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MOVIE REVIEW
Scary Movie 2
(2001) Starring: Anna
Faris, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans
Director:
Keenan Ivory
Wayans Rating:
R Studio:
Dimension Films Review
Posted:
7.02.01 Spoilers:
Yes Rating:
7/10
(1st viewing)
Rating:
3/10
(2nd viewing)
By
Dennis Landmann
Note: This review is based
on my first viewing in a theater with a great audience.
Therefore, the review might come off as generous. However, after
my second viewing, which came one year later, I realized this
film did not deserve the praise. This film is funny, but bad.
"Scarylarious, but feels too choppy
and rushed"
It
was only a matter of time before this sequel was going into the
works. Now, with Scary Movie 2 all finished and ready for
release, most of you will want to know, "is it better than
the original?" There are some factors more redeeming in
here than in
Scary Movie (in terms
of several spoofs), but for the most part Scary Movie 2 was
not better. If it just didn't feel so rushed and choppy, there
might've been a chance of the sequel topping the original.
Scary
Movie 2 opens from inside the Hell House where a dozen white
folks sing along to rap music, engulfing the theater into heaps
of laughter. And then, the first spoof: The Exorcist.
Jasonia Voorhees (Natasha Lyonne), wearing a pajama, interrupts
the singing by pissing onto the carpet for a minute, which
cracks up the audience. Her problem requires the attention of a
priest (James Woods). Father Kerris (Andy Richter) and the
Priest try to help Jasonia, but all fails miserably when
everybody throws up huge on each other, cracking up the audience
even more. This opening tops the one of the original, but the
plot that follows does not (there is no plot, but that's the joke).
One
year after the fiasco inside the Hell House, a professor (Tim
Curry) and a wheelchair-ridden nerd (David Cross) recruit a
couple of students for an experiment. Among those students are
Cindy (Anna Faris), Shorty (Marlon Wayans), Ray (Shawn Wayans),
Brenda (Regina Hall), Alex (Tori Spelling), Buddy (Christopher
Masterson), and Jamie Lee Curtisto (Kathleen Robertson). The
experiment, which is to spend a weekend inside the now haunted
Hell House (the original intent of the experiment is lost and
forgotten as fast as it is introduced - so don't ask what the
purpose is), quickly falls apart when things go horribly wrong
and the spoofs start to unravel themselves.
Cindy
is the first to arrive at the mansion. Greeting her is Hanson
(Chris Elliot), the crazy and sick host. His problem is not only
his IQ, but also his left hand. It's very small, yet also
deformed in a way that can make you throw up (just you wait for
the dinner scene). Elliot was perfect for the role as there was
also a reference to his character in There's Something About
Mary.
The
spoofs just start appearing out of nowhere. They are quite
hilarious for the most part, some seem too over-done while
others create genuine roars of laughter. A perfect example is
the wheelchair chase, spoofing the motorcycle chase from
M:I2.
It had me cracking up to a point that I cannot even describe
because it was so funny. Arguably, the scene was out of the
element and not on the same level (not comedy-wise, but how
planned-out and set-up if felt) as the other spoofs, but
nevertheless I cracked up. Later, there is a scene in
which Cindy, Brenda and Jamie Lee run after Hanson (Chris
Elliot) to make him "pay". It turns into a rather
well-made Charlie's Angels
spoof that had me cracking up just as much as the last one. If
you thought that Hollow Man
didn't push the envelope of exploiting invisibility, just wait
until you get to Tori Spelling's scene. There are so many spoofs
here, it's crazy. Here's a short list:
Final
Destination,
What Lies
Beneath,
Hannibal,
Twister,
Save The Last Dance,
Gone
in 60 Seconds, and all the others mentioned throughout
the review. If you can name every single spoof in this movie,
e-mail
me, because I can't... what a mind-job!
The
raunchy jokes and spoofs never end in Scary Movie 2. They
keep going. Every scene has at least one joke, if it's funny or
not. The problem with this sequel is that right off the bat you
can sense how rushed it feels. Also, in some scenes you can tell
how something was cut in-between. The perfect example is when
Cindy and Buddy are inside a laboratory and there is blood on the
ground, but you don't know why.
Another
scene has Cindy escaping from a deep-core refrigerator which
then cuts to a scene with Ray and Cindy in a hallway. Scenes
like these, and several others, give Scary Movie 2 a
really choppy edge. The majority of scenes are random and most
of them hardly contribute anything to the plot (there is none
and that's the joke - this worked in the original, but here a
lot of scenes feel spliced together just for the sake of having
at least one joke per scene). The prime example is the scene in
which the "weed" takes revenge on Shorty by rolling
him up in a joint and doing the "you-know-what".
While
Scary Movie spend time introducing its characters (rather
well for a spoof of this caliber), the sequel takes everything
for granted and throws in several newbies. Brenda, Shorty and
Ray all died in the original, yet bringing them back in the
sequel is something that reminds of Kenny's weekly deaths in
"South Park" (Bigger,
Longer & Uncut).
Also, the dead count in the original exceeded fifteen bodies
(more or less),
while here it's only five people
who die (how can this be?). And in terms of running time, this
sequel ran a short 85-90 minutes.
I'm
sure most people will overlook or ignore these things, because
sometimes jokes do outweigh the bad things in a movie. There is
no denying that Scary Movie 2 is hilarious. There are
some brains behind all these spoofs. I mean, hell, I guess it
took seven writers to write this thing (or each one of them had
their share of a rewrite, who knows). The
imperfections in the editing and the overall rushed feel of this
sequel didn't stop me from enjoying the hell out of it, but I
thought they're worth noting. You judge for yourself.
Note:
If you noticed that I used both past and present tense in this
review, you're excellent! If you also caught me using bad
grammar, you're most excellent! This is what a film like this
can do to your intellect.
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