Scary Movie 3 Information

Scary Movie 3 is a 2003 American science fiction horror comedy parody film, which parodies the horror, sci-fi, and mystery genres, directed by David Zucker. It is the third film of the Scary Movie franchise, as well as the first to have no involvement from the Wayans family. This is most evident as the characters of Shorty Meeks and Ray Wilkins, previously played by Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans, do not appear, nor are they referenced. The film's plot significantly parodies the films The Ring, Signs, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and 8 Mile. It is also the first film of two in the series to star Leslie Nielsen. 'Scary Movie 3' opened to mixed reviews from critics, who praised its consistent humor and satire, but criticized many other aspects such as casting, synopsis and pacing. Despite mixed reviews the film was a box office success, grossing $220,673,217 worldwide.

Plot

The film opens with Katy (Jenny McCarthy) and Becka (Pamela Anderson) talking about a cursed tape in which Katy refers to a sex tape, but Becka refers to a cursed tape (The Ring). After several paranormal events, they die when the TV turns on.

In a farm outside Washington D.C., a widowed farmer and former reverend, Tom Logan (Charlie Sheen) and his clumsy brother George (Simon Rex) are walking through the farmfields when they discover a crop circle (Signs). The "circle" is part of a large arrow carved into the crops which point at the Logan house and spells out "ATTACK HERE".

Since the previous film, the gang have all gone their separate ways. In Washington, Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), now an anchorwoman, announces the crop circles on the news and afterwards has an argument with her boss. He only wants stories featuring sex, violence and the weather. She later picks up her paranormally endowed nephew Cody (Drew Mikuska) from school, where her best friend Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall) now works as a teacher and is no longer dating Ray Wilkins (originally Shawn Wayans). George Logan arrives to pick up his niece Sue, who is in the same class. George and Cindy are instantly smitten and he invites Cindy and Brenda to a rap-battle with his rapper friends Mahalik (Anthony Anderson) and CJ (Kevin Hart) (8 Mile).

Later that evening, George competes and proves to be actually quite talented. But due to some unintentional racist blunders, he is thrown out. Following the battle, Brenda asks Cindy to keep her company, since she watched the cursed videotape herself. After playing several pranks on Cindy, she gets the rest of the popcorn in the lounge and goes to watch TV when it turns on by itself. Brenda starts getting angry at the TV and curses at it. When Brenda turns back around, the TV is on with a well on the screen. Tabitha (Marny Eng) climbs out of the well and the TV, Brenda gets into a fist fight with Tabitha in the living room while Cindy pays no attention to her. Tabitha ends up killing Brenda. George receives a phone call about the death, and Tom meets with Sayaman, who apologises for the accident involving himself and Tom's wife Annie (Denise Richards).

During Brenda's wake, George and Mahalik wreak havoc on Brenda's corpse trying to bring her back to life. George ends up blowing up Brenda to which the attendees of Brenda's funeral start screming due to the random pieces of Brenda landing in their hands. Cindy decides to watch the tape for herself and finds the tape to be a bit odd. After the tape finishes Cindy is cursed after receiving a phone call. She calls George, CJ and Mahalik for help. CJ offers that his Aunt Shaneequa might be able to help. Aunt Shaneequa (Queen Latifah), the Matrix The Oracle, and her husband Orpheus (Eddie Griffin) agree to watch the tape. Shaneequa discovers the hidden image of a lighthouse, and gets into a fight with a lady on the tape. Shaneequa tells Cindy that she must find the lighthouse to solve the mystery. When Cindy returns home, she finds that Cody watched the tape, condemning him to certain death. After receiving several phone calls from Tabitha, Cindy and George start discussing the tape.

Back at work, Cindy searches through pictures of lighthouses before finding the one from the tape. Desperate to save Cody's life, Cindy tries to warn everyone by entering a message into the news anchor's teleprompter, but she is interrupted by her boss and a janitor. The Logans hear the message and take it seriously since they encountered an alien disguised as Michael Jackson, and President Baxter Harris (Leslie Nielsen), who personally visits the farm to investigate the crop circles.

Cindy ventures to the lighthouse, where she encounters The Architect (George Carlin). The loquacious (and lecherous) old man explains the story behind the killer tape. Tabitha was his evil adopted daughter, whom his wife drowned in the farm's well, but not before she imprinted her evil onto the tape. Unfortunately, he mistook the evil tape for a copy of Pootie Tang and returned it to Blockbuster Inc. instead, unleashing the curse.

Returning home, Cindy discovers that her station has been broadcasting the evil tape for hours, and there have been various sightings of aliens around the world. Worse, Cody is missing. Cindy manages to track him back to the Logan farm, where he has taken refuge with George. Tom orders everybody into the basement for safety, as he, George and Mahalik go outside to fight off the extraterrestrials. The aliens (voiced by Tom Kenny) arrive but reveal that they are in fact friendly and have come to stop Tabitha, since they accidentally watched the tape on a broadcast they had intercepted, thinking it was Pootie Tang.

