Psycho's Movie Reviews #117: SCARY MOVIE 3 (2003)

Scary Movie 3 is a 2003 American science fantasy parody film which parodies the horror, sci-fi, and mystery genres. It is the sequel to Scary Movie 2 and is the third film in the Scary Movie film series, and the first to be directed by David Zucker.

The film stars Anna Faris and Regina Hall reprising their roles as Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks, respectively. New cast members include Charlie Sheen, Simon Rex, Anthony Anderson, Kevin Hart, and Leslie Nielsen. It is the first film in the series to feature no involvement from the Wayans family. The characters of Shorty Meeks and Ray Wilkins, previously played by Shawn and Marlon Wayans, do not appear, nor are they referenced.

The film's plot significantly parodies the films The Ring, Signs, The Matrix Reloaded and 8 Mile. The film grossed $220.7 million worldwide. It is the last film in the series to be released by The Walt Disney Company's subsidiary Miramax Films, under the brand Dimension Films. It was named the 2004 Teen Choice Awards in the category of Choice Movie: Your Parents Didn't Want You to See.

Plot

Katie (Jenny McCarthy) and Becca (Pamela Anderson) talk about what Katie believes is a sex tape, but Becca calls it a cursed tape. After several odd occurrences, they both die.

Meanwhile, in a farm outside Washington, D.C., widowed farmer Tom Logan (Charlie Sheen) and his brother George (Simon Rex) discover a crop circle, saying "Attack Here!", after noticing the dogs' strange activity.

Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), now a reporter, announces the crop circles on the news. She picks up her paranormally endowed nephew Cody from school, where her best friend Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall) is his teacher. George picks up his niece Sue, who is in the same class. Cindy and George quickly become attracted to one another, and George invites her and Brenda to a rap-battle with his rapper friends Mahalik (Anthony Anderson) and CJ (Kevin Hart). George proves to be talented but is violently thrown out after he raises his unintentionally pointy white hood.

After watching the cursed videotape, Brenda asks Cindy to keep her company. After playing several pranks on Cindy, the girl from the cursed tape, Tabitha, fights with and kills Brenda. George receives a phone call about the death, and Tom meets with Sayaman, who apologizes for the accident involving himself and Tom's wife Annie.

During Brenda's wake, George and Mahalik wreak havoc in an unsuccessful attempt to revive her, only to blow up her body and get kicked out of the house. Cindy finds the cursed tape in Brenda's room, watches it, and receives a phone call warning her of her death in seven days. She calls George, CJ and Mahalik for help. CJ says his Aunt Shaneequa might be able to help. Shaneequa (Queen Latifah), the Matrix Oracle, and her husband Orpheus (Eddie Griffin) agree to watch the tape with her. Shaneequa discovers the hidden image of a lighthouse and gets in a fight with Tabitha's mother. Shaneequa tells Cindy to find the lighthouse to break the curse. When Cindy returns home, she finds Cody watched the tape.

At work, Cindy searches through pictures of lighthouses before finding the one from the tape. Desperate to save Cody, Cindy warns everyone by entering a message into the news anchor's teleprompter. Her boss interrupts her, and the anchor mechanically recites the wrong message. The Logans take it seriously since they encountered an alien disguised as Michael Jackson, and President Baxter Harris (Leslie Nielsen) personally visits the farm to investigate the crop circles. Cindy visits the lighthouse, where she encounters The Architect (George Carlin). The loquacious old man explains Tabitha was his evil adopted daughter, whom his wife drowned in the farm's well, but not before she imprinted her evil onto the tape. Unfortunately, he mistakenly returned it to Blockbuster believing it was Pootie Tang, unleashing the curse. When Cindy asks about how this relates to the Aliens, the Architect speculates that Tabitha is summoning them to aid her in destroying the human race.

