|
|
 |
Scary Movie
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (4th December 2007). |
|
The Film
 After 'Scream' came out, my friend and I thought it would be a good idea to write a spoof of slasher movies. We never finished the thing, but I wrote the first scene, and, without a hint of arrogance, I can say that scene is better than this movie. The main problem with 'Scary Movie' is that it goes for the easy jokes, never really putting any faith in its audience. The plot of this movie unfolds like that of 'Scream' and 'I Know What You Did Last Summer', namely, a killer is trying to kill a group of friends, who think it's someone they accidentally (almost) killed a year earlier. Describing the plot any further, I'd only be recounting the events of both 'Scream' and 'I Know What You Did Last Summer'. The movie also not only borrows from those two movies, but also makes passing references to 'Halloween', 'The Sixth Sense', 'The Matrix', Budweiser commercials and a bunch of other stuff that dates the movie than it makes it seem funny. The movie, alas, doesn't really have an original bone in its body. Even the dialogue is easy and simple. There are a few laughs to be had, but the movie's self-referential mockery lends itself very easily to tiresome jokes. It's not very hard to guess what the next joke is going to be, especially considering the movie follows the plot of 'Scream' pretty much kill-for-kill. You have the setup, it's pretty much clear what the payoff is going to be. Take the scene with the 'Rose McGowan' character in the garage. The girl is big-boned, and you know there's a doggy-door in the garage door. Ditto for the scene in the movie theatre. Well, I've seen 'Scream' (and 'Scream 2', for that matter), so I can guess what's going to happen. The 6 (count 'em!) screenwriters couldn't seem to figure out that a large part of comedy is the unexpected. All the references and all the toilet humour can't help the movie. I did laugh a few times, like the psycho killer looking at Playboy and one or two death scenes, but these gags are few and far between to save the movie. The movie is nothing but low-brow jokes and pointless references. Like I said, I did laugh a few times, so the movie isn't a total loss. Maybe I missed something, considering the movie has spawned 3 sequels (and as of this writing a fourth is in the works). Perhaps I expected a bit too much from the movie, as well. I can say something nice about the movie, though. 'Scary Movie' looks like a piece of art when viewed after 'Date Movie' and 'Epic Movie'.
Video
2.35:1 widescreen. The movie is encoded at 1080p, using the MPEG-4/AVC codec. The picture is better than the sound in my opinion. The colours are accurate, bright and the contrast is very strong. There's no flickering, and the black level is very nice. The print is very clean, with no specks or scratches. The grain is virtually gone, giving the movie a very sleek look. Some people may not like this because the picture looks a bit flat, but the whole print looks very sharp. It could be better, as the picture does appear to be a bit too soft, and doesn't have the level of detail it probably could, but overall, I'm happy with the picture.
Audio
I listened to the English PCM 5.1 (uncompressed) track, but the disc also offers English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo tracks. I wasn't very impressed with this track, to say the truth. Much of the movie takes place in the centre channel, not really veering off to the right or left side much. The Movie Showcase choices the disc offers are pretty poor, as there isn't much use in the rears or the sides. The score pops up in those speakers from time to time, but other than that, it's quite a flat track. The dialogue, however, is always heard, and everything is at good volume levels. English (HoH), French and Spanish subtitles are here as well.
Extras
I'll but an asterisk (*) beside the extras (well, extra) that are exclusive to this high-def release. First is the Movie Showcase*. There are three scenes (1:00, 0:48, 0:39) here. The first is Carmen Electra running through the sprinklers, the next is Anna Faris running through her house, trying to get away from the killer and the third is the 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' scene in the car. Considering the mixing in the movie, none of these are particularly spectacular. After that are a bunch of Original DVD Features. Six Additional Scenes scenes start things off. All of them were cut out because they push the NC-17 rating pretty hard, especially the first one. None of them add much to the movie, but none are really funnier or unfunnier than what you'd find in the movie. They're simply there. They are: Hop-A-Long Shorty (1:56), Ray Calls a Play (0:20), Bobby's Lesson (1:17), Gail Sets Surveillance Camera (2:05), Shorty Watches Girl on Surveillance Camera (1:30) and Cindy's Last Stand (0:23). A kind of short Behind-the-Scenes featurette (6:56) continues the extras. This is an EPK and has the cast and director talking about those Kevin Williamson movies and why they wanted to spoof slasher movies. They also talk about how they went about doing it and what problems they ran into. There's also a few behind the scenes clips, but it's nothing particularly detailed. The movie's Theatrical Trailer (1:43) is next. This trailer is pretty good and has a couple of nice jokes. It sells the movie well and did its job, when you realize that 'Scary Movie' grossed over 150 million dollars in the US alone. The disc also has some Start-up Trailers: 'National Treasure' (1:56), 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End' (2:35) and 'The Invisible' (2:31).
Overall
|
|||||
|