Wolff rating: MOSTLY HARMLESS
Plot summary: Limp riffs on the resurgent teen slasher film.
Biased, pithy comments: Oy. I thought this movie would be a slightly funny gag film a la ``Airplane'' or ``Naked Gun'' that was unfairly savaged by critics. Instead, I came away feeling as if it was rightfully savaged by the critics. Although there are a few funny jokes in there somewhere (my wife and I spent some time listing the handful of real giggles), most of the ``jokes'' are left out on the screen far longer than they could ever be considered funny. The pacing is bad, the parodies only somewhat amusing, and there seemed to be less making fun of teen slashers (especially since that was pretty much done as good as you could do it in ``Scream'') and a lot more dumb adolescent sex jokes (did you know gay people are GAY! Hee hee). Throw in a totally unfunny marijuana-using brother and you've got...a really bad movie. Skip, and it's too bad, since I generally like the Wayans brothers.
Other Notes: Watched this on the same day as the self-important ``Varsity Blues,'' and laughed out loud more times at that than ``Scary Movie.'' This is not a funny film, and I'm pretty forgiving; check out my review of ``Hot Shots!'' The DVD contains some moderately funny scenes cut mostly for sexuality (though none of it is really A-list). Not worth renting just to see them.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Anna Faris, Shannon Elizabeth, Regina Hall, Lochlyn Munro, Jon Abrahams, Marlon and Shawn Wayans
Directed by: Keenan Ivory Wayans