Although outrageous physical comedy can be hilarious, as THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY proved, the mere presence of gross-out gags does not guarantee that something will be funny.

Let me take you on a tour of some of the humor misfires in SCARY MOVIE 2. In the restaging of the bedroom barfing scene from THE EXORCIST, they appeared to have used the same special effects team that created the massive waves in THE PERFECT STORM, as huge wave after wave of vomit hits everyone in the room. Another scene has a priest (James Woods) on the toilet, grunting like he's going to explode as flies crawl all over his body. There's also a trash-talking parrot and a self-described "cripple" who makes one handicapped joke after another when he isn't falling down the stairs.

The verbal jokes aren't much better than the physical comedy. "Kiss my grits," is one of the insults that, one guesses, is supposed to be funny. Never has a movie franchise fallen so far so fast.

SCARY MOVIE 2 runs long even at a mere 1:20. It is rated R for strong sexual and gross humor, graphic language and some drug content and would be acceptable for older teenagers.

My son Jeffrey, age 12, gave the movie just one *. He said that it was sometimes funny and sometimes disgusting. The foul-mouthed parrot appeared to have generated the majority of his laughs.