Scary Movie 3 (2003)

Scary Movie 3 follows on from the disastrous Scary Movie 2, this time spoofing mainly The Ring and Signs. It involves a random plot to do with aliens coming to earth and the cursed videotape from The Ring with some random Matrix and 8 Mile related stuff thrown in. This one improves considerably on the second, and is to be honest my favourite of the series so far. It's certainly not great. Leslie Nielsen, though he's excellent as always, isn't in it enough while the jokes are somewhat hit and miss. In fairness, quite a few of them do (There's a certain scene in the middle which I don't want to spoil since it's that good which had me in utter hysterics) but others are too obvious, overstretched, inept or occasionally just a bit offensive. The movie is a mess (How did this cost $48 million?!) but perhaps that adds to its silly charm. It's pretty funny much of the time, even if it isn't particularly good in terms of plot or intelligence. However, as a collection of gags it delivers. Uneven, certainly, and endlessly juvenile, but not as insufferable as the second one and not as endlessly vulgar as the actually alright original movie.6/10

Scary Movie 3 (2003): Dir: David Zucker / Cast: Anna Faris, Charlie Sheen, Leslie Nielsen, Denise Richards, Simon Rex: Not as good as Scary Movie yet a tremendous improvement over Scary Movie 2. Strange circles are appearing in a corn field owned by Charlie Sheen that has the media believing that aliens are coming. This is an obvious reference to Signs. His younger brother off competing in the rap wars in a reference to Eight Mile. The premise is different but it regards the usual spoofs of mainstream movies including the ominous figure emerging from the well in The Ring. Directed by David Zucker who previously made one of the worst comedies ever in My Boss's Daughter. Charlie Sheen is well cast as farmer Logan who will have an encounter with an alien molded in the likeness of Michael Jackson. Denise Richards appears as his wife in the fatal accident. This is another reference to Signs but unfortunately there just isn't enough of Richards. Anna Faris returns as Cindy and now she's a newswoman. She investigates and comes away a married woman. Leslie Nielsen plays the United States President who sense conspiracy and he accidentally solves the plot problem in a manner of classic Nielsen. Simon Rex plays Sheen's younger brother who is subjected to brutal prat falls. Vulgar as expected but takes the narrative in a new warped direction. Score: 5 ½ / 10

It's by Mr. Zucker, one of the ZAZ (Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker) Connection, but don't expect it to be near some of the classics the original trio conceived. The movie has some nice moments, but most jokes do not work. On the other hand, if you're a fan of Anna Faris (regular Scary Movie alumni until Part 4), you might want to add a few extra points or at least one that is.Of course even here it makes sense to know the movies that are spoofed in here. Ring being one of them, Pamela Anderson "home video" another. While not a great skit, this almost seems like the joke of the century though compared to Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan trying to poke fun at themselves! You might expect Pam Anderson to be better than Lohan as an actress, but you could expect Charlie to be better than that. Maybe he was running low on fuel ... Anyway, better than other spoof movies, but not really great

I rather enjoyed this low-brow comedy, and its mishmash parody of various horror movies (including "The Ring", "Signs" and "8 Mile") and other aspects of Hollywood culture. It was all rather cliché and slapstick, but at the same time it was well done, fast paced, irreverent, sort of fun, and quite unpredictable. Appearing in the film are a number of good comedians and off-the-wall personalities. I enjoyed Scary Movie 1, way back when, and it was interesting to catch up with the series. This movie didn't blow me away, but it was entertaining enough. I'm tempted to give it about a 7, but I think it merits a 6 because of its general crudity and overt stupidity.