Call \u201cScary Movie\u201d lazy, dumb and offensive. It would enthusiastically agree. The lowbrow horror parody thrives on shtick about weed, race and genitalia. The only thing that scares it is high expectations.<\/p>\n
But amid the rampant stupidity of the first \u201cScary Movie,\u201d<\/a> released in 2000, original director Keenen Ivory Wayans<\/a> discovered two major talents: Regina Hall<\/a> and Anna Faris<\/a>. As heroines Brenda and Cindy, respectively, Hall and Faris were daffy, dopey and committed. Alongside a cast of Playmates (Carmen Electra<\/a>, Shannon Elizabeth<\/a>) and family members (Wayans brothers Marlon<\/a> and Shawn<\/a>), they played stupid like Shakespeare. In two decades since, both gave up the Ghostface to do better things: Hall in \u201cGirls Trip\u201d<\/a> and \u201cOne Battle After Another,\u201d<\/a> and Faris in \u201cSmiley Face\u201d<\/a> and \u201cThe House Bunny.\u201d<\/a> (Frankly, Faris deserves to be doing more.) If a sixth \u201cScary Movie\u201d is going to lure them back for what the ensemble openly frets is a rebooquel \u2014 as in a reboot-sequel, here pronounced \u201cre-booty call\u201d \u2014 it better be good.<\/p>\n Fine, good is a stretch. The latest \u201cScary Movie,\u201d which simply recycles the title \u201cScary Movie,\u201d is as lazy, dumb and offensive as the others. But Hall and Faris, now playing the dotty mothers of the next generation of victims, are hilarious, romping about like their Brenda and Cindy have clearly been knocked on the head too often. (Brenda, fans of the franchise know, has technically already died twice.) I laughed 10 times, which makes this \u201cScary Movie\u201d the best of the bunch \u2014 a pallid compliment.<\/p>\n Directing duties have shuffled to Michael Tiddes<\/a>, a longtime Wayans collaborator, who gets gutsy performances from three of this entry\u2019s newbies: Olivia Rose Keegan and Savannah Lee Nassif as Cindy\u2019s estranged daughters, a pill-popper and a Wednesday Addams<\/a> clone, and Ruby Snowber, maximizing every second of her feature debut as a high school tramp.<\/p>\n The Wayans clan left the series early on due to a contract dispute with Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Now seven have returned. Four Wayans (Craig<\/a>, Keenan Ivory, Marlon and Shawn) co-wrote the script with Rick Alvarez; three more (Kim<\/a>, Damon Jr.<\/a>, and Gregg) act in the film alongside Marlon and Shawn, who revive their characters Shorty, a stoner with a shrill cackle, and Ray, whose only personality trait is being gay. In one of many homages to \u201cSinners,\u201d<\/a> Ray promises a church he\u2019ll act straight. Then he mimes tucking his manhood between his legs and dancing like Buffalo Bill in \u201cThe Silence of the Lambs.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n Yes, Shorty and Ray were also murdered in the first movie. No, it doesn\u2019t matter. \u201cScary Movie\u2019s\u201d one genuinely ingenious move is to resurrect actors without shame. Jon Abrahams\u2019<\/a> bad boyfriend (stabbed), Lochlyn Munro\u2019s<\/a> lout (slit throat), and Electra\u2019s eye candy (pierced through the breast implant) are back, too, as are a pair of erotically linked survivors, Cheri Oteri\u2019s<\/a> news anchor and Dave Sheridan\u2019s<\/a> moronic cop, whose spittle-flecked chin is the grossest thing in a film that has a mall Santa costumed like \u201cTerrifier\u2019s\u201d Art the Clown<\/a> gifting a child a set of severed testicles.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Silence of the Lambs\u201d remains the only horror film to win best picture at the Academy Awards. This \u201cScary Movie\u201d has no delusions of that. Yet in the years since the last installment, 2013\u2019s \u201cScary Movie 5\u201d \u2014 a sequel so awful that even its own director, Malcolm D. Lee, later admitted, \u201cIt\u2019s not worth your time\u201d \u2014 the horror genre at-large has become ambitious, with \u201cSinners,\u201d \u201cThe Substance,\u201d<\/a> and \u201cGet Out\u201d <\/a>earning Oscar nominations and \u201cWeapons\u2019\u201d<\/a> witchy Amy Madigan<\/a> seizing the supporting actress prize.<\/p>\n This \u201cScary Movie\u201d makes fun of all four of those newer hits, as well as the recent rebooquels of \u201cHalloween,\u201d<\/a> which was earnest, and \u201cScream,\u201d<\/a> which couldn\u2019t decide what tone to hit. Each send-up is funny for at least an entire minute, a lifetime when you\u2019re watching Marlon\u2019s Shorty mug for the camera. Either Shorty has the most screen time or he\u2019s just so excruciating that it feels like it.<\/p>\n I cannot make the straight-faced argument that the worst \u201cScary Movies\u201d were held back by their source material. Still, it\u2019s true that when the series was at its nadir, so few vibrant horror films were being made that it was stuck lampooning the now-forgotten Jessica Chastain chiller \u201cMama.\u201d<\/a> Likewise, when this \u201cScary Movie\u201d takes a jab at Nicolas Cage\u2019s more-kooky-than-tedious \u201cLonglegs,\u201d<\/a> the limp gag of the creepy Shorthand (Chris Elliot), underscores that the movie itself just isn\u2019t that interesting.<\/p>\n \u201cScary Movie\u201d inserts two political jokes that earn a solid gasp-giggle-groan. Yet, the most grating new addition is a self-righteous student named Dei Meeks (Sydney Park), who polices the humor. The movie relishes killing the killjoy. A whole mob does her in; it\u2019s the one death that feels angry. I\u2019d have been happy to see her die in her first scene. Not that I empathize with canceled comics who posture as if they\u2019re victims under attack, but it would do this country good if it could occasionally share a laugh.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t waste one brain cell trying to deduce the assassin. The answer is surprising and satisfying. While the script\u2019s hasty nods to \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d<\/a> and the biopic \u201cMichael\u201d<\/a> make it feel like it was written on yesterday\u2019s Kleenex, the immediacy allows \u201cOne Battle After Another\u2019s\u201d Teyana Taylor<\/a> to acknowledge that Madigan\u2019s Aunt Gladys stole her Oscar. Swilling tequila shots and hollering \u201cViva la revoluci\u00f3n!,\u201d she\u2019s hysterical in the cleverest opening slasher scene since Drew Barrymore<\/a> answered the phone in the 1996 \u201cScream.\u201d I\u2019d watch six more \u201cScary Movies\u201d if Taylor starred in them. But like Hall and Faris, she deserves better.<\/p>\n ‘Scary Movie’<\/p>\n Rated: R, for crude sexual content, graphic nudity, strong violence, and drug content and language throughout<\/p>\n Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes<\/p>\n Playing: Opening Friday, June 5 in wide release<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Call \u201cScary Movie\u201d lazy, dumb and offensive. It would enthusiastically agree. 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