The Modern Spoof

[Kev Owens]

With the imminent arrival of 'The Helix Loaded', 'Scary Movie 3' and with 'Scary Movie 4' hot in pre-production I'm interested in what everyones views are of the modern spoof? It might be worth considering spoofs of the past such as 'Blazing Saddles' and 'The Naked Gun' series.

My personal view is that most are not using wit and clever observations of the films they are parodies of, but merely copying specific scenes from films and adding a slapstick gag or a bit of toilet humour. OK- so a 60 second trailer spoofing a film may raise a few laughs but 90 mins of it?!?!?! And three sequels?!? Kill me now [img]eek.gif[/img]

Or is anyone out there enjoying this sh1te?

[untamed_aggression]

I think the spoofs of old did use wit. They spoofed the conventions of their particular targets. with The Naked Gun, it was cop films, with Airplane!, it was disaster flicks.

All this cr?p like the Scary Movie franchise have driven what was already a questionable genre into the mud. With David Zucker behind part 3, we can at least expect an improvement.

EDIT: Keep forgetting about the swear filter [img]mad.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ November 18, 2003 07:20 PM: Message edited by: Untamed Aggression ]</font>

[miker]

The problem is, most spoofs end up as parodies of themselves the longer the franchise. Naked Gun was very tired by the third film (especially if you'd also been watching Police Squad on TV)

Having said that, they can be very entertaining and provide some light relief. I probably see one about once every three to four years, and they usually make me chuckle.

[emjen]

I really liked hot shots myself. I don't mind parodies, as long as they arent the 'laugh or i'll shoot' kind. (You know, those forced jokes).

[Vertino]

Spaced on Channel 4 did a grand job in spoofing loads of pop culture... all whilst keeping the integrity of its own story...

The trouble with the spoofs that have been mentioned: Helix Loaded and Scary Movies is that they don't seem to hold their own story, more like they just string along on spoof to the next?!
I mean Scary Movie is a spoof of a spoof?!

Whereas spoofs like Airplane and Blazing Saddles had their own stories, as spoofing was secondary.

[Littlerich]

Having seen Scary Movie 3, I urge you not to bother watching it...

In the whole film I thing I laughed (and I mean not even a giggle kinda laugh) about twice... The film basically is trying too hard to be funny, to take the p155 out of as many films as possible, but it ends up being terrible...

Also, the fact that Charlie Sheen, Pammy Anderson and Leslie Nielson are in it doesn't add anything, apart from maybe a bit onto the production value (i.e. Lets get a name / face someone recognises...)

Scary movie 2 was funnier. I'm dreading no. 4!

[deanl]

Hey there.

Scream was the last GREAT "spoof" of a genre.

I would say the problem with modern spoofs is that they have no love for the genre they're spoofing. Look at the scary movie flicks... You don't get the feeling those guys loved those movies. Just that they thought they could make a few dollars my taking the **** out of them.

If you watch scream it has fun spoofing the genre but you can tell the filmmakers love that genre to start with. They don't just want to exploit it.

Despin out.

[belovedmonster]

i disagree about scary movie being made to make money... it was made by Keenen Ivory Wayans who has written or written and directed 5 or so spoof movies. For him this is obviously what he likes to do.

That said the second one came out in less than a year from the first and it showed becos it was sloppy. You could argue thats just for the money tho i agree.

Im not an expert on spoofs but i think what Kev Owens is basicly right. The last few years spoofs have been less and less about clever sight gags, satrical commentry, inside jokes... and more about dumb slapstick and toilet gags.