Scary Movie 3

For the third installment of the franchise, Anna Faris takes center screen. The Wayans brothers are gone this time; they get “based on characters” credit, but the script is by Craig Mazin and Pat Proft, and the director is David Zucker (from the Airplane! and Naked Gun films, which this series plainly emulates). The plot, in case you care, sends up The Ring, Signs and 8 Mile. The flood of silly jokes either will make you laugh or won’t, but at least Zucker enlists the services of several veterans of this kind of nonsense (Leslie Nielsen and Charlie Sheen) and some cute cameos (Queen Latifah, Denise Richards and Camryn Manheim). Part of the reason the film goes down so easily is Faris; she’s charming (as she was in The Hot Chick last year)—but she needs to find better scripts pretty soon.