Talk about false advertising. Despite the promise of the original’s tagline: “No Mercy. No Shame. No Sequel,” director Keenen Ivory Wayans just couldn’t look past another possible $260 million box office. Unlike teen horror flick spoofs that dominated “Scary Movie,” this sequel takes aim at more classic horror films, as well as TV shows and commercials.
Anna Faris and the Wayans brothers (quite possibly the worst acting duo in Hollywood) reprise their roles from the original, but now they’re in college and are invited into a psychology class with three other students, taught by the one-and-only Tim Curry. The six students are led by their professor and his assistant (David Cross) to the Hell House, a haunted mansion where they plan to study the effects of insomnia.
The jokes in this film are almost as funny as those in the original, sometimes even funnier, but unfortunately you only understand the jokes if you watch hundreds of movies and TV commercials. The plot is terrible and the editing in this film may be the worst I’ve seen all year, but the Wayans aren’t looking for an Oscar bid here, just a few hundred million dollars and another excuse for making a sequel.
All in all, “Scary Movie 2” has enough jokes to at least keep you grinning throughout the entire 90 minutes, but you may be disappointed and sometimes lost with where those jokes are going.
3 / 5 Stars
Starring: Anna Faris, David Cross, Tim Curry, Marlon Wayans, Andy Richter
Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans
