DVD Review: Scary Movie

Making a spoof of a satire could prove to be an impossible task, but the Wayans clan seems to pull it off with “Scary Movie,” a laugh-filled take-off on the recent spate of R-rated slasher films...aimed at kids theoretically too young to see them. (That’s a joke in itself). You’ll find just about every typical “Scream”-genre scene lampooned here as a masked killer stalks a group of familiar-looking teens. Lots of laughs. (Laurie Sevano)
DVD Picture: The anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 DVD exhibits image quality that should surely delight fans of this wacky movie. Colors are bold and vibrant, with natural fleshtones and deep blacks. Images are sharp and finely detailed, with nicely rendered background definition; though some scenes appear slightly soft. Shadow delineation and contrast are excellent. Sometimes, the visual experience is slightly "digital". The finer details shimmer on occasion, like Shannon Elizabeth’s pajama’s in chapter 9, and some pixelization is noticed. Minor source element artifacts are noticed on occasion. (Suzanne Hodges)

DVD Soundtrack: The Dolby Digital 5.1-channel discrete soundtrack is well produced in terms of fidelity, but is also a mixed bag in terms of dimension. The opening sequence of the film features a soundfield that is delightfully open and spacious with remarkable immersiveness. However, the movie progresses onwards with a definite balance toward the screen and a general sense of wanting in terms of holosonic envelopment, with a few exceptions. The dialogue production is noteworthy in that voices have a natural-sounding presence and convincing spatial integration. The music has been nicely recorded, and sounds amply expansive and enveloping, particularly when the soundstage enlivens. Low frequency utilization for both music and effects is rather good, and with moderate .1 LFE. This is certainly a respectable soundtrack production that falls a bit short in terms of overall spaciousness but otherwise delivers with satisfaction. (Perry Sun)

DVD-ROM Review

DVD-ROM Enhancements Rating: Awesome

DVD-ROM Review: After installing the DVD-ROM components for this title, you are brought to the main menu, which has rotating pictures from the film and full sound. From this menu, you are given links to the sections Play Movie, Scary Movie: A Guide for the Culturally Challenged, Character Profiles, Screenplay Viewer, Screensaver, and DVD Destination Website.

The screenplay is done well, with a theme that ties in nicely with the rest of the components. The only real problem I could find is the difficulty of selecting certain scenes right away. To view scenes further in the movie, you must scroll through each scene. The Guide for the Culturally Challenged is a trivia game for Scary Movie. There are two ways to go through this section. In the Guide Mode, it gives you information relating to each scene. If you switch over to Quiz Mode, you can be tested on your knowledge of the film. The Character Profiles give biographies of each character, including sound clips from the movie for each. The Screensaver is a simple slide show presentation of a few still images from the film, with quotes accompanying each of what the character is saying in the movie.

When playing the movie from the PCFriendly software, it loads quickly and smoothly to the opening scene of the film. This title has a lot to offer, and is well presented. I really like the Guide for the Culturally Challenged, and think that something like that should be incorporated into many other title's DVD-ROM components.

Picture: 4
Dolby Digital Sound: 4
Critics' Composite Score: 3

Stars: Jon Abrahams, Rick Ducommun, Carmen Electra, Shannon Elizabeth, Anna Faris, Kurt Fuller, Regina Hall, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Dave Sheridan, Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans

This review courtesy of widescreenreview.com