to simply ape (literally) moments from other films for laughs. Unfortunately years of sub-par comedies (most of Mel Brooks’ 90’s oeuvre and some others) have lowered the parody bar, and Zucker seems more than capable of limbo-ing under.
That’s not to say that the original material here is any better. In addition to the repeated “ball hits face” bit, there are three similar gags about people hitting their heads on things. The film is also rife with tired sex jokes and scatological routines; the scene where Carmen Electra has a prolonged B.M. in the middle of a town hall meeting will probably go down as the “parting of the red sea” moment for people who like these kinds of movies.
That’s the thing though- this film has an audience. I may not have been amused, but the fact that they’ve made four of these movies (not to mention “Date Movie,” “Not Another Teen Movie,” etc…) in six years proves that this material will bring people to the theaters. Sad as it was to witness, people in my theater were laughing at most of the jokes I’ve alluded to in this review. Which brings us to the ultimate critical debate: even though this film wasn’t my idea of comedy, shouldn’t the producers get credit for crafting a film that has wide appeal?
The answer to that question, and the earlier one about artistic merit, is a resounding “no.” At a certain point, every film, as a work of art needs to say something about its creators, and the message of “Scary Movie 4” is, “the audience doesn’t care what they’re watching, so it doesn’t matter what we produce.” For their lazy attitude and gall, they deserve no credit.
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