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August 2006

Scary Movie 4 DVD Review

by Kam Williams

Scary Movie 4 DVD Review

Cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Carmen Electra, Leslie Nielsen, Simon Rex, Shaquille O'Neal, Dr. Phillip C. McGraw, Craig Bierko, Chris Elliott
Director: David Zucker
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number of discs: 1
Rating: PG-13
Studio: Weinstein Company
DVD Release Date: August 15, 2006
Run Time: 83 minutes
DVD Features:
Available Subtitles: English, Spanish
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Commentary by the filmmakers
15 deleted and extended scenes with commentary
Bloopers
"The Man Behind the Laughs" featurette with director David Zucker
"Zany Spoof Humor - Zucker Style" featurette
"Interviewer's Worst Nightmare" - a look at what happens when interviews go terribly awry on the set
"The Youngbloodz" featurette
"Rappers & Actors" interview featurette
"The Visual Effects of Scary Movie 4" featurette
   

 

 

Fourth Installment of Horror Genre Spoofs Lands on DVD

This fourth installment of the franchise features take-offs of recent horror flicks from War of the Worlds to The Grudge to The Village while even mocking scenes from Brokeback Mountain, Million Dollar Baby and other non-horror flicks. To appreciate this film fully, it would help to have seen the movies mentioned above, but all that’s really necessary is a rudimentary understanding of each one’s prevailing theme.

Director David Zucker relies on the services of another expanded principal cast plus a boatload of celebrity cameos to keep his clever combination of slapstick, sight gags, and bodily-function humor unfolding at a rapid fire pace. Among the Scary Movie alums reprising their roles are co-stars Anna Faris and Regina Hall, as well as Anthony Anderson, Kevin Hart, Chris Elliott, Leslie Nielsen, Carmen Electra, Charlie Sheen and Simon Rex.

Newcomers to the ensemble include Bill Pullman, Craig Bierko, Molly Shannon, DeRay Davis, Michael Madsen, TV-shrink Dr. Philip McGraw, NBA All-Star Shaquille O’Neal, James Earl Jones and hip-hop artists Andre 3000 and Chingy. And don’t be fooled, a few of the famous faces here are played by impostors, such as the look-a-likes delivering decent impressions of Mike Tyson, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Katie Holmes and Oprah Winfrey.

The gruesome gags begin with a hilarious spoof of Saw in which Dr. Phil and Shaq are chained to the floor of a dungeon and one of them has to saw off a leg in order for them to escape. As one might suspect, there’s precious little linkage from one sketch to the next, as the picture is never grounded by even the rudiments of a plot. With the storyline irrelevant, this leaves Scary Movie 4 an experience best savored just for the laughs without trying to make sense of anything.

A low-brow comedy chock full of cheap laughs.

Very good (3 stars)