Starring Craig Bierko, Anna Faris, Bill Pullman, Regina Hall, Leslie Nielsen, Anthony Anderson, Chris Elliott, Kevin Hart
Written By: Pat Proft, Jim Abrahams, Craig Mazin
Directed By: David Zucker
Studio: Genius Products/Dimension
Buy on Amazon.com link

I’m really surprised there has been 4 Scary Movies so far, and I see no sign of them stopping. As long as there are stupid horror flicks out there, there is something to make fun of. But what I like about the Scary Movie franchise is, there just don’t go after horror flicks anymore. They go after any movie that’s the flavor of the month or whatever is in the news. Some of the films that are spoofed in Scary Movie 4 are War of the Worlds, The Grudge, Saw, The Village, Brokeback Mountain and lots more!

Scary Movie 4 starts out with a Saw spoof when two recognizable people, Dr. Phil and Shaq, try to escape their doomed fates. The dim-witted Cindy (Anna Faris) once again stars in the movie, and is trying to find work in health care. After a brief visit (very brief) with Tom (Charlie Sheen), she starts her job helping some old lady in some creepy haunted house. Cindy doesn’t realize the place is haunted with some pale Asian kid until it’s too late. She encounters the boy and he tells her to see his Father somewhere to get answers. Meanwhile, Tom Ryan (Craig Bierko) is a deadbeat father with a crappy job and he has to watch over his kids for the weekend. Little does he know that some aliens decided to attack the world on “his weekend.” Since they live next door to each other, Cindy and Tom run into each other and they end up falling for one another. They go their separate ways but vow to see each other more if they are alive. Cindy meets up with her dead-not dead friend Brenda (Regina Hall) and the two try to find the Asian ghost’s Father and their hidden secrets. While that is all happening, Tom tries to get his kids away from the aliens, but at the same time reconnect with kids. He has a hard time of protected them from the aliens, and well, himself.

Like the other Scary Movies, many of the jokes were hit and miss. I tend to laugh at the sight gags more than the verbal jokes. I don’t know what it is, but I can always laugh at kids getting knocked out and flying across the room. That happened with the last Scary Movie and it happens again with Scary Movie 4. I guess David Zucker likes doing that joke. He also seems to overdo a bunch of fart & ass jokes this time around. I like a good fart joke like the rest of us, but overdoing it makes the movie less funny. I liked all the War of the World spoofs because I just hated that damn movie. It was so boring and bland and I was dying to see how much David Zucker and others were going to make fun of it. Craig Bierko (who’s a funny dude, if you ever watched Late Night with Conan) does a fantastic job parodying Tom Cruise. I’m glad to see he’s doing some comedies now instead of Broadway or some boxer movie fighting Russell Crowe. I liked Anthony Anderson and Kevin Hart’s characters again, and wish they were in the movie more. The Brokeback Mountain scenes had be cracking up, especially when they started to sing Lionel Ritchie. I think the funniest part of the whole movie was the very end, when Tom Ryan goes on Oprah. It seemed like the scene came out of nowhere but it’s quite funny and an excellent parody of the whole Tom Cruise going crazy incident. But I don’t think anything can top “Tom Cruise kills Oprah” that popped on the Internet after that happened. But the scenes with Chris Elliott and Leslie Nielson were okay. I liked Leslie Nielsen this time around because it was a direct parody of our President and how he handles the news of 9/11. But don’t feel like getting into politics now so I’ll leave it at that.

To me, David Zucker and Jim Abrahams are capable of doing far better than this movie. It just seems like the jokes are getting stupider and less funny. I wish they went back to the days of Airplane, Naked Gun, and Top Secret. But i’m glad to see Jim Abrahams is back writing again, since I don’t think he’s done anything since Mafia. But one thing the duo hasn’t stopped doing is delivering on funny cameos. This time around, Dr Phil, Shaq, Leslie Nielsen, Carmen Electra, Chris Elliott, Lil’ Jon, Michael Madsen, Dave Attell, and Darth Vader himself, James Earl Jones all appear in the movie.

I think the deleted scenes weren’t that great and I can see why they were cut. Sometimes I think deleted scenes deserve to be put back into the movie but not these. Some of the deleted scenes were things like Tom Ryan operating the crane differently and making things crash, the president (Leslie Neilen) walking around naked during a speech. Then there’s lots of alternate takes and extended scenes for scenes that actually did make it into the movie. The bloopers were funnier because it had Anthony Anderson & Kevin Hart messing up their lines for the Brokeback scenes. They didn’t want to get too close to each other when they had to pretend to kiss. “Interviewer’s Worst Nightmare” was good because everyone being interviewed weren’t talking about anything (or weren’t allowed to), and their responses were quite funny. There’s some other extras that are short but worth watching like the Visual Effects of Scary Movie 4, Zany Spoof Humor- Zucker Style and the Man Behind the Laugh. The extras weren’t bad bit they could have been a little more extensive.

Scary Movie 4 has its moments but I think it could have been funnier & better. I’m not sure if this one was as good as Scary Movie 3 but it certainly had me laughing in it. If you are fan of stupid comedies and zany humor, you’ll probably enjoy Scary Movie 4.

Features:
15 Deleted and Extended Scenes With Commentary
Bloopers
The Man Behind the Laugh (Director – David Zucker)
Zany, Spoof Humor – Zucker Style
Interviewer’s Worst Nightmare
The Visual Effects of Scary Movie 4
The Youngbloodz
Rappers & Actors
Feature Commentary with the Filmmakers

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1

Video:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:
English, Spanish

Favorite Scenes: Brokeback mountain scene, Opening scene, Oprah scene, Million Dollar Baby scene
Rating: NR
Running Time: 91 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: