Movies
Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans
Screenwriters: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Alyson Fouse, Greg Grabianski, Dave Polsky, Michael Anthony Snowden, Craig Wayans
Starring: Anna Faris, Marlon Wayans, James DeBello, David Cross, Regina Hall, Tim Curry
Certificate: 18
The cast of the original Scary Movie return for a second outing just as irreverent as its predecessor - but less funny. Instead of the route the first one took - rapidly fired unrelated gags - the makers have this time opted for a storyline approach based around the concept seen in The Haunting, whereby a group of teens are conned by their professor into visiting a haunted house in the name of a school project.
Along the way the film parodies a selection of scary movies including The Exorcist, Poltergeist, Hollow Man and the truly terrifying Titanic. However, what passes for 'parody' in the writers' dictionaries is abysmal. Rather than taking well-known scenes and providing an unexpected humourous slant on them, they just rehash them, sometimes word for word, adding little that's original let alone funny. The intention seems to be to amuse the audience by simply throwing up references which they'll recognise and think to themselves "Oh I know that - that's from Hannibal...aren't I clever?". Well no, not really.
Not sticking purely to scary movies, the film also has a pop at other areas of popular culture such as The Weakest Link and Nike trainer TV ads. These have made the film age badly but on top of this, like many of the movie's other references, they're just plain cringeworthy even to those who understand them - I defy anyone to laugh at a parrot saying "You are the weakest link, goodbye" unless they are a sympathetic friend or family member of one of the (seven) writers.
Annoying as some (most) of the characters may be, the acting isn't really too bad in terms of what the poor actors are meant to be doing - it's what they're supposed to be doing that's the problem. Scary Movie 2 is extremely tasteless, which will send certain potential audience members running from the outset, though this isn't what makes the film unfunny. Tastelessness and humour are hardly mutually exclusive, but here the writers have just verged so far in favour of the former that they seem to have given little consideration to the latter, shoving the same handful of tasteless gags down our throats for 80 minutes rather than at least having the decency to come up with a few more.
For the vast majority of people, Scary Movie 2 will prove to be one of the most unamusing, ill-conceived and tasteless pieces of trash to be called a film. However, for the intended audience - the drunk, the stoned and those with a mental age of 14 for whom bodily functions are the pinnacle of hilarity - it may prove perfect.
If you must, you can tune in to BBC1 on Saturday at 23:15 for Scary Movie 2.
Screenwriters: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Alyson Fouse, Greg Grabianski, Dave Polsky, Michael Anthony Snowden, Craig Wayans
Starring: Anna Faris, Marlon Wayans, James DeBello, David Cross, Regina Hall, Tim Curry
Certificate: 18
The cast of the original Scary Movie return for a second outing just as irreverent as its predecessor - but less funny. Instead of the route the first one took - rapidly fired unrelated gags - the makers have this time opted for a storyline approach based around the concept seen in The Haunting, whereby a group of teens are conned by their professor into visiting a haunted house in the name of a school project.
Along the way the film parodies a selection of scary movies including The Exorcist, Poltergeist, Hollow Man and the truly terrifying Titanic. However, what passes for 'parody' in the writers' dictionaries is abysmal. Rather than taking well-known scenes and providing an unexpected humourous slant on them, they just rehash them, sometimes word for word, adding little that's original let alone funny. The intention seems to be to amuse the audience by simply throwing up references which they'll recognise and think to themselves "Oh I know that - that's from Hannibal...aren't I clever?". Well no, not really.
Not sticking purely to scary movies, the film also has a pop at other areas of popular culture such as The Weakest Link and Nike trainer TV ads. These have made the film age badly but on top of this, like many of the movie's other references, they're just plain cringeworthy even to those who understand them - I defy anyone to laugh at a parrot saying "You are the weakest link, goodbye" unless they are a sympathetic friend or family member of one of the (seven) writers.
Annoying as some (most) of the characters may be, the acting isn't really too bad in terms of what the poor actors are meant to be doing - it's what they're supposed to be doing that's the problem. Scary Movie 2 is extremely tasteless, which will send certain potential audience members running from the outset, though this isn't what makes the film unfunny. Tastelessness and humour are hardly mutually exclusive, but here the writers have just verged so far in favour of the former that they seem to have given little consideration to the latter, shoving the same handful of tasteless gags down our throats for 80 minutes rather than at least having the decency to come up with a few more.
For the vast majority of people, Scary Movie 2 will prove to be one of the most unamusing, ill-conceived and tasteless pieces of trash to be called a film. However, for the intended audience - the drunk, the stoned and those with a mental age of 14 for whom bodily functions are the pinnacle of hilarity - it may prove perfect.
If you must, you can tune in to BBC1 on Saturday at 23:15 for Scary Movie 2.
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It is funny if you like this sort of thing. After watching it a couple of times it looses its hilarity, its not as good as Scary Movie 1, on a par with Scary Movie 3, but its a fair effort.
Nope, sorry, I had to switch off after about 15 minutes. Once I'd seen the caretaker/handyman/whatever do the "obvious" thing and mess with the food being served, I turned it off. It was obvious that anything mildly related to molesting the guests or ruining their meals was going to involve him sticky his fingers into it, or rubbing himself up against someone, so it just got same-o same-o after about 5 minutes. Scary Movie 1 was reasonably funny, and didn't try to be forcefull with it. SM2 is just crap, and why Tim Curry lowered himself to be a part of it is anyone's guess - perhaps he desperately needed some cash at the time. As Vic Reeves used to say: Very Poor!
Overall a poor effort, but I don't think this movie is completely void of humour. I completely agree with previous people who call a susbtantial amount of the gags contrived, because they really are. I expected this movie to be a little more ... intelligent (for lack of a better word) considering the sub-genre of horror it was meant to be using as it's source to parody. However it's severely lacking in that department, and the film often goes off in an unexpected tangent in an attempt to get a cheap laugh. I'm not in any way saying the first movie in this franchise was "high art" but it was far superior in successfully poking fun at the horror (slasher) genre. I used to think that the way in which the original movie stuck to close (often too close) to it's source material was a bit of a cheap effort, but at least the writers we're keeping their eye on what what the audience was familiar with. This isn't the case here, and the script for the movie so so loose and sketchy it could have been stripped into tiny pieces and scattered throughout a whole host of spoof movies. Not as good as the first movie, but I suppose it's okay for a quick laugh here and there. (Although I'd have serious concerns about anybody who claims this to be their favourite movie)
Scary Movie 2 is a production that splits its audience into two massively different catogries. The ones who love it, and the ones who just direly hate it. The writers combine a wide variation of movies up for the mic-take (Scary Movie's strongest comical suite) and take a shot at anything from the Haunting to The Titanic. For huge fans of slap-stick comedy or in your face humour, Scary Movie is an amusingly successful sequel. For those who prefer their sketches subtle and styled more maturly, Scary Movie 2 will not appeal. There's no real answer to which rating the movie deserves, purely because everyone's humour varies. So for this simple reason, the movie gets a straight down the midle score - 3 - average.
I thought this movie was absolutely rubbish. Many scenes felt so contrived (a prime example being the Nike basketball sequence) that it was cringeworthy to watch. The jokes were so thread-bare and randomly thrown in it broke up any momentum the plot had- instead, it seemed like the film consisted of a lot of short sketches. Quoting Robert Harness above, "You have the handyman and the rude parrot what else do you need!". I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest a plot and funny gags might have been useful.
Omg this movie is really funny out of all the scary movie films this tops the lot. You have the handyman and the rude parrot what else do you need! The jokes themselves are hilarious and the cast is somewhat good. Top rating for a funny film.
omyyygawd scary movie 2 is like the best movie evaaaa how cannn u say it iz rubbishhh beta than the 1st but 3rd one isda best cnt wait 4numba 4:D:D yezyes n date movie sikkk 2.. but my favourite.. chav filem of all time is"the shawshank redemption" as it is utter rubbish like all aforementioned. i give your review -10/10 n the movie 8/10
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i watched scary movie 2 last nyt on BBC1, and to be honest i thought it was GREAT! i loved the first one and third one too. i think scary movie is targetted at 15-19 year olds, so other older ppl may disagree. i think the film is funny, and there are some definate laugh out loud moments!