Scary Movie 4

[Miss Muffet]

The fourth and thankfully final instalment of the Scary Movie series is the best yet. Unfortunately, given the dubious quality of the first three films, this is hardly a ringing endorsement for a franchise, which has always lacked imagination and invention. Fittingly enough, Scary Movie 4 goes out with a bang (the almost total destruction of the world), poking fun at films such as The Grudge, King Kong, Saw, Saw II, The Village and War Of The Worlds.

Celebrity cameos litter the rambling screenplay, which cobbles together a rag-tag selection of pop culture references and spoofs with no attempt whatsoever to create a cohesive whole. As usual, it isn't a case of gags failing to hit their target; the laughs aren't there in the first place.

Very occasionally, when you least expect it, writers David Zucker, Craig Mazin and Jim Abrahams hit the mark: the President of the United States (Leslie Nielsen) learning of the alien invasion whilst reading a book about a duck with schoolchildren (a la George Bush on September 11), a cute sight gag with a hang-glider.

More often than not, though, the trio of writers roasts the old chestnuts - a character's bowel movements, excessive bodily fluids, innuendo ('That's okay, I've taken balls to the face before') - until we can stand no more.

At the centre of this madness is Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), the on-time plucky television news reporter who has survived the murderous attentions of all manner of serial killers, ghouls, ghosts and a demonic videotape. Now, she has turned her back on the media to seek employment as a healthcare professional.

Soon enough, she is hired to care for an old woman (Cloris Leachman) whose house is haunted by the ghost of a dead boy (Garrett Masuda). Thankfully, the next-door neighbour is handsome yet dumb dock worker Tom Ryan (Craig Bierko), whose two kids Rachel (Conchita Campbell) and Robbie (Beau Mirchoff) soon find themselves in the midst of an extra-terrestrial invasion.

While giant triPods (modeled on a certain personal music player) roam the countryside, zapping every human in sight, Cindy embarks on a journey top find the dead boy's father (Bill Pullman), leading her to cross paths with sex-starved best pal Brenda (Regina Hall).

Scary Movie certainly looks slick and the special effects are actually quite impressive, especially the War Of The Worlds sequences, but there's no tangible humour underpinning most of this carnage. The Million Dollar Baby skit falls embarrassingly flat, as do the crass love scenes modelled on Brokeback Mountain between a pair of big city bruvvas. Praise be that it's only 83 minutes.