While not as funny as the previous two films in the series, Scary Movie 3 still throws the jokes out fast and furious. But under the helm of David Zucker, the franchise steers away from the gross gags of the Wayans brothers' movies and focuses more on slapstick, sight gags and situational humor.
That's a fancy way of saying that you'll still laugh, just not at the same stuff.
Mostly riffing off horror movies The Ring and Signs, Zucker also manages to pack in parodies of 8 Mile, The Matrix, The Others and more. As anyone who has seen the cinematic work of either the Wayans or Zucker knows, the story is nothing more than a frame on which to hang jokes. The plot in the third installment involves a reporter (Anna Faris) who uncovers an evil-infused videotape that kills whoever watches it seven days later. Naturally, both she and her orphaned nephew (Tim Stack) watch it, but only after Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy have met their ends (and we've met their breasts).
At the same time, an ex-preacher turned farmer (Charlie Sheen) and his rapper brother (Simon Rex) wake to discover not so much alien crop circles as an alien crop sign, "Attack Here," with an arrow pointing at their home. Rex and Faris, a veteran of the series, become romantically entangled, but not before a Catholic priest possibly seduces Stack, a corpse flies apart at a wake, and a crowd of disabled people get the crap kicked out of them.
Eventually, it all comes together, with appearances by Macy Gray, Leslie Nielsen, Queen Latifah, George Carlin, Eddie Griffin, Anthony Anderson and more.
Where SM1 and SM2 were gleefully rated R, the PG-13 rating of SM3 hurts the movie. Maybe it's because the Wayans took their bite with them, maybe it's because Zucker is just too old to recreate the zaniness of Airplane!, Naked Gun or Hot Shots. But the stabs at humor are as numerous as the costars, and for the most part, are on the mark. Even when you're not guffawing, you'll be snickering, tittering or at least smirking.
After Scary Movie 3, is there still life left in the series? You'll know next year, when Scary Movie 4 comes out, reportedly with a special focus on superhero movies. My Spidey sense is already tingling.