It’s quite troubling reviewing a movie like “Scary Movie 3.” How can one write about a film that’s about spoofing other films? The film obviously lacks originality, which is intentional. So what’s to discuss, besides the funny bits?

For one, we could discuss the lack of funny bits. Sure, there are a few laughs. A child keeps getting killed (being thrown into a ceiling fan, being hit by a car and flying like a football at kickoff), only to appear in the next scene.

However, between scattered laughs are painful droughts of silence. No, the movie isn’t silent, but the audience will