Scary Movie (2000)

Like the goofball film Crazy People, Scary Movie isn't one of those movies you review seriously. It is not as funny as Airplane! or as slapstick as Naked Gun, but it is passably well done and funny; kudos to the Wayans brothers. More than this, however, Scary Movie was noteworthy to a new generation, and so it launched a franchise (Scary Movie 2 through 5), not to mention the Not Another movies, much less Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th. So it's all good. I have yet to see Scary Movie 4 and 5 to finish the series, but my impression at this juncture is that Scary Movie 2 and 3 are the best of the first three (and the buzz says Scary Movie 5 is the worst of the set). The scene setups and outright spoofs in the first Scary Movie are good, but I seem to recall them being stronger in Scary Movie 2 and 3. In fact, I would have given this film 3.5 stars to match my rating for the second and third movies, but I do not appreciate amped-up adolescents binge drinking and pot smoking in my entertainment. Since it was there, blue smoke was used to passable comic effect -- it just could have been funnier, like many things. To sum up, the jokes in Scary Movie are not dead-on bulleye hits, but they land on or sometimes graze the torso, and the target demographic gives the ones doing the riffing a thumbs up for effort. Enjoy! 3 stars. (8-31-2016)