Scary Movie (R) ★

Thursday, July 6, 2000

Fart jokes. Poo-poo jokes. Pee-pee jokes. Sex jokes. Scrotum jokes. Small penis jokes. Pubic hair jokes. Still reading? Well, congratulations, Scary Movie is for you.

Story

You know, it's a parody of those ''Scream'' and ''I Know What You Did Last Summer'' movies. A deranged killer is stalking a bunch of attractive high school kids, calling them on his cell phone and asking them if they like scary movies. He wears a black cloak and a ghost mask. The difference is this killer likes to smoke pot with his victims before killing them.

Acting

We're laying it on the line: Dave Sheridan deserves an Oscar nomination for his performance as Doofy, the ha-ha counterpart to David Arquette's Dewey in the ''Scream'' trilogy. Doofy (isn't the name funny enough?) always has spittle caked at the corners of his mouth, he masturbates with a vacuum cleaner and he does a great ''smell my finger'' joke. Kudos also to David Lander of ''Laverne & Shirley'' legend, who swallows his pride to play Principal Squiggy.

Direction

In the annals of comedy filmmaking, there are but a few legendary directors: Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Woody Allen, Jacques Tati and, of course, Keenen Ivory Wayans. Here, Wayans follows up his 1988 Blaxploitation spoof ''I'm Gonna Git You Sucka'' and the classic ''A Low Down Dirty Shame'' with another treatise on the nature of humor employing feminist, post- Freudian, neo-Marxist, Bakhtinian methodologies. That, and a character who goes ''poopy'' in his pants.

Bottom Line

Sniff, sniff. Do you smell something? Oh yeah, it's Scary Movie.