Returning home, Cindy discovers her station has been broadcasting the evil tape for hours, and there have been various sightings of aliens around the world. Worse, Cody is missing. Cindy tracks him to the Logan farm, where he has taken refuge with George. Tom orders everybody into the basement for safety, as he, George and Mahalik go outside to fight the extra-terrestrials. The aliens (Tom Kenny) arrive but reveal they are friendly and have come to stop Tabitha, since they accidentally watched the tape on a broadcast they had intercepted, again believing it was Pootie Tang.

In the basement, Cindy recognizes the farm's cellar from the tape, and she finds the well where Tabitha drowned. Suddenly, Tabitha appears behind her. A short fight ensues, during which Tabitha takes Cody hostage. Cindy and George appeal to her, offering her a place in their family. Tabitha transforms into a little girl and claims her curse is broken, but changes back to her monstrous form and says she was “just screwing on them”. As she advances on Cindy and the others, President Harris opens a door and accidentally knocks her into the well. The aliens leave in peace, and Cindy and George get married. Leaving for their honeymoon, they realize they left Cody behind. After Cindy avoids hitting Cody at an intersection, another car strikes him.

Release/Reception/Box Office

The DVD edition includes a director's audio commentary, several deleted scenes and alternate endings (with optional commentary). A "3.5" special DVD was also released, and contained several more deleted scenes than the original DVD, with an unrated version of the film.

In the alternate ending, Cindy is told Cody does not exist by her psychiatrist (played by William Forsythe). After hitting a few people in the face with a shovel, Cindy asks everybody who is not real to stand over at a different spot. Cody goes over there but is followed by Santa Claus. The aliens then begin to invade but George stops them by transforming into The Hulk. President Harris tries to hulk out but ends up soiling his pants. Cindy enters the Logan House, where she is attacked by Tabitha. She is teleported away to Aunt Shaneequa, who teaches her how to defeat Tabitha. Cindy must then confront hundreds of Tabitha's. She wins the battle by performing moves from The Matrix and teleports back to the Logan House. The cast then gets into a car with the President, but are horrified to learn that the driver happens to be M. Night Shyamalan.

One of the scenes that appeared on the Extended DVD named Scary Movie 3.5 was part of the unrated feature. After Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy shut off the TV, the two compliment each other on their good looks. Anderson then asks if McCarthy wants her "shaved pussy", but this turns out to be a furless kitten.

In an extended scene, the person who runs Cody down at the end is shown to be Michael Jackson.

Scary Movie 3 opened at the number one spot in the US, grossing $48.1 million in its opening weekend and $57.5 million for that week. In its second week, it grossed $24.7 million. At the end of its box office run, Scary Movie 3 grossed $110 million in the US and $110.7 million internationally, making $220.7 million in total.

Scary Movie 3 received a 35% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 131 critics. The site's consensus was "Though an improvement over the second Scary Movie, the laughs are still inconsistent." On Metacritic, it has a score of 49 out of 100 based on reviews from 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B" on a scale of A+ to F.

My Review

{This is my sister's favourite one of the series}

Ah, the "Scary Movie" franchise. A strange but fascinating and mildly entertaining relic when viewed in retrospect. Originally the brainchild of the Wayans brothers comedy team, the first entry in the series debuted back in the year 2000, serving as a wild and raunchy parody of the popular horror feature "Scream." In addition, that first "Scary Movie" also set a new standard in parody, peppering in numerous small tributes, gags and nods to other famed contemporary releases of the genre, going for a counter-intuitive aim at quantity of jokes over quality. And while it was a troubled release, it was a huge hit for the studio, and was quickly followed up with a sequel in 2001, this time broadening the scope and taking aim at even more movies and genres. And by then, the formula stuck, with "Scary Movie 2" being arguably the best of the series.

By the time the third movie rolled out in 2003 however, there were some major shake-ups behind the scenes. Most notably being that series creator Keenan Ivory Wayans and his brothers Shawn and Marlon jumped ship after disputes with the studio, leaving the series without its core creative team. With the future of the series uncertain, eventually a major change-up occurred that would breathe new life into the troubled franchise. That being that comedy mastermind David Zucker, the mind behind "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun", was hired to take control and helm the third instalment, along with his frequent writing collaborator Pat Proft and newcomer Craig Mazin.

And it was a move that paid-off. While it still falls prey to the same issues of incredibly forced low-brow gags and contrived situational humour that bogged down the first two entries, Zucker's zany mile-a-minute pacing and penchant for nonstop humour make "Scary Movie 3" one of the better films of the series, with a far better hit-to- miss laugh ratio than pretty much every other entry. The film continued the trend of the original and places its focus on a number of films that were released around the same time, with the bulk of the plot lampooning the M. Night Shyamalan hit "Signs" and the deliciously gritty American remake "The Ring."

Series star Anna Faris returns as Cindy, now working as an investigative journalist while raising her troubled nephew Cody. (Drew Mikuska) When a supposedly haunted video-tape hits close to home for Cindy, she is forced on a journey to try and save the day from the malevolent and vengeful spirit responsible for its creation. Along the way, she also finds herself falling for a wannabe rapper (Simon Rex) and contending with evil aliens who threaten the lives of a simple farmer (Charlie Sheen) and his family.

The biggest treat of the film is the wide cast of comedic talents. It's a lot of fun seeing Faris back in the role that arguably made her a star, and she's as charming and likable as ever. We also get Regina Hall back as Brenda from the previous films in a small guest-spot, and its just great to see her interact with Cindy in their scenes together. Charlie Sheen's a blast and a half, and he really goes all-out for the films wonderfully silly comedic tone. He's very charismatic here and definitely reminded me of his role in the similarly structured and paced "Hot Shots!" flicks from back in the day. We even get some surprising and very funny cameos from the likes of comedy legends Leslie Neilson and George Carlin, and both steal the show despite their limited screen time.

Where the film doesn't quite work is the structure. Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting an especially compelling script, and it's clear the movie just wants to make the audience laugh. But the movie is pretty shoddily assembled and a lot of the plot-lines and stories seem way too tenuously connected. It just doesn't have that sharp flow that worked so well in the first two entries. I also do think that a few too many jokes feel out of left field and incredibly forced, and the fact that the rating was brought down from a hard-R to a PG-13 did neuter a bit of the comedy. Sure, the anatomical gags and the adult references were starting to feel played out by the end of the second instalment... but this movie could have benefited from a few more raunchy jokes and references. It just feels a bit too tame compared to what came before.

On the whole though, the wickedly charming cast and nonstop jokes that director Zucker brings to the table more than make up for these issues. While it's not the best of the series and it's far from being high art, "Scary Movie 3" fundamentally succeeds at what it sets out to do, and it does so with some great gusto. It made me laugh. Quite often in fact. And for that, I give it a pretty good; 8.5/10!

{As I did with the other two, here are my 3 favourite scenes}

1} Brenda Vs Samara (The Ring bitch) aka "Cindy The Tvs Leaking"

2} 8 Mile Parody Scene

{I feel like we've all wanted to kill Simon Cowell at some point, but here he gets blown away... HOW THE HELL DID THEY GET SIMON COWELL IN THIS FILM?}(Copy + Paste in new tab)

https://youtu.be/m_wX3PoNA3k?list=TLPQMjkxMjIwMjHOmSLzhY6d9A

3} Fighting MJ! {One of the aliens is disguised as Michael Jackson}

{You know what, I actually agree with my sister for once this may be the best instalment in the series; here's a compilation of funny moments}

{Copy + Paste in New Tab}

https://youtu.be/z4WLP34hQT8?list=TLPQMjkxMjIwMjHOmSLzhY6d9A

{{{I'VE ONLY DONE 1 - 3, THE 4TH AND 5TH ARE TERRIBLE, WELL THE ONLY SCENE I LIKE IN THE 4TH ONE IS WHEN BRENDA BEATS THE CRAP OUT OF JIGSAW}}}