Scary Movie 3 (2003) review

(3/10)

     The Scary Movie series hasn't been good since the first installment, which this addition proves. Though it is an overall improvement over the previous sequel, Scary Movie 3 still falls to the same juvenile and ridiculously unfunny standards. The movie does succeed, though, in its laugh-out-loud moments and some decently clever jokes. It's like everything's the same, but more polished with more experienced writers.

PLOT: Since the events of the previous installment, Cindy (Anna Faris) has become a newscaster on a sexist TV network, and Brenda (Regina Hall) has become an elementary school teacher. As usual, strange things have begun happening in town, from alien crop circles popping up out of nowhere to a killer videotape circulating around town. Cindy finds her way into this tragedy when she watches it herself. Now she must battle the forthcoming evil with her new love interest, an aspiring rapper named George (Simon Rex). The plot is just as typical as the previous movies. The filmmakers take the main plotlines of several films, add a few jokes, then blend them together. In this one, Signs, The Ring, and 8 Mile are primarily being spoofed, causing their plotlines to intermingle together. Had the films been evenly parodied and the jokes been more well written, this would have been a great piece of satire. However, only a few moments are able to bust through the hilarity barrier.

ACTING: The performances in this movie were about the same as the first for the most part. Anna Faris and Regina Hall returned as their original characters and did about as well as usual- just as sarcastic and dim-witted. A couple of characters were introduced in this addition that were decently humorous. These characters were Mahalik (Anthony Anderson) and C.J. (Kevin Hart). The duo played well off each other and their running gag was quite humorous. Other decent performances come from the likes of Charlie Sheen, Queen Latifah, and the late George Carlin.

SCORE/SOUNDTRACK: The soundtrack was pretty much rubbish ultimately. A few obscure rap songs, a couple original rap battles, and a few sheds of composed score make up the entirety of the soundtrack. Nothing much can be said about this one other than the fact it's bland and mediocre.

OTHER CONTENT: Most of the movies in the series are pretty terrible, but this one was kind of in the middle. This one wasn't the worst but it definitely wasn't the best. This one had almost as many juvenile, unfunny, and awkward jokes as the last one, but this one also actually had a few laugh-out-loud moments. A couple of well-timed one-liners and cleverly parodied situations keep this addition from being entirely devoid of laughs. Most of the running gags failed, but the select few that didn't were definitely worth the screen time.

     Scary Movie 3 is a parody not entirely devoid of laughs, but very sparse. A few jokes with good timing, clever spoofing, and quotability made their way past the hilarity barrier, but for most jokes, everything was so juvenile and underdone that it came off as unfunny. This, however, is in no way the worst in the series or the best. This one simply didn't do anything truly significant or entertain well enough to be considered satisfying. It's not bad enough to kill you within seven days of viewing it, but it might want to make you be abducted by aliens to flee.