Review

Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan, playing themselves, are having out of control sex while being videotaped, things reach a climax with some wild paranormal activity. Sometime later a couple of Stoners come across Charlie's three lost children in a cabin in the woods, and bring them back, along with their supernatural care giver Mama.

The kids' nearest relatives Dan and Jody take the children in and go to live in Charlie's house, unfortunately not situated in the 'Bu. It becomes apparentl that something supernatural is going down in the kitchen, swimming pool, and hell that toilet in the closet. This disrupts Dan's job as a scientist investigating super intelligence via injecting apes, and Jody's career as a punk rock bass player, but at least Jody has ballet to fall back on. Jody determines there is an evil presence in the house and finds out they need to read an incarnation from a book hidden in the basement of that cabin in the wood.

Well at the Inception of this movie I wasn't sure, but let's hit the spoof franchise just one more time.

Okay so I budgeted to catch a movie this weekend, and dammit I was going to go see something new. Actually it was the siren call of a frozen cola so large that you could flippin well take a swim in it that made me want to go catch a movie. Love me some frozen cola, they should serve more of that stuff at corner stores and the like, though the danger is I would end up diabetic and about the size of an overweight elephant. Anyways I digress, there were three movies opening at my local cinema, so you would think some choice there right? Well no, two of them weren't going to happen which pretty much left the movie I'm talking about as the last man standing. Firstly the SciFi tent pole Oblivion looked like it might be a hoot, but starring Timmy Cruise, not my cup of tea, I act better than Cruise when I try to get a drink at closing time. Second on the radar was Warm Bodies, but come on I'm really not in the target demographic for that one, I've seen ten movies previously hence know what smells like something you stepped in generally is. Besides which I've got a dick swinging below the beer gut, or I did last time I looked. Which left Scary Movie 5, the latest in the long running horror spoof series, which promised an hour and half of brain dead mayhem. Clutching my over sized over priced bucket of frozen cola I went in to a surprisingly well attended screening.

When it comes to the Scary Movie franchise I note there are two cliques amongst horror fans. Those who really dug the first two movies made by the Wayans brothers, and those who support the last couple, made by the sort of people who wouldn't know a decent spoof movie if it leaped up and bit them on the arse. Sign me aboard team Wayans, they should bring those dudes back to make the next instalment. So I wasn't expecting much going in, and surprisingly had a good time maybe because of that.

I probably wasted a reasonable third choice hire selection by seeing this one at the cinema

First up, the Party Sheen is a legend man, a dead set legend. Who else but Charlie could turn a lesbian straight! We're not worthy Mr Sheen, you da man. Actually the opening montage was over long and got pretty boring after the first hour or so, till some Paranormal Activity went down. You're the poltergeist Toby, two thumbs up Bro. Actually it wasn't PA's Toby but we didn't know that, so the standing ovation, uhmm, stands. Oh and the opening stuff didn't last an entire hour, it only seemed that way.

As expected the flick sent up all sorts of recent horror flicks, celebs, and the odd non dark genre fillum. Besides Paranormal Activity coming in for a serve, that pool cleaner thing was plain stupid, the remake of Evil Dead got a guernsey, the whole concept of Cabins in Woods was perhaps over emphasised, Mama as expected formed a high percentage of the gags, and a couple of other movies provided the odd laugh. Non horror fare included, Black Swan, Inception, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. So yes it paid to have seen some recent movies to get full value for money, though there were the odd fleeting references that really required some knowledge of pop culture, the remake of Friday the 13th for example gets an oblique reference. Surprisingly the celebs being sent up played themselves, Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Snoop Dogg, being the leading victims.

While I did get some laughs out the movie, they were few and far between. Most of the comedy is of that really plastic American variety that simply falls flat on its face for anyone who isn't a North American teen. No doubt the Bogans will find it hilarious however, though they think those Hangover movies are the height of humour. Charlie Sheen was worth catching, could have done without the circus, once he was out of it notably the movie lost a lot of comedic timing for mine. Definitely an improvement over the fourth movie that only really had me chuckling during the bathroom scene in The Village.

The plot managed to hold together, though some of the scenes are getting a bit dated as the franchise keeps repeating the idea. Things sort of flowed naturally from one idea to the next but I sort of lost interest during some scenes that were simply laboured.

Along with the Wayans bring back Anna Faris, Ashley Tisdale was woeful in this one. She reminded me of one of the blonde bimbos from the first scene in the second movie in the franchise. Tisdale couldn't carry a water bottle, let alone a feature length movie.

I would give this movie a passing mark, if only because I genuinely got a couple of laughs surprised out of me. Not worth catching at the cinema folks, I'd wait till it hits the weekly rental bin and then dive on top of it. Not as bad as expected, sort of entertained, but then it didn't do much with the material. For mine they should have stuck with simply sending up the Paranormal Activity movies, and left it at that.