In the basement, Cindy realizes that the farm's cellar is what is seen on the tape and she finds the well where Tabitha was drowned under the cellar floor. Suddenly, Tabitha appears behind her. A short fight ensues, during which Tabitha takes Cody hostage. Cindy and George appeal to her, offering her a place in their family. Tabitha appears to accept the offer, and Cindy replies with "Really?" but Tabitha also replies with "Nah, I'm just screwing with you" and advances to Cindy and the others, but is accidentally knocked back into the well by President Harris. The aliens leave in peace, and Cindy and George get married and Brenda makes a special appearance. Leaving for their honeymoon, they realize they forget to take Cody with them. At first, Cody is about to get hit by Cindy's car in an intersection, but she put the breaks this time to prevent it from happening, much to Cody's relief. Unfortunately, another car passes by on the intersection, and hits Cody.

Cast

• Anna Faris as Cindy Campbell
• Regina Hall as Brenda Meeks (special appearance)
• Simon Rex - George Logan
• Charlie Sheen - Tom Logan
• Leslie Nielsen " President Baxter Harris
• Queen Latifah - Aunt Shaneequa/The Oracle
• Anthony Anderson - Mahalik
• Kevin Hart - CJ
• Camryn Manheim - Trooper Champlin
• George Carlin - The Architect
• Eddie Griffin - Orpheus
• Pamela Anderson - Becka Kotler
• Jenny McCarthy - Kathy Embry
• Drew Mikuska - Cody
• Jianna Ballard - Sue Logan
• Denise Richards - Annie Logan
• D. L. Hughley - John Wilson
• Ja Rule - Agent Thompson
• Darrell Hammond - Father Muldoon
• Jeremy Piven - Ross Giggins
• Simon Cowell - Himself
• Marny Eng - Tabitha
• Edward Moss - MJ Alien
• Ajay Naidu - Sayaman

Rapper cameos

In "The Rap Battle", several actual rappers assist in the confrontation with the aliens and a subsequent shootout amongst themselves.

• Master P
• RZA
• Raekwon
• Method Man
• Redman
• Macy Gray
• U-God
• Fat Joe

Soundtrack

The Scary Movie 3 soundtrack was released on the soundtrack label Varese Sarabande and featured songs Co-written and Produced by Jorge Corante and Frank Fitzpatrick with the exception of one song produced by Rodney Jerkins.

• "Just Got Serious" - by Buku Wise featuring Young Dre
• "Mexican Hat Rap" - by Delinquent Habits
• "Ridin Rollin" - by N-Kroud Kliq
• "Do You Wanna" - by Jug
• "Smoke It Up" - by Kebyar
• "Fearless" - by Dame Lee
• "Who U Lookin' At" - by Gage
• "Rock Rock, Bounce Bounce" - Dame Lee, Featuring Jug
• "White Boy" - by Dirt Nasty (Simon Rex), Featuring Kevin Hart & the SM3 crew
• "Mayhem Remix" - by Jug, Featuring G-Man & Roz

Alternate scenes

The DVD edition includes a director's audio commentary, several deleted scenes and alternative endings (with optional commentary). A "3.5" special DVD was also released, and contained several more deleted scenes than the original DVD, with an unrated version of the film.

In the alternate ending, Cindy is told Cody does not exist. After hitting a few people in the face with a shovel, Cindy asks everybody who is not real to stand over at a different spot. Cody goes over there, but is followed by Santa Claus. The aliens then begin to invade but George stops them by transforming into The Hulk. President Harris tries to hulk out, but ends up soiling his pants. Cindy enters the Logan House, where she is attacked by Tabitha. She is teleported away to Aunt Shaneequa, who teaches her how to defeat Tabitha. Cindy must then confront hundreds of Tabithas. She wins the battle by performing moves from The Matrix and teleports back to the Logan House. The cast then gets into a car with the President, but are horrified to learn that the driver happens to be M. Night Shyamalan.

One of the scenes that appeared on the Extended DVD named Scary Movie 3.5 was part of the unrated feature. After Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy shut off the TV, the two compliment each other on their good looks. Anderson then asks if McCarthy wants her "shaved pussy", but this turns out to be a furless kitten.

In an extended scene, the person who runs Cody down at the end is shown to be Michael Jackson.

Reception

The film opened at the number one spot with $48,113,770, already recovering its budget and making it the highest debuting Scary Movie to date. It was also the highest weekend debut for a Fall and October release until it was broken by another threequel, Jackass 3D. In its second week takings declined to $20,017,468 but it still claimed the top spot for a second week running. At the end of its box office run, Scary Movie 3 grossed $110,003,217 in the U.S. and $110,670,000 internationally making $220,673,217 in total. It was an enormous box office success, raking in more than the previous installment but $58 million less than the first.

Reviews were mixed but the consensus was that it was a marked improvement on the previous installment. The film received a 36% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 49% on Metacritic. This is the first film in the series to be rated PG-13. (The first two films were R rated.)