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The Scary Movie franchise gets a much-needed makeover. Gone are series creators the Wayans brothers (after their listless second installment), but the irreverent horror-spoofing format remains the same in the hands of David Zucker (Airplane! and Naked Gun). Anna Faris returns as Cindy Campbell (a play on Neve Campbell and her Sidney character from Scream), now a perky blonde reporter who à la The Ring watches a macabre video telling her she will die in seven days. In the film’s other thread, Charlie Sheen riffs on Mel Gibson’s character from Signs as a fallen minister turned farmer who finds a "crop square" in his cornfield. In between, Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy pose as Catholic schoolgirls and the Coors Twins, Michael Jackson (or someone who looks a lot like him) gets dangled from a window, and old Zucker staple Leslie Nielsen turns up as the president. The Matrix, The Others, and 8 Mile — with caustic American Idol host Simon Cowell on hand to judge the rap battle — all get sent up as well. Raucous, rapid-fire (until the end, when the pace sags), and raunchy, Scary Movie 3 is a step up from SM2 but not on a par with the original or with Zucker’s earlier successes.
BY TOM MEEK
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