Review: Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Reviews

Scary Movie 4

Revitalized parody franchise hits War of the Worlds, Fahrenheit 9/11

By TOM MEEK | April 19, 2006

2.5 Stars

The horror-spoofing franchise has risen from the dead under the guidance of David Zucker (Airplane! and the Naked Gun series). He breathed new life into the serial with SM3 after the Wayans brothers, so fly with the original, tanked with SM2. Much of the success stems from Anna Faris’s cute ditz, Cindy Campbell, who this time gets run through transmogrifications of The Grudge, The Village, War of the Worlds, and Saw. (The flick opens with Shaq and Dr. Phil shackled in a tawdry subterranean bathroom.) Plenty of the gags hit, though the ending where a Tom Cruise fill-in (Craig Bierko) goes berserk on Oprah is bewildering and pointless. Long-time staple Leslie Nielsen is, as always, a hoot as the nincompoop president who, when informed of an alien invasion while visiting a school, sits dumfounded à la Bush on 9/11.

Related: Greatest hits, Superhero Movie, Epic Movie, More

Greatest hits
So that’s how World War II started.
Superhero Movie
There are some chuckles — okay, two — but the film’s big accomplishment is that it elevates the “spoof” genre from ludicrously awful to just plain bad.
Epic Movie
Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the brain warp behind the Scary Movie franchise and Date Movie , again take their tired and not-so-true formula and spoof a list of semi-recent theater fillers).
The joy of excess
When Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show came to the British stage in 1973 and the infamous picture show followed two years later, there was proof that more is more.
Taking their lumps
Across the underwater plains of Alaska’s Bering Sea go movable cities of red king crab, silently marching sideways.
Cheap cheer
Why bother caroling when you can spike your eggnog and sing karaoke? Heck, why venture into the windy streets when you can snuggle next to the radiator with a six-pack of cheep beer?
Love in the Time of Cholera
Granted, this is hardly the first Hollywood film to feature Latinos practicing ESL in their own land, but with lines like “Her smell is in my noh-streels,” it’s among the dumbest.
Review: 2012
Doomsday is good therapy. What does it matter that billions die if that brings a family together in one big hug?
2009: Rants of the Right
Few "respectable" publications were willing to review the year's top-selling conservative books, but the Phoenix has no fear. After wading through 2500 or so pages of right-wing ravings, your brave correspondent reports back with the following analyses.
The (abridged) e-book of Genesis
In the beginning . . . Steve Jobs created Newton, Apple's groundbreaking Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), which was introduced in 1993 to moderate reception.
State of the art
RISD’s annual “Graduate Thesis Exhibition” could be just the place to glimpse the future of art, as predicted by the school that U.S. News & World Report recently said has the best master of fine arts program in the country.
Less

Topics: Reviews , Oprah Winfrey, David Zucker, Tom Cruise, More

| More

More Information

Watch the trailer for Scary Movie 4 (Yahoo! Movies)

ARTICLES BY TOM MEEK

REVIEW: GOD BLESS AMERICA | May 17, 2012
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture ( i.e. , Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, and American Idol ) and the indignity of being an office drone.

REVIEW: THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS | April 24, 2012
Peter Lord, animator behind claymation staples Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run , directs this very British, very dry romp on the high seas during the time when Britannia did indeed rule the waves.

REVIEW: GOD BLESS AMERICA | April 18, 2012
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture (i.e., Paris Hilton, the Kardashians and American Idol) and the indignity of being an office drone.

REVIEW: UNDEFEATED | March 15, 2012
Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin's Oscar-winning documentary about an underequipped high-school football team competing against big-time programs across Tennessee offers a potent contemplation on race and opportunity.

REVIEW: DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX | March 01, 2012
Regrettably, this team loses a lot of Seuss's quirkiness, though not the message about corporate greed and slash-and-burn imperialism.