`SCARY MOVIE 4' HAS FINGER ON SHALLOW CULTURAL PULSE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film critic

The latest example of cultural degeneration: The stupid "Scary Movie" franchise now has one more entry than the smart, satiric "Scream" series it originally set out to spoof.

"SM4" goes after "Saw," "The Grudge," "War of the Worlds" and "The Village." But it doesn't stop there. Non-genre titles such as "Brokeback Mountain" and "Million Dollar Baby" also come into play because, well, its inchworm-attention-span target audience might have vaguely heard of those movies, too.

The general approach here is what I'd call point-and-click comedy. It's basically about restaging scenes from the movies being targeted - point - and hoping that familiarity with the reference - click - is good enough for a giggle. This is something the raisedon-computers tweens in my screening audience apparently relate to quite well. They tended to laugh whether the head-bonks, public defecations or racist stereotypes were funny or not.

Most of the movie is that way, but I've got to admit that it started out fairly amusing.

Shaquille O'Neal and TV shrink Dr. Phil hilariously psyche each other out in the "Saw" dungeon. Then we get the best Viagra gag yet to be filmed - even better because Charlie Sheen is involved. Monkeys taking over the New Jersey docks should've been wackier, but it still works pretty well. And while there's toilet humor and there's toilet humor - and believe me, most of "SM4's" just should have been flushed - what happens to Cloris Leachman had me squealing in grossed- out stitches.

Invention soon flags, though. Too-old-to-be-doing-this director David Zucker and his writing staff - which includes Zucker's erstwhile "Airplane!" collaborator Jim Abrahams, though you'd never know it from the quality of the script - quickly resort to the worn-out joke list these things always tick off.

--Mike Tyson biting off ears - check.

--Michael Jackson "befriending" children - check.

--Don King doing something that can only be done in America - check.

--Tom Cruise jumping the couch - which may not be that old but will surely be in at least the next 40 witless genre spoofs - check.

--When they're not shoveling through the graveyard of dead pop-culture references, Zucker and company dig up instantly lifeless new ones.

The kids around me seemed to dig the MySpace and iPod shout-outs, but I bet they won't next year. Then again, maybe they will. Point and click.

One thing they didn't laugh at was Leslie Nielsen, the series' clueless president, pulling a Bush-at-the-kindergarten-on-9/11.

I would doubt that anyone in this crowd has even considered whether or not they want to go to "United 93" in a couple of weeks - it's just so off their radar. Even for them, there is such a thing as too soon. Then again, maybe they didn't get the reference.

Besides Nielsen, Anna Faris is back as airheaded heroine Cindy.

Regina Hall returns as her sassy friend Brenda, who if memory serves was killed and dismembered in "SM3" (came out almost three years ago; target audience won't remember). Craig Bierko is the new hero, a bad dad a la Cruise in "WOTW." There's not much else to say.

Except do stay through the closing credits. Not that there are any outtakes or additional sight gags, but just for the singular experience of seeing a minor character listed as "My Bowels Have Stopped Moving." As that credit indicates, the "Scary Movie" franchise is in need of a major colonic.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

SCARY MOVIE 4 - Two and one half stars

(PG-13: violence, nudity, language, sexual and toilet humor)

Starring: Anna Faris, Craig Bierko, Regina Hall, Leslie Nielsen, Bill Pullman, Anthony Anderson.

Director: David Zucker.

Running time: 1 hr. 23 mins.

Playing: In wide release.

In a nutshell: Spoof of recent fright flicks, plus "Brokeback Mountain," "Million Dollar Baby," Michael Jackson and Tom Cruise because, I suppose, they're there. Leslie Nielsen lampoons President Bush on 9/11, then takes off all of his clothes. Too soon!

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Photo:

``Scary Movie 4's'' Regina Hall spoofs the ``Saw'' films in this scene with the latter franchise's signature masked killer.