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Ridiculous, extremely hit-and-miss and very, very stupid…and yet you’re almost guaranteed a decent laugh every couple of minutes. Catch it now while its targets are still relatively topical…

The main difference between Scary Movie 3 and its less-than-illustrious predecessors is that the creative team has switched from the Suckas (the Wayans Brothers, who cemented their spoofing reputations with Ah’m Gonna Git You, Sucka!) to the Zuckers, or, more accurately, Zucker – in this case, David (Airplane, The Naked Gun).

Hit And Miss As Ever

The other big difference is that they have wisely decided that there wouldn’t be any mileage in spoofing Scream 3 and so have cunningly switched their attentions to three other movies, seamlessly blending the plots of The Ring, Signs and, bizarrely, 8 Mile.

The results are unsurprisingly hit-and-miss and the movie itself is unashamedly stupid, yet it still delivers plenty of decent laughs in its short running time.

It opens with an amusing prologue featuring Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy taking the Dumb Blonde routine and hammering it into the ground, while spoofing the opening scene of The Ring. (Pamela Anderson? Funny? Who knew?). Anna Faris (now, apparently back to her natural blonde) reprises her role as Cindy Campbell from the first two films – now a reporter, she lands the job of investigating the Mysterious Video Tape That Kills.

Meanwhile, Charlie Sheen takes the Mel Gibson role from Signs (aliens leave a crop circle that reads “Attack here”) while his brother, Simon Rex, decides he wants to be a white rap star and win the local ‘rap-off’, 8 Mile-style.

That’s really about all the plot there is, so it’s quite a surprise that it hangs together quite as well as it does. The film-makers also throw in references to several other movies such as The Matrix: Reloaded – Queen Latifah and Eddie Griffin’s scenes as the Oracle and ‘Orpheus’ are hilarious, though the trailer suggests a lot of their scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, sorry, will end up on the DVD.

Sheen Funny Once More

The performances are good and it’s good to see Sheen being funny again – his real-life wife Denise Richards also cameos as his dying wife who tries to make him promise he’ll give up sex.

However, it’s really Leslie Nielsen who steals the show with his turn as the inept President of the USA – he also gets the best line: “These men died for their country – send flowers to their bitches and ho’s.”

Naturally, a lot of the gags fall flat – a joke involving a salivating priest who arrives to baby-sit Cindy’s nephew seems particularly ill-judged – but they come so thick and fast that you’re guaranteed a good chuckle every couple of minutes. There are also a number of amusing cameos and the film offers the pleasing sight of seeing Pop Idol’s Simon Cowell machine-gunned to death.

In short, Scary Movie 3 is really not much more than a series of movie-related sketches but it doesn’t outstay its welcome and is a lot funnier than it has any right to be. If you’re after a stupid, unashamedly brainless comedy of a Friday evening, you could do a lot worse.