More about this DVD  •  DVD Info  •  Movie Main Page  •  Message Board

But while the first was genuinely funny, this film is often too obvious (is there anything more obvious than a "pussy" joke when there's a cat on screen?) and relies a bit too much on the gross-out effects that are so popular in film comedy today. Some of the sequences are also a bit derivative - there's two Dumb and Dumber gags in the first five minutes alone. Along the way the film satirizes the Exorcist, The Amityville Horror, Hannibal, Poltergeist, and other popular fare, and the results are hit and miss. Fans of the Howard Stern show will find it hilarious, however, when they see what's going on in Smoky's mind.

While the various Wayans Brothers are funny as usual, it's Anna Faris that carries the movie for me. She's very funny, and absolutely fearless on screen. James Woods has a very funny turn as a priest performing an Exorcism. Tim Curry gets the unethical scientist role that Liam Neeson moped his way through in The Haunting. Chris Elliot does someone I'm not familiar with at all (I guess I don't see enough teen horror flick anymore), but is way over the top on the gross out factor. And David Cross does some good work as Curry's unethical scientist assistant.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Scary Movie 2 is presented in anamorphic Widescreen at approximately 1.78:1. The image quality here is generally solid, albeit a bit soft and lacking in fine detail and three-dimensionality. The colors, including the puke and bud greens shown throughout the film, look spot on. There are no distracting artifacts of any kind, it's just that the image is a bit flat and uninspiring. Interestingly this is another way in which the original film proves superior- Scary Movie had very impressive image quality throughout.

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

Scary Movie 2 has a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack that is competent. Dialog is well integrated, and the surrounds are occasionally used to add some dimensionality to the thunder and lightning that occasionally punctuates the action. The LFE also kicks in effectively from time to time, and, of course there are plenty of disgusting sounds to accompany the foul humor on screen. All in all, Scary Movie 2 boasts a nice soundtrack.

A matrixed 2.0 Dolby Surround track is also included, along with English and Spanish subtitles and English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The bulk of the extras are a series of featurettes, which start with an 8-minute EPK "behind the scenes" kind of thing. There are actually some good (although brief) interviews with the actors, writers and directors (almost all of whom are Wayans'!) and James Woods' thoughts on why he took his part are particularly entertaining. The Special Effects Tour with Lou Carlucci is a 5-plus minute piece that focuses mostly on the fake vomit, pee and poop used in the film. This is good for a few laughs. Here Kitty, Kitty is a mini feature that's about two minutes in length, and covers the robot cats used in the cat fight sequence. I personally didn't find this gag funny enough to warrant this kind of coverage in the supplements, but I guess it's better than a stick in the eye. Another little 2-minute "featurette" called Scary Effects shows how some of the explosive glass effects are done. Last but not least, Behind the Make Up with Barry Koper last a bout five minutes and is worth watching. Not only does it show how they pulled off the Hannibal spoof, it's learned that Scary Movie 2's Exorcist parody actually used the same latex tongue Linda Blair wore in The Exorcist.

There is also a Still Gallery, which I found pretty ho hum, as well as a collection of no less than 22 alternate and deleted scenes, the jewel of which is an introduction to David Cross's character that's very funny and should have been in the movie. (Since Scary Movie 2 is only 82 minutes in length it's hard to imagine this scene had to be cut for pace or time.)

Interestingly, while there are seven trailers in the "Sneak Peeks" section of the movie, there isn't one for Scary Movie 2.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

There are DVD- ROM features as well, which include a screenplay viewer, character profiles, and a trivia game. Fair if standard.

Parting Thoughts