USA: The latest installment of Scary Movie series pokes fun at Tom Cruise's memorable appearance on Oprah

Record ID: 538026

  • Title: USA: The latest installment of Scary Movie series pokes fun at Tom Cruise's memorable appearance on Oprah
  • Date: 19th April 2006
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (APRIL 13, 2006) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CRAIG BIERKO, ACTOR, SAYING: "Here's something you rarely see on 'Oprah' and here's something you rarely see of Tom Cruise's stature opening himself up to do. And it was funny. To me, it was funny and exciting and good television. And ripe for parody, it happened in a public forum. The only thing that I'm sorry for is that Tom Cruise beat us to it. He actually parodied himself on (The Tonight Show with Jay) Leno before the movie did. But I think anything beyond that would've been improper and not correct you know, anything about his personal life would've been a mistake."
  • Embargoed: 4th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA1TZIJ57Q0BHW2CH0WL3UWESH4
  • Story Text: Horror flicks are no longer the only source for comedic content in the "Scary Movies" franchise, as the latest chapter of the slapstick films take aim at Hollywood blockbusters like "Brokeback Mountain" and "War of the Worlds".
    Anna Faris is the legally blond Cindy and Regina Hall as her libidinous gal pal Brenda return as characters who will (barely) link the comic sketches, sometimes in scene-by-scene re-creations from various movies.
    Carmen Electra's sexy, lingerie-clad character in the first "Scary Movie" is replaced by an 18th-century blind girl in a spoof of psychological thriller 'The Village' by M. Night Shyamalan. The wife of rock guitarist Dave Navarro said she was all together too happy to be resurrected from the grave.
    "It's always fun. I had so much fun in the first one and then to get asked to come back for the fourth 'Scary Movie' I was excited and a little surprised because my character was killed in the first movie that they would never bring me back. But it was awesome. I'm spoofing the movie 'The Village' and I get to play the blind girl Holly and do a lot of outrageous, crazy and embarrassing things in this movie."
    Actor Craig Bierko was called in to spoof Tom Cruise's character both on and off the silver screen.
    In 'War of the Worlds', Cruise plays a father who fights for survival from invading aliens called tripod fighting machines. In 'Scary Movie 4', a similar group of invaders resembling a certain Apple digital music player are intent on destroying humanity.
    Bierko said taking on Cruise's appearance on the 'Oprah' show where the 43-year-old actor exuberantly declared his love for his 27-year-old fiancee Katie Holmes' wasn't mocking Cruise but merely representing his character.
    "Here's something you rarely see on 'Oprah' and here's something you rarely see of Tom Cruise's stature opening himself up to do. And it was funny. To me, it was funny and exciting and good television. And ripe for parody, it happened in a public forum. The only thing that I'm sorry for is that Tom Cruise beat us to it. He actually parodied himself on (The Tonight Show with Jay) Leno before the movie did. But I think anything beyond that would've been improper and not correct you know, anything about his personal life would've been a mistake."
    Since the debut of the 'Scary Movies' series, writer-director David Zucker has helped to demystify the often formulaic plotlines of horror flicks and in fact, turning the scary into the funny. But the legendary director of such slapstick films as 'Airplane' said he was oblivious to that change.
    "I only see my job in it but the effect it has on the movie-going audience I guess is quite something. One of the reasons why 'Ring 2' didn't work was because we had already made fun of that scary girl so we made her into a ludicrous figure so it wasn't scary anymore to audiences. Now I wonder if they're going to do the 'Saw' villain again."
    Among the celebrities making cameos include basketball star Shaquille O'Neal, self-help guru Dr. Phil, Bill Pullman, Anthony Anderson and rappers Chingy, Lil' Jon, Fabolous and Young Bloodz.
    'Scary Movie 4' is set to hit US cinemas April 14.
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