10 Films That Won't Change Your Life

7. Scary Movie 2

Zoolander 2 Penelope Cruz Ben Stiller
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Blame Disaster Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie et al all you like for the spate of movies that reference pop culture without actually sending it up in an amusing way, but it was Scary Movie that got the ball rolling back in 2000. Rushed out a year later, this sequel proves Dimension Films’ contempt for audiences.

Credited to seven writers, Scary Movie 2 begins with a would-be spoof of The Exorcist, and you know you’re in trouble when they recreate the scene where Regan pees on the rug and someone says, “Who let the horse out?” The movie doesn’t stop there, and over the course of 82 minutes there are references to Hannibal, The Haunting, What Lies Beneath and Hollow Man that manage to be neither entertaining nor amusing.

They even stoop to recycling a gag that wasn’t funny in Wild Wild West. Whenever wheelchair-bound David Cross encounters Chris Elliott (whose character has a deformed hand), they make fun of the other’s handicap, so when Cross says, “Let me give you a hand”, Elliott trumps that with “Why don’t you give me a standing ovation?”

Laugh? You’ll walk out.

Contributor

Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'