Scary Movie 4 (2006)

Anna Faris
Regina Hall
Craig Bierko
Bill Pullman
Anthony Anderson
Leslie Neilsen

Directed by David Zucker

Plot: The ever-naive Cindy Campbell, seeking a career in home healthcare, finds work with a creepy old lady in an even creepier old house haunted by a ghostly presence. Throw in a good-looking guy next door and the threat of aliens intent on global domination and Cindy's instantly up to the top of her extremely blond head in danger. Our fearless heroine catapults into action once again struggling to decipher ominous messages from the beyond, looking for love in some very weird places and trying to save the world from mass destruction. As she struggles to discover life-saving answers, Cindy encounters horrific plane crashes, bodacious blind girls, village idiots, disheveled rappers, kinky contraptions, psycho survivalists, alien sphincters and even Oprah.

Review: This is one of those movies I dreaded watching. I loved the first one, but thought the second film was weak (except for Chris Elliott). The third movie I thought was a little better than the second, but still pretty lame. Given the sequel track record for this series, I didn’t have high hopes going into this film.

The Scary Movie series is one that I think started brilliantly and could have continued to do so. Somewhere along the way it lost something. Was it the Wayans? I don’t think so, I believe they lost the creative influence over all. It seems to me that they are just trying to shove as much as possible into this series just to fill space, not just for laughs. In Scary Movie 4, they used the same formula. The biggest difference in this one, was there seemed to be an attempt at making it funny with a story. Although the story is weak, what would you expect from this sort of film, the movie holds up well. It’s no naked gun or Airplane, but it is funny. It starts off weak, but gets somewhat better. I enjoyed most of the cast, except for Craig Bierko. I think it was intentional, but he got on my last nerve. I was praying that they would kill him off, but knew that wasn’t going to happen. Anna Farris and Regina Hall are both good as normal, but I am getting a little tired of Anna Farris’s Cindy. Leslie Neilsen is great, not Naked Gun great, but doesn’t get enough screen time in my opinion. Overall the movie is funny, and although I thought better than the last, still falls short.
 

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