8/16/06: Scary Movie 4 (2006)We are not so much here to praise
Scary Movie 4, as we are to declare it harmless. That should take care of overselling today’s entry. We’re still motivated by plenty of rage, though.
Scary Movie 4 served a real purpose when released this past April. The horror spoof underscored the hypocrisy of news articles warning that it was too soon for film audiences to handle the intensity of
United 93—released just two weeks later.
There’s a reason why
World Trade Center was spared similar negative coverage.
United 93 was about Islamic fascists.
World Trade Center is about some mysterious shadow that brings down buildings—and, yes, brings us all closer together. The only villains in Oliver Stone’s epic are people who say a discouraging word.
This brings us back to
Scary Movie 4. Nobody in the media cared that the film parodied when President Bush was informed about the first plane flying into the World Trade Center. Nobody pondered if it was too soon to play that moment for laughs.
On our end, we knew the scene was in the movie, and we were expecting the worst.
Scary Movie 3 had been a surprisingly strong entry in the franchise. We were looking forward to director David Zucker—and Leslie Nielsen as President Harris—continuing to do great work. We also knew that Zucker had made a 2004 campaign commercial that goofed on John Kerry.
We still expected a pandering gag. We were wrong. Let’s concede there’s bad taste in the scene where President Harris is interrupted in a classroom with news of an alien invasion. He’s more interested in the children’s story that a little kid is reading. That would be the entire gag in a typical Hollywood production.
Zucker, however, allows Harris the reaction that Michael Moore wanted from President Bush. Finally aware of the crisis, the President shouts, “You mean right now all these children’s parents could be dead?”
The children immediately start screaming and panicking. As Harris is ushered out, he turns to a Secret Service agent and adds, “I just don’t get kids. Remind me to sign that abortion bill.”
So there’s further proof that we’re not really talking about President Bush here.
Scary Movie 4 remains a disappointment. We'd already seen plenty of parodies of
Brokeback Mountain and the Cruise/Winfrey debacle. It’s harder to keep this kind of thing fresh. There is, however, another fun scene where a Muslim terrorist jumps out of a van while covered in explosives. He doesn’t know the aliens have negated all electrical charges. The Islamic fascist fails to ignite, and gets a royal beatdown from good Americans. That’s timeless comedy.
Make it your own: Yeah,
the DVD was just released yesterday. Maybe somebody will want to buy it.
