PANORAMA

For Northwest Indiana

    The first one was an original. The second one was not, but it had a riotous vomiting scene from "The Exorcist," and a trash-talk war between disabled characters. Scary Movie 3, is a mere spoof of recent films, this time including "The Ring," "Signs," "8 Mile," "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Others." After a devilishly funny "Ring"-inspired prologue featuring Jenny McCarthy (The Jenny McCarthy Show), Pamela Anderson (Barbed Wire, T.V. series V.I.P) are reintroduced to Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris- The Hot Chick), whom you've probably forgotten is the only character to appear in all three films so far. She's a TV news reporter now, following a story about mysterious crop circles on a farm belonging to former priest Tom Logan (Charlie Sheen- Beyond the Law, Chase) and his brother, would-be rapper George (Simon Rex, MTV).
     She also has come into possession of videotape rumored to kill all viewers seven days later. The measure of this sort of film is always a simple count of how many times it makes you laugh. And surprisingly, this is a movie series that is gradually generating a few more laughs each time out. Given how lame the first installment was, that might not be saying much, but this time, for the first time, I actually found enough laughs here to recommend the movie.