One will quickly notice that something is missing from Scary Movie 3, and that is the presence of any Wayans brother. The Wayans' (Keenan Ivory, Sean, and Marlon) were the driving forces behind Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2, and brought along their highly crude and anarchic sense of humor while infusing a hip sensibility to the entire proceeding. Yes, this was another spoof movie, but this one seemed a little cooler. Now, their presence is replaced with veteran spoof director David Zucker (My Boss' Daughter, BASEketball) and veteran actors Leslie Nielsen (Men With Brooms, Camouflage) and Charlie Sheen (Good Advice, Rated X), and the results are hardly promising. Especially for Nielsen, who seems to be in every other spoof movie, and, more importantly, does badly in every other spoof movie. Well, this time the primary targets are The Ring, Signs, and 8 Mile, with dozens of other references thrown in for fun.

Cindy (Anna Faris, Lost in Translation, The Hot Chick) is back, and now a reporter interested in the supernatural. Her friend Brenda (Regina Hall, Malibu's Most Wanted, Paid in Full) teaches Cindy's nephew, as well as Tom's daughter. Tom (Sheen) is a farmer living outside D.C., and crop circles are appearing all over his property. His brother George (Simon Rex, Drum Solo, The Forsaken) is trying to make it in the rap world, with the help of his friend Mahalik (Anthony Andersen, Malibu's Most Wanted, Cradle 2 the Grave). Craig Mazin (Senseless) and Pat Proft (Wrongfully Accused, Mr. Magoo) wrote the wonderfully daft script that is more a series of interconnected skits than a cohesive whole. After all, the entire point is to throw in as many parodies and sight gags as possible, in the shortest time possible. On this point, Scary Movie 3 is hit or miss. For every gag that works, there is at least one that doesn't, but Zucker throws them out so fast that the bad ones go pretty quickly.

Still, even at its lightning quick pace, Scary Movie 3 quickly warms out its welcome. Faris' daft blonde/breathy voice routine is starting to get a little old, and Andersen is plain annoying. Nielsen shows up a little into the film playing the President, and the film slows to a crawl every time he is on screen. Sheen and Rex actually are fun to watch, because they insist on playing their characters with a minimum of overacting (well, a relative amount of overacting). They are playing straight to all the wackiness around them. Scary Movie 3 is also different in that it opted for the lesser PG-13 rating. This means that the envelope pushing crudity of the past two films is gone, and oddly, missed. The first two movies went about their toilet humor with a sense of unbridled glee, a passion missing from this sequel. However, with all the cussing and innuendo, it's amazing how this film did not get the R.