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Three's a trilogy, four's a bore. As the Scary Movie franchise limps wearily into cinemas yet again, it's hard to summon up much enthusiasm for the regular parade of half-hearted movie parodies. The big targets this time are War Of The Worlds and The Grudge, loosely woven into a plot that sees the preternaturally perky Anna Faris saving the world from tripods with the help of a ghostly Japanese toddler, and romancing Craig Bierko's lunkheaded Tom Cruise figure.

Since David Zucker took over as director, the Scary series has at least managed the odd titter. Zucker, who made Airplane!, is an old hand at this sort of thing, and a couple of gags - both at the expense of the unspeakable dialogue in The Village - live up to his old standards. What else is good? Well, the production values and special effects are unusually high for a film of this type. And it's short.

"WITLESS RETREADS"

Now for the bad news: the movie references are witless retreads rather than proper parodies, the jokes are awful, and the whole thing has the sophistication of a freshman student review. You learn to expect a degree of homophobia from this genre, but even with that in mind, the Brokeback Mountain sequence is pretty insulting.

But let's face it, the Scary Movies aren't made with critics in mind. The franchise has earned oodles of money by understanding exactly what its target audience likes. So if you're a fan of fart noises, snapping bones and Leslie Nielsen naked, go ahead and enjoy yourself. Nobody will think any less of you.