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Next year in Scary Movie 5: Baby Cruise vs. Baby Shields

Kim Hollis: While we were away, Scary Movie 4 cleaned up. What do you think about that?

Joel Corcoran: I'm not the least bit surprised, Kim, though somewhat saddened.

Tim Briody: Wasn't shocking at all. Scary Movie 3 was a success (especially compared to Scary Movie 2) and it knew where in the zeitgeist to make fun of.

Reagen Sulewski: As lazy and obvious the jokes about Tom Cruise and Brokeback Mountain were, that's exactly what made it work.

Tim Briody: Dr. Phil getting crushed also had to be worth a few million.

Reagen Sulewski: But don't you get it? Tom Cruise is swinging Oprah around by her legs! It's the funniest thing in the history of things.

A modest proposal: cook all the elitists for dinner

David Mumpower: What were you guys just saying about satire not succeeding?

Kim Hollis: Scary Movie 4 isn't satire. It's parody.

Reagen Sulewski: Jonathan Swift is doing 300 rpm if Scary movie 4 gets to be called satire.

Tim Briody: Spoof does not equal satire.

David Mumpower: Boy, you guys are an elitist bunch.

Kim Hollis: The definition is definitely different. Satire has a political, social commentary bent. Spoof just, you know, makes fun of other stuff.

David Mumpower: Dictionary.com says: " Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity." Scary Movie bits always come across as sarcastic to me.

Kim Hollis: We've argued the point before, and we'll just agree to disagree, though I think there's a shade of difference in both the literary and movie world.

We sure do love that Enrico Palazzo

David Mumpower: Anyway, I am not surprised in the least. In point of fact, seeing Leslie Nielsen again made me want to buy the Naked Gun Trilogy DVD set. He's always made me laugh. His inclusion in the last two titles was inspired.

Kim Hollis: No matter what, the Weinsteins are happy enough that they've gone ahead and scheduled the next film in the franchise for Easter 2007. Soon, those films will become synonymous with the Easter Bunny.

Joel Corcoran: I think Leslie Nielsen is a comedic genius, and he would be the only reason I'll see this movie.

Tim Briody: David Zucker knows the old reliables always work.

Another modest proposal: The Weinsteins should give Anna Faris her own island

Joel Corcoran: I still want to see the meta-spoof movie - a spoof of the Scary Movie and Not Another Teen Movie franchises.

David Mumpower: Turning the initial question around a bit, do you visualize any scenario that would prevent Scary Movie 5 from being a blockbuster next year?

Reagen Sulewski: I think there's a world of difference in the quality of the Naked Gun movies and these films.

David Mumpower: Honestly, it's not as bad as the perception has it being. Scary Movie 3 and 4 both star Anna Faris with supporting work from Leslie Nielsen. You could do worse.





Kim Hollis: I would expect that Scary Movie 5 will basically hold steady. The only trouble is that teens are a fickle bunch, and you never quite know when they might turn on you.

Joel Corcoran: As painful as it is for me to say this, I can see the Scary Movie franchise becoming an indefinite series of movies, kind of like the James Bond franchise.

Tim Briody: I think the franchise should change its name to "Making Fun of All The Stupid Stuff That Happened In the Last Year, With Some Horror Content Thrown In".

Reagen Sulewski: It'd never fit on a marquee.

Kim Hollis: And it keeps David Zucker busy, which is nice.

Tim Briody: We are serious. And don't call us Shirley.

When is Madagascar not Madagascar? When it's The Wild.

Kim Hollis: The Wild proved tame, earning only $9.6 million last weekend then leveled off with a strong $8.1 million second frame. Should Disney be thanking the ghost of Walt Disney that Pixar is now around to save their collective bacon?

Tim Briody: I eagerly await the spoof Computer Animated Movie, because that's pretty much how this was marketed, and that stopped cutting it around this time last year with Robots.

Reagen Sulewski: Seriously, who'd have ever thought they'd see the day when Disney would forget how to market animated films?

Kim Hollis: Disney lost it somewhere around Tarzan, with Emperor's New Groove and Lilo & Stitch proving to be anomalies. I think they just presumed their name would carry them, but the trouble is that all of the good people moved on to other studios.

David Mumpower: I equate The Wild to Valiant more than I would a pure Disney product. After all, C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures did the film. Disney just acquired it.

Joel Corcoran: I was honestly shocked by the performance of The Wild last weekend. I haven't seen much marketing around the film, but I assumed that I just wasn't seeing it. But I guess there was no marketing effort at all behind The Wild.

David Mumpower: I can't decide if the sensational carryover this weekend is indicative of positive word-of-mouth or simply representative of the fact that the holiday messed up its opening numbers some.

Tim Briody: Did being a virtual carbon copy of Madgascar hurt it too?

David Mumpower: It had to have done so, Tim. As we have discussed before, if you have the same idea and it is second to the marketplace, it better be great. Armageddon is one of the rare exceptions to survive that scenario.