Scary Movie 3 (2003)

It is consistently entertaining and frequently hilarious, the violence of the slapstick so cartoonish that it does not spoil the fun.

Scary Movie 3 is a veritable time capsule of of-this-moment kitsch, schlock and bad taste. And it's funny, too.

Where the Wayanses flogged every last chuckle from their belabored ideas, Zucker spring-loads his gags and lets them fly in rapid-fire succession. Not everything hits the target, but he tosses so many of them off with a wink and a grin that they catch you by surprise.

The franchise, which had begun to run out of steam in Part 2, has been given a shot of adrenaline with the replacement of the Wayans Brothers as the prime creative forces by Hollywood's original spoof-meister, David Zucker.

It's outrageous. It's obnoxious. It's offensive. And yes, it's also really, really, really funny. Or, at least, it is for the first 40 minutes or so.