Scary Movie: Critic Reviews

Labored, Naked Gun-ish quotes from The Matrix, The Blair Witch Project, and The Usual Suspects merely congratulate us for recognizing them.

The Wayans have shown they have more talent than this.

This movie, too, will pass.

Usually what you're laughing at is ugliness.

A movie that keeps testing just how low it can go.

Scary Movie is less than satisfactory.

There's energy and glee in the movie, as if the Wayans brothers were still little boys, desperately working to out-gross each other. Naughty little boys and girls everywhere, even those who have officially grown up, will appreciate their commitment.

The jokes in Scary Movie do everything to signal their arrival except call ahead and book a hotel room.

Would it be asking too much if the hit-and-miss jokes could maybe nudge an inch beyond the obvious?

This movie will only frighten you with its crudeness.

Ends up being less funny than its primary target, the already-self-satirizing Scream series.

The appeal seems to lie less in laughter than in respect for the filmmakers' irreverence as viewers sit back and think, "I can't believe they showed that!"

If you're hoping to forget your troubles for 90 minutes, Scary Movie certainly does the job.

Scary Movie's humor is definitely in the gutter.

Does its spoofing with a blunt instrument instead of a scalpel, and it's engineered to appeal to the lowest instincts of its targeted adolescent audiences.

The humor in this movie is based on the concept that if enough jokes are fired off in a row, some of them will make you laugh. The concept works.

The kind of thing that leads to sleepless nights -- from severely bruised rib cages.

Scary Movie is a sporadically hilarious parody of teen horror movies that too frequently seems half-baked.

Make no mistake -- this one is lowbrow comedy all the way.

[The Wayans'] approach, incorporating the crude humor that has become so popular of late, generates an unfortunate digression from the point.

The air of desperation is emphasised by the insistence on padding out horror-movie gags with crude Farrelly-style humour.

This is Dumb American Comedy at its best and well worth 90 minutes of your time.

Scary Movie is sporadically hilarious, and worth seeing for that...

I couldn't help wishing I were watching that obscure little children's fantasy instead. As I recall, it's a lot funnier and more frightening than Scary Movie.

By far director/actor Keenen Ivory Wayans' best parody effort to date, primarily because he here taps into a rejuvenated genre and is given access to broader subject matter with universal appeal.