Lazy movie

>> Scary Movie 2 is a rehash of a rehash

by MATTHEW HAYS

Scary Movie 2 continues the gag-a-second, gross-out, sophomoric kind of filmmaking perfected by Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers in 1980's Airplane!

Sadly, while this type of movie was perfected in Airplane!, since then the subgenre has been on a downward spiral, playing out much like the disasters spoofed in the original.

There were moments in Scary Movie 2 when I found myself laughing, simply because of the profound stupidity of the yuks. But really, this would work best as a half hour on cable, rather than a feature-length film. Things get tired fast. Several of the regulars from the first Scary Movie are back, and ringmaster Keenen Ivory Wayans has them poking fun at a bunch of rather obvious bits and pieces of pop culture. There's a cum-stained dress and mention of President Clinton, the clown from Poltergeist, brain eating à la Hannibal and even a scene spoofing the exorcism from The Exorcist (one would have thought that idea belaboured, even by the rock-bottom standards Wayans has set--I've lost count: how many times has Linda Blair been sent up?).

I met Robert Hays (no relation), star of Airplane! at a film forum about a decade ago. I asked him about Airplane 2, the sequel that the studio churned out after the first one was such a hit. As a fan of the first, I had been disappointed by the lacklustre writing of the second. Hays's response was pretty weak. "They just didn't have as much time to write the screenplay," he said of the second batch of screenwriters. The excuse for churning out a far less funny film, it seemed, was simple: "We just dashed it off."

Scary Movie 2 feels pretty much that way. Not terrifically inspired, endlessly predictable yuks taking aim at virtually every easy target one could think of (not that you'd really have to put your mind to it or anything).

One of the funnier gags involves Marlon Wayans, reprising his role from the first movie as a joint-obsessed pothead. At one point, he's rolled into a giant joint and smoked by some plant monsters, his Afro hairdo set alight. The allusions to pot are fitting. Substances, I suspect, will greatly enhance appreciation of Scary Movie 2. You'll probably recall about as much as you would off the stuff anyway.

Scary Movie 2 is now playing