Plot: What’s it about?
Once you’ve been parodied in the wonderful world of Hollywood, it can be said that you’ve really “made it”. Movies like Airplane!, Blazing Saddles, Hot Shots and National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon I are just some of the examples of this very successful type of movie. What is rather interesting about this newest film, Scary Movie, is that it’s a parody of a parody. While you can tell from the cover that it hits on several movies like The Blair Witch Project, The Sixth Sense, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream, the latter two are the main plot behind Scary Movie. Take any successful movie, fill it with actors, defy every rule of filmmaking and it’s interesting to see how many of these movies turn out to be successful. In Scary Movie’s case, it’s the most successful movie in Miramax’s history (and this is a studio that has had a few Best Picture movies in its catalog). So what exactly is so appealing about Scary Movie? Words can hardly do it justice…If you like mindless, gross humor dealing with drugs, sex and violence, then Scary Movie is right up your alley. Leave all your common sense at the door and expect the unexpected, it’s really better that way.
Just as Scream started out, so does Scary Movie. Instead of the lovely Drew Barrymore, we have the lovely Carmen Electra. At parts, the dialogue is almost identical but it’s those subtle little differences that make this version funny, whereas the original was to make you scared. Now odds are, if you’ve seen movies like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer then you’ll appreciate this movie all the more, as you’ll have some sort of baseline on what to go by; people who haven’t seen the movies being spoofed might just laugh at the slapstick humor, but luckily there’s plenty of that as well. We meet “the gang” which consists of six friends. They range from the downright stupid Shorty (Marlon Wayons) to the flamboyantly gay Ray (Shawn Wayons) and yes…this movie was directed by yet another Wayons brother, Keenan Ivory Wayons. The group is mourning over the death of Drew (Carmen Electra) who was killed by a masked assassin. This quickly flashes back into a “IKWYDLS” rip-off, but it gets some cheap laughs in. As the town becomes a media center, we meet Gail Hailstorm (Cheri Oteri) playing Courtney Cox’s role from Scream. Basically you’ve heard all of this before, as it follows the plot of Scream almost to a tee.
While I saw this in the theater I could hardly breathe, because I was laughing so hard. I’ve always been somewhat of a sucker for pointless physical comedy and this certainly delivered on almost every level. I guess I would have to say that the only weak point of this was that a lot of the jokes were very dated. There’s a scene, which should have been deleted in my opinion, of the now famous Budweiser “Whazzup” commercial. While funny right now, I think someone seeing this for the first time a few years from now would be rather lost. Still, Keenan Ivory Wayans and his talented brothers are not afraid to show us how low they’ll go for a laugh and it paid off for them big time. The screenplay is clever, though predictable, but the main success of this movie is with the casting. We see that no one is left untouched, as most every race and sexual orientation is made fun of throughout. Chalk Scary Movie up for one to own if you like movies of this genre.
Video: How does it look?
“Scary Movie” is actually the second of the series to come to a high definition format, “Scary Movie 4″ (the latest in the installment) is out on HD DVD and is distributed by The Weinstein Company, and they only support HD DVD at this time. Suffice it to say that if you want an entire collection of “Scary Movie” on the HD format, it’ll be a colorful collection of jewel cases to say the least. All that aside, I was pretty impressed with how this movie appeared on Blu-ray. The somewhat wide 2.35:1 AVC HD transfer is quite amazing. Granted, the film isn’t that old but even some of the newer films on HD tend to be hit and miss. Colors are very bright and lively and contrast seems to have been improved as well. The old standard DVD seemed rather flat by comparison. In yet another testament to movies in HD DVD or Blu-ray, “Scary Movie” scores points here.
Audio: How does it sound?
I went back and read my original comments for the audio portion on the standard DVD and seem to recall that I wasn’t too impressed with the way it sounded. As it turns out, that was no coincidence as this Blu-ray version of “Scary Movie” really doesn’t pack the punch that one would think it would. True, we do get a very nice PCM uncompressed soundtrack, but it’s mainly not put to use as well as other soundtracks are. Dialogue is nice and clean but there’s just no abundance of surround effects or anything that leaves a lasting impression. Luckily, this is a comedy and sound isn’t extremely poignant to the movie being enjoyable; that’s good.
Supplements: What are the extras?
The exact same features that were on the original standard DVD are present here and again, given the success of not only this movie but the entire franchise, I’d have expected a bit more. We get an 8 minute featurette with some behind the scenes information as well as the original trailer for the DVD (yes, you read that right). There are some deleted scenes, the highlight of which is an extended sex scene. And that’s it. No commentary, no new features. An improved video transfer is about the only thing that makes “Scary Movie” worth a look on Blu-ray, otherwise save your money.
