Can someone tell David Zucker's mother that her boy is into the cookie jar again? This old horse has come back to the genre of slapstick humor and movie mockery en force, and he is, once again, out of control.Those of you who had really expected "Scary Movie 3" to be as much as a stinker as the second installment of the series should be surprised and ashamed. Surprised, as "Scary Movie 3" is a genuinely amusing movie - perhaps even one of the funniest of the year. Sure, it is silly in its unoriginal satire; it's tasteless, infantile, gross and all but impossible to understand to anyone who isn't well versed in the finer points of American popular culture. Of course it is filled with the usual vomit jokes, boob jokes, sex jokes, predictable pratfalls, cheap shots, slapstick stunts and puns so bad that you laugh at them out of the pure stupidity of Zucker's willingness to include them. In a film like "Scary Movie 3" though, such descriptions are badges of reputation, and this film wears every single one of them with a proud USDA choice brand of pride. This third time around generates a lot of good laughs for the effort.

And in the movie's defense, the PG-13 rating explains the lack of really outrageous chuckles, but only partially. Abandoned by the franchise-originating Wayans brothers, who apparently know when even a well as shallow as this one runs dry of comic potential, "Scary Movie 3" has been helmed by David Zucker. With his own brother Jerry and pal Jim Abrahams, Zucker established the pattern for the modern movie parody with the then-fresh "Airplane!" in 1980, moving on to perfect it in his over-the-top trio of films called "Naked Gun." In "Scary Movie 3," David Zucker hits the nail on the head with his jokes and mockery of social commentary.

It is indeed fair comparison to say that the latest installment in the "Scary Movie" sequels is far superior to the worn out "Scary movie 2." That's because Zucker's Mad Magazine-esque signature formula - a machine-gun pace of underchuckle jokes, pop-culture references, farts, kicks to the groin and non-stop celebrity cameos - is a durable template for a series the studio wants to continue indefinitely for its novelty. It's also an award-winning formula not dependent on the trendiness of a particular sub-genre like the slasher films on which the original was based.

By comparison, Keenan Wayans' approach was threadbare by the second go-round. Set characters/shrill stereotypes, psycho killers and a haunted house started to make the "Scary Movie" franchise look like an R-rated "Scooby Doo." And what the heck, it's hard not to like a "Scary Movie 3" in which Michael Jackson turns out to be an alien.

Though it's loaded with references to other films, including "Independence Day," "The Others" and "The Matrix Reloaded," plot-wise "Scary Movie 3" is a free-associative stew of three films: "The Ring," "Signs" and the oddly placed, not particularly scary, "8 Mile."
Charlie Sheen (who appeared in a somewhat Zucker related "Hot Shots") plays the Mel Gibson pastor/farmer character in the "Signs" sub-plot. The Joaquin Phoenix character George (Simon Rex) is just as lunkheaded as in the actual movie. But instead of a ballplayer, he's a wannabe white rapper mimicking Eminem's over-done appearance -- hence the "8 Mile" subplot. In adherence with this subplot, the movie is loaded with rapper cameos such as Fat Joe, Method Man, Redman, and Wu Tang Clan. A hilarious joke is made when rap fans at a concert are told, "I know ya'll want to bust a cap for your favorite rapper, but please, hold your gunfire until after the show."

George falls in love with TV reporter Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris who, along with Regina Hall, is the only actor left from the Wayanses' "Scary Movies"). She in turn is hot on the case of the killer-video of "The Ring" fame and trying to play surrogate mom to her obnoxiously telepathic, spooky, orphaned nephew, whom also supplies a hilarious joke with Darryl Hammond about a priest who shows up to baby-sit.
Zucker has a knack for visual mimicry, and "The Ring" spoof seems the most enthused material in the movie. He also practically invented the white-folks-are-funny-when-they-talk-Ebonics line of humor (remember an old lady speaking "jive" in "Airplane!"?) and uses this to the full extent in the "8 Mile" subplot.

Much of this material has dubious intellectual origin - which is exactly what the franchise calls for. There's gratuitous sex, dog sex and alien sex, and when Zucker shows a horse making a run, it isn't for the faint of wit.

Despite its praiseworthy aspects, not every element of the movie is laudable. Aging comedic vet Leslie Nielsen is off his game, and even jokes about Pamela Anderson's boobs, and some of the Alien jokes satirizing "Signs" were somewhat overdone. But most of the gags are successful as hilarious guilty pleasures, and Zucker's timing is so finely tuned that he sweeps past the underscores that some of the aging actors bring.

One of my few qualms with the movie is that most of the good jokes are eaten up by the movie trailers and posters. Yet a lot of the material is still fresh, if not as good, as the publicized material. I'm not disappointed in "Scary Movie 3," even though it's not the best work of anyone involved. Even David Zucker's "Baseketball" was more on target and satirical. Sheen had the "Hot Shots" movies, and Leslie Nielsen is just a cameo here. Nielsen's presence alone lends the blessing of a genre god, even if he's not used to his fullest abilities. But the spoof genre is not dead. While "Scary Movie 3" is not as bad as "Scary Movie 2," "Not Another Teen Movie", or "Van Wilder," it's not quite up to the par of "Scary Movie" or "The Naked Gun." But at least we're done with the Wayans brothers.