Scary Movie 3: Episode I - Lord of the Brooms Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)November 11th, 2003
Scary Movie 3
HBO & snacks
Three is the magic number. Not necessarily a culmination of a vision into a coherent finale, but just plain old time to stop. Anna Faris reprises her role of Cindy Campell (a la Neve Campbell in the Scream movies) and we pick up her life after all the crazy events of the first movies have happened to her. This time, however, instead of being directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans, Scary Movie 3 is directed by The Man himself, David Zucker. You know, Airplane! and Naked Gun? Zucker's parodic style was the inspiration for these latter-day comedies, and who better to get this plane safely back on the ground? This film is better than Scary Movie 2, and back in the day I did compare the original Scary Movie to a watered-down Zucker film. This movie skimps on the fun subtle stuff that marked #1, leaning more towards an inundation of popculture references, however amusingly woven into the story arc. Some of the references aren't even scary (8 mile and Pamela Anderson notwithstanding) but are insinuated to serve a gag.
None of the Scary Movies were focused parodies of one specific source, preferring generally to mix media and fill the extra cracks with additional pop culture references. They are skillful blends of popular movies (like Not Another Teen Movie merged She's All That with Pretty in Pink) but are more about the immediate one-line joke. As a result, the Scary Movies (and #3 is no exception) can be fun and entertaining if you're in the pop culture loop, but they cannot stand alone without the source material, unlike Airplane!. Airplane! was parodying really one film (or one franchise, the Airport thrillers) and could really dive into that and commit to it, with long setups and great rewards. Using the Ring as an anchor helps this movie plotwise, but it still diverges into an unfocused silliness unworthy of its predecessors. He did include an Airplane! joke in there.
The vibe of Zucker's great films is there, but because the subject matter is so scattershot, it's not handled as richly, and the payoffs are shallower. The primary appeal of the Scary Movies is how shrewd they are at skewering their more serious filmic brethren and also adroitly capturing the mood and tone of the films being lampooned, and in this they succeed again. Zucker does this with his usual skill, brilliantly casting Leslie Nielsen as the president. Ironically, Neilsen's earnest trademark bumbling hits a little too close to home these days, but we can't penalize him for anything except not being in the movie enough. And you gotta love that Jeremy Piven. Excellent use of sets - all the Scary Movies are extremely savvy about our subconscious visual memory of the films they are parodying, and they use it to the limit. They even used the modified reel change markers from The Ring - yeah, I noticed!
Scary Movie 3 has *great* stunts, an underappreciated comedy movie skill, but my god the stuntwork is really amazing. Every defenestration results in a Keatonesque (Buster, not Michael) sproing recovery which I am a little embarrassed to say cracked me up every time
As per usual, the film just has a little too much silly silly brutality. Best bits are the ones from The Ring; a compliment to that film to merit so much of the plot's attention. The 8mile plotline is cleverly integrated and George's white boy rap is funny - sit through the credits and you can hear it again. Anthony Anderson is wasted in a too small part in the 8-mile segment but it is always great to see him on screen.
There are some really good bits, but over all nothing to get off the couch for.
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These reviews (c) 2003 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
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