Scary Movie 4 (2006)

Note: For this review I watched the new Blu-Ray release just out from Sony/Vivendi.

I don’t review many comedies for Gutmunchers.com and that is probably a good thing.  The reason that I say this is because I’ve had a strange history with comedies.  When I review an action movie or horror flick I normally can predict who it is going to appeal to and who it might annoy.  That is why so many of my reviews have a caveat or some other warning in them.  But for the life of me I still don’t have a handle on people’s sense of humor.  That said lets talk some about Scary Movie 4.

Actress Anna Faris returns for this 4th installment as the character of Cindy.  If you haven’t seen earlier entries into this franchise basically the Cindy character it put thru various parodies of popular horror and science fiction movies.  This time around Cindy is running away from an Alien invasion complete with a handsome neighbor named Tom (get it his name is Tom…) and his two kids (ala. War of the Worlds).  Though I should point out this happens after she takes a job as a caretaker in a creepy house haunted by a ghostly Asian kid (The Grudge parody).  Along the way to finding how to stop the aliens, who all look like the creepy puppet from the Saw series, Cindy stops by the Village (do I even have to mention what this is a parody of?).  Eventually the invasion is stopped by an infection (really funny bit!) and Tom goes on Oprah to jump on the couch and declare his love for Cindy.  Damn there is even a Brokeback Mountain bit that works for some laughs.

I think this is a pretty funny movie myself.  I mean yeah some of the jokes are stupid, but when I’m in the mood for dumb jokes this is the kind of flick that can make me laugh.  And when I was checking out the new Blu-Ray I’ll admit I was laughing my ass off at times.  There are some great physical gags like with the Tom character and his daughter where she gets hit by lightning, closed in doors, and other fun.  The movie also has some gross out moments with body functions that I was laughing at.  Hell there is even a gentle, but funny poke at former President George Bush.  But what really impressed me was how nicely the movie actually takes all the different parodies and ties them together in this silly, but enjoyable plot.  Many of these sorts of movies become nothing but an endless series of short skits that don’t tie in together into a cohesive plot, which makes them briefly funny, but overall very boring.  Then again I guess I’m the kind of guy that wants his silly movies to make sense!

If I had one bad thing to say about Scary Movie 4 it would be that it is too dated.  This movie is only 5 years old, but because many of the movies that they are poking fun at weren’t that good or memorable many people might not get the jokes.  I watched this one with the lovely Mrs. Gutmunchers and at one point she turned to me and asked when the movie was made.  Other then that one complaint I don’t see anything wrong with Scary Movie 4.  I recommend this one for a few laughs.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer