Uneven but entertaining

Rating: 6/10 (22 April 2011)

This is not as fun or as good as the first film, but while it is a very uneven film I do not think it is the worst of the series. That's the fourth. The film's weakness are mostly to do with the story and the pace. The story is very weak and thin a vast majority of the time, and the film feels rushed sometimes. While most of the references/spoofs are fun, some don't work, especially the forced and messy Titanic one. And there is some uneven performances, Marlon Wayans, David Cross and especially Chris Elliot come off best, but Anna Faris while better than she was in the first overdoes it and while Tim Curry was a welcome presence he doesn't have anything worthwhile to work with. However, the film thankfully doesn't look sloppy or straight to video quality and the music was quite good as well. Of course the film is silly and mindless, but most of it is very funny, the dinner scene with the running joke about the hand, the talking parrot and the Charlie's Angels spoof work especially well, and a lot of the script if bizarre and silly is hilarious. The highlight though is the Excorcist-beginning, with a very amusing cameo from James Woods. That scene alone made me think it would be a good movie, but while the rest of the film wasn't quite as good, it is entertaining enough and not as bad as some say. 6/10 Bethany Cox