Scary Movie 4

Spoofs are old hat. They are outdated and there's no real point to them anymore. Modern audiences are FAR more cynical than they used to be and can easily pick up on a movie's foibles. We don't need stuff like this to remind us how naff some films can be.

The Scary Movie franchise seems to be in the uncomfortable groove of releasing a new instalment every two years. Now we're onto the fourth (and final chapter of the trilogy) and the movies that David Zucker and Co are choosing to lampoon are already confined to the trash bin of history, thus rendering the film mostly purposeless.

Aside from War Of The Worlds, Scary Movie 4 rips to shreds The Village and The Grudge, two horror films that were so downright awful that they don't need a spoof to point out how stupid they were. And generic horror films come and go with such abundance these days that no one really gives a damn about either of these two any more.

Another thing I hate about spoofs (or at least this kind of spoof) is that they always ungracefully grab as many films as they can, mash them together and cook up some moronic plot as a way of stringing a bunch of simple-minded sketches together. When people are given the job/chore of directing a movie they should keep in mind that they are being given the chance to be really creative. And if they churn out something as mass-produced and common as the stuff they're meant to be taking the piss out of then allow me to laugh out loud at the irony.

Scary Movie 4 IS funny. But it's half enjoyable/half pointless crap. There are some great digs at Tom Cruise (whom I am sick at the sight of) and Michael Jackson. But why the hell are they spoofing Million Dollar Baby and Brokeback Mountain when they're not even horror films? And why is King Kong on the poster when he's not even in the bloody movie?

It's no better and no worse than the other Scary Movies. But it's a series that only really appeals to the lowest common denominator. Zucker has proved himself to be a good comedy director, with Airplane! and The Naked Gun. This is truly beneath him, though that won't stop the masses from lapping it up.