In all honesty, "Scary Movie 3" is not as bad as it looks. The question, of course, is was it funny? The answer: eh, sort of. Director David Zucker, taking over for the MIA Wayans Brothers, invented this sort of dense parody more than 20 years ago with "Airplane," and he hasn't done much to update the genre. Not that there aren't lots of modern, up to the minute jokes (cell phones, catholic priest/pedophiles, Macy Gray with a rocket launcher), it's just the formula is still formless. Hey, look over here, is this funny? How about this?

The first "Scary Movie" was a spoof of "Scream" and its progeny. "Scream," of course, was a satire of the genre. A spoof of a satire. Hey, at least it had some really, really dirty jokes and a few solid laughs. The sequel was beyond bad, and would have orbited "Austin Powers 3" territory had it not been for Chris Elliot and David Cross, whose performances were so tasteless I was embarrassed to laugh. This latest entry is a step up from its predecessor, but be forewarned: the PG-13 rating means far fewer sex and pot jokes, and nothing like the infamous bedroom scene in the original. However, for those that don't need bodily functions to have a good time, I'd say three out of every ten jokes are decent, and one out of 10 is a winner. That's a low count, indeed, but it's still a laugh every three or four minutes, which gives it a better track record than "Friends."

The "story" attempts to meld the plots of "The Ring" and "Signs" to create the tale of a deadly videotape that kills anyone who views it within 7 days, and may or may not be from Alien invaders. Several other films, such as "The Sixth Sense," are poked at, though not very hard. Anna Farris (who was so good in Lucky McKee's "May") returns as Cindy, who looks like but really has nothing in common with her character "Cindy" in the first two flicks. Cindy works as a TV anchorwoman caring for her odd, clairvoyant nephew who keeps drawing circles and dead people. Charlie Sheen stands in for the Mel Gibson character in "Signs," a single father/farmer/ex-clergyman who finds oddly-shaped messages in his crops (Such as "Attack Here," with an arrow pointing to the house. I didn't laugh either).

Inexplicably, the Sheen character's brother (Tom Stack) is an aspiring rapper and the movie spends about 15 l-o-n-g minutes doing a parody of "8 Mile." This is the movie's lamest stretch and contains the fewest funny jokes. In contrast, we later see the White House, where the president (the great Leslie Neilson) and his staff (including D.L. Hughley and Ja Rule) fending off aliens and passing out Mother Theresa bobble-heads. Zucker is at his best with these off-the-wall non sequiturs, when he can refrain from slavishly following the plots of films we've already seen.

"Scary Movie 3" really does have some funny bits, and any movie that can get George Carlin, The RZA , Jenny McCarthy all in the same 90 minutes is A-OK by me. Which leads to the main problem reviewing a film like this: Obviously, it has no merit outside its ability to create laughter. Story, pacing, special effects, acting: None of these are of any importance what-so-ever. It did make me laugh, hard a few times, but overall I walked out of the theater not really caring. I wasn't reminiscing about funny scenes, and I can't really any think of any quotable jokes. On the other hand, the audience really seemed to enjoy it, laughing hysterically at jokes I didn't find all that funny. That doesn't mean I'm better or they are, just that humor has to strike home with the individual. Buyer beware. Anyway, I'm going to get back to reviewing horror movies, this comedy stuff confounds me.