Scary Movie 2 (DVD)
APPROX. 82 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 2001 - MPA RATING: R
" The jokes are either sexually smutty or grossly crude, with nothing in between, and, worse, few of the jokes are in the remotest way funny.
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Video:
Buena Vista´s transfers always look different to me than those from other studios. The picture quality for "Scary Movie 2" seems to be bright and glossy, deep and dark and almost gaudy, with sometimes minor rough edges and murky backgrounds. None of this is severe, and, indeed, it makes for a visually arresting image, but it isn´t entirely natural to the eyes, either. The widescreen ratio is a very ordinary 1.74:1, enhanced for 16x9 televisions.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is also unimpressive. Now, I´m not one who normally desires a lot of surround-sound action, and in many films I´d rather the rear channels were toned down. But in a movie like this one, the humor needs all the help it can get, if for no other reason than to distract one from the bad jokes. But the rear channels only come to life now and then, mainly with thunder and rain and very occasional musical ambiance. So don´t depend on this film being an audiovisual demo disc; far from it.
Extras:
There is a sizable collection of bonus items on the disc, but none of them add up to very much. The first is an eight-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, with a lot of talk from the actors and crew. The most revealing remark comes from Marlon Wayans, who tells us, "You can´t think about not offending people; you just gotta go with the jokes." That just about sums up the caliber of humor in the film. Next, there are a staggering twenty-two deleted and alternate scenes, including three different endings. About the only one worth watching, however, is one that parodies "What Lies Beneath." Another of the deleted scenes is too dirty for me even to describe it indirectly. What was going through these filmmakers´ minds when they made up this stuff? After that there are several brief featurettes: "Special Effects Tour," five minutes long; "Scary Effects," two minutes; "Behind the Makeup," four minutes; and "Here, Kitty, Kitty," two minutes. Then, there´s a stills gallery, various DVD-ROM features I didn´t explore, and seven Sneak Peeks at other Buena Vista titles including "Scary Movie" but, curiously, none for "Scary Movie 2." During all of the menu time, we get to listen to the parrot mouthing off. Lastly, there are nineteen scene selections, English and French spoken languages, and Spanish subtitles.
Parting Shots:
"Scary Movie 2" has to qualify as one of the worst movies of 2001. I´d place it just a notch above "Freddy Got Fingered" because at least it didn´t purposely try to insult its audience. "Scary Movie 2" is just gross and inept, certainly a much dumber movie than anything it tries to spoof. But it does have one redeeming attribute: brevity. It´s only eighty-two minutes long. Thank heaven for very small favors.
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