Scary Movie 2
(2001)
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The Wayans brothers scored a surprise monster hit with SCARY MOVIE, and in the advertising for that film they promised "no sequel." So here it is, SCARY MOVIE 2, featuring the return of Shawn and Marlon Wayans as well as Anna Faris and Regina Hall in addition to some new faces added to the gross-out fun, including Chris Elliott as a caretaker with a deformed hand that he uses extensively in his cooking, Tim Curry as a professor with a thing for the girls, David Cross as a wheelchair-bound computer geek with a great combover, and Tori Spelling as a hot teenager looking for some ghostly action. The movie begins with a prologue that spoofs THE EXORCIST, with Andy Richter as the young priest, James Woods as the old priest, and Natasha Lyonne as the poor possessed child with the salty tongue. From there the plot uses and abuses from Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING--in this case, a group of college students must spend a weekend in a haunted castle in exchange for receiving an A from their naughty professor. Once again Keenen Ivory Wayans directs, this time borrowing liberally from such classic (and not-so-classic) films as THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE, FRIDAY THE 13TH, HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, POLTERGEIST, GHOSTBUSTERS, AMERICAN PIE, PAULIE, THE ENTITY, THE INVISIBLE MAN, DIRTY HARRY, WHAT LIES BENEATH, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, ROCKY, CAT PEOPLE, THE FOG, CHARLIE'S ANGELS, TWISTER, CHARLIE'S ANGELS, M:I-2, and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, among countless others. |
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It wasn't a classic or particularly well made, but at least Scary Movie was good for a few honest Scream-inspired laughs. That original outing looks like a masterpiece in comparison to this uninspired profit-driven sequel. Barely competent on any technical or artistic level, what comic ingenuity and genre appreciation was shown the first time around has been replaced by boorish vulgarity and a desperation to get the audience to snigger at anything, no matter how lame, crude or obvious. Once past the opening where The Exorcist is amusingly sent up by James Woods in a cameo appearance as a priest (a role originally earmarked for Marlon Brando), it descends rapidly into lampooning the recent remake of The Haunting — so close to an awful self parody itself that any gags at its expense are depressingly redundant. Everything from Charlie's Angels and What Lies Beneath to Hannibal and even The Weakest Link are raked over for minimal laughs in a shoddy satire it took seven screenwriters to produce. It brings new depths to the term “too many cooks spoil the broth”.