Unnecessary and disappointing...

Rating: 4/10 (20 March 2006)

"Scary Movie", was a somewhat breath of fresh air in the year 2000, with a concept in the tradition of "Airplane!". Making a movie that parodies every cliché of the late 90s teen horror genre like "Scream" and "I know what you did last summer" seemed like good fun. The Wayans brothers hit the target with their particular brand of crude humor that was very attractive to the MTV generation of the end of the last century.
A year after, they broke their promise of no sequels with this movie focused on the big CGI horror movies like the remakes of "The Haunting" and "Thirtheen Ghosts" as well as other popular movies of the time, keeping the crude humor and the sex jokes in the same style as the original; the difference being that, as any sequel, there is the more of everything.
Actually those two aspects are the main problems in the film; first, the popular culture references are only funny if one is familiar with those, and also become dated quickly as the time goes on. The comedy aspect of the film, unlike the original movie, is very weak, with most gags being repetitive and masking the movie tiresome. Sure, the Wayans are a very creative team and still can make a laugh, but in this movie it feels as if they had written the script on a hurry and without caring too much on the result.
The acting is mediocre at best, with Anna Faris being again not only our lead character, but also the only one who knows how to give a good performance. Such a shame that her most famous role to date is as the lead star of this series of films, because she is a real talent on the rise. The rest of the cast is unconvincing and even the Wayans brothers seem bothered by their own script. The brilliant cameo by James Woods at the beginning of the film is among the few really enjoyable moments of the film.
The special effects are far better than in the first one; having a bigger budget helps and director Keenen Ivory Wayans makes good use of them. Unlike the horror movies it parodies, "Scary Movie 2" doesn't abuse of CGI and at times it keeps the indie-look of the first one.
The first "Scary movie" promised no sequels. If they had stayed true to their promise, maybe "Scary Movie" had been remembered as a jewel product of its time and not as the multi-sequel bore that is right now. 4/10