Scary Movie 3

When the first Scary Movie was released in 2000, moviegoers needed a satirist as sharp as Kennen Ivory Wayans to come out of retirement and highlight the absurdity of the new millennium's blossoming teen movie industry. Focusing in on the Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer franchises, Wayans did a crass number on the films in his sights, enlisting his less capable younger brothers Shawn and Marlon to write and star in a spoof emphasising gross-out humour over cool post-modern horror. Though not as clever as the Kevin Williamson-penned originals it lampooned, Scary Movie was a necessary farce in the teen film marketplace, quelling Williamson's twisted sincerity in favour of dumbed-down parody. After Scary Movie 2 bombed critically, executive producer Bob Weinstein called upon veteran director David Zucker (The Naked Gun, Airplane) to helm a sequel no one was clamouring for and the end result is the horribly unfunny Scary Movie 3. Armed with the tagline, "Great trilogies come in threes," and starring the franchise's consistent lead actress Anna Farris, Charlie Sheen and Simon Rex, the film mistakes replication for satire, as its references to The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Matrix, The Ring, 8 Mile, The Others and even The Lord of the Rings serve only to overtly acknowledge that it is mining its plot material from superior works. Pop culture is represented by the inclusion of a scene with American Idol's Simon Cowell and an allusion to Michael Jackson's charges of paedophilia. There is, however, nothing pointed about these references — they are merely poorly executed attempts at mockery and old-school slapstick humour. The creators admit as much in the "making of" featurette, proudly recounting the genesis of the various head and crotch smacking scenes they've lovingly constructed. The outtakes and bloopers amount to a few flubbed lines and crack-ups that aren't worth seeing even when they feature celebrity cameos from the likes of Leslie Nielsen, Eddie Griffin, Pamela Anderson, George Carlin and the Wu-Tang Clan, who all fail to lend the film any spark. The alternate ending may have held possibilities, as Rex's transformation into a Jolly Green Hulk is expanded upon, however even this is a waste of time. While the film's tagline is meant to be ironic, Scary Movie 3 demonstrates that it takes more than just making three films to make a great trilogy. Plus: outtakes, more. (Alliance Atlantis)