| The fourth instalment of the spoof horror franchise follows pretty much the template that the second and third films in the series adopted. So there's a smattering of funny jokes to stick in the trailer, recreations of big scenes from other popular movies, and Anna Faris boldly trying to hold the whole enterprise together. Scary Movie 4 is thus a spectacularly easy movie to assess. Forget the inspired and downright hilarious original, and instead look to its sequels. Did you find them laugh-fests? Did you think they were entertaining? And did you actually like them? If so, Scary Movie 4 isn't going to disappoint either. But it will let down pretty much everyone else. It's not that its terrible. It's a passable way to spend a brain-dead hour and a half. It's just such a waste. There are some great gags to be made at the expense of Saw, War Of The Worlds, Brokeback Mountain and Million Dollar Baby (the film's main targets), but Scary Movie 4 just doesn't make them. Instead, it too often relies on a stilted pratfall, someone smacking their head, or some other bumbling sequence that doesn't work as well as it should. Granted, there are laughs, but nowhere near the number that the original film delivered. Which, as mentioned earlier, makes this an easy film to judge. There's a strong chance you already know whether Scary Movie 4 is your bag or not, and thus the only recommendation here is to go with your gut feeling. You're unlikely to go wrong. The DVD: A superb two disc set, with the extra features really compensating for some of the fallibilities of the main feature. There's bountiful behind the scenes material, amusing sequences that didn't make the final cut, and obligatory bloopers too. --Simon Brew |
