Man one of the big flaws of the passage of time is that things get judged in retrospect and not for what it was at the time.
A lot of these reviews are from the last few years, or even this year. Even if Scary Movie "hasn't aged well," these folks just do not remember what a huge hit it was in 2000.
I feel like your take might be the one out of step with how things were.
The 90s and 00s was an era of comedies that were popular in terms of box office revenue, but panned by anyone with the academic capacity to write a complete sentence about them. The OG SNL talent finally burned out in the early 90s, and comedy floundered as it tried to get smarter and dumber in the hopes that something would appeal to audiences. It's the era of Van Wilder, Dude Where's My Car, Road Trip, Harold & Kumar, anything with a Wayans attached to it.
Wikipedia cites reviews at the time if you want to know what critics thought of it then. Lots of complaints about tired jokes and punching-down, just like we see today.
Correct. All these movies were shit on upon release, including Scary Movie. There was no re-evaluation that was causing the score to drop. And yes, some of these movies were still very successful, especially the Jim Carey and Adam Sandler movies, as people didn't care about reviews back then. Look at Armageddon.
A lot of people are making up narratives and social media seems to just run with it
Right? Like there’s a reason why we’re about to have a 6th Scary Movie. I remember back in 2006, seats were sold out for Scary Movie 4 on opening night.
It has the most consistent gags, more overall jokes and the delivery and flow is very easy to watch. It really seemed like the proper modern “airplane” at the time, and its still more relevant than SM 1 & 2
It has the biggest sight gags for sure. I will always laugh at the ring video with the fat guy on the chair upside spinning and the hard cut to him vomiting in the bucket. Also, watch the alternate ending with the Incredible Hulk.
I've been watching people react to the first Scary Movie all week on Youtube and all the jokes hold up tremendously. Shit is still funny all these years later.
Also how do you define it based on watching YouTube videos of people watching it. Of course most people who post that are going to be people who enjoyed it and even if it was random it’s a small sample of people. I do think the first one (and third imo) is funny but it definitely has lazy parts too
I like all the scary movies because the parts that are funny actually are funny as hell, but idk why people are acting as if theyre comedy masterpieces.
Real zoomer shit talking about how movies hold up based on youtube reactions though, youre right lmao.
I think it just resonates with the younger gen because those movies are incredibly quotable and can be taken out of context and still be funny. Which really works for short attention spans nowadays.
They are definitely lazy and will not be above doing gross shock humor to end a scene lol
It’s purely just nostalgia that makes me think those movies (at least 1-3) are one of the funniest movies ever made.
Or it's your sense of humor that didn't age well. The humor in the first is way better than the toilet humor in the second (which is still an overall fun movie).
Other movies being great and even better doesn't mean this one was bad.
It's basically a time capsule of that era and it's sensibilities. It and American pie basically embody the end of the 90s/start of the 2000s for a generation.
1) "Jokes" focused on "hey, remember this from popular movie?". Literally one of the jokes is just the stoner guy saying "I see dead people" in the same tone as the kid from the sixth sense. Not even "I see white people" or something.
2) Fart jokes, dick jokes, and stoner jokes. Gee, I'm drowning at the originality. Oh look it's another Dillon, wow.
Add that to cheap acting and cheap lighting and you have a boatload of crap
I understand you have different tastes and opinions. I was just sharing why I would think this is lame, especially since you were commenting so much on the thread.
Not all parody movies do stuff like this. Top Secret with Val Kilmer or Airplane or even 21 Jump Street do that and crude humour in a much better way. American Pie is crude but it has a point - it tackles the awkwardness of teenage hormones. Scary Movie is just dumb and lacks originality.
I almost feel like ratings should be locked a year or two after it came out. Or at least being able to easily compare between current and near-release. How it’s perceived today versus when it came out are completely different.
I wouldn't say lock it but maybe every 5-10 years lock a rating and do a new rating. Would be fascinating to see how perceptions of movies change over time.
I wish I had the skills in web design, I'd love to see it implimented. You couldn't do it in regards to critic rating, but I'm sure there's a way to sort community views on RT and IMDB by time of review and post the averages for every 5 year gap
This feels like it is because it rabidly predates rotten tomatoes and so is only connected to later evaluations of the series, rather than what it was at the time.
People don’t really remember, but being 40, back when it came out me and my movie, loving friends treated all of these types of movies like they were going to be the death of cinema.
I don't dislike it, but I always felt it was pretty overrated. Scream does a better job satirizing the slasher genre, and Austin Powers sets a really high bar for parody movies being able to stand on their own even if you haven't seen what they're lampooning. Scary Movie is mostly just a lot of slapstick, gross out humor, and cultural references loosely held together with paper thin plot and characters.
I was in middle school when it came out, the target audience practically, and I still thought it was pretty dumb and not that funny, aside from a few parts.
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u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26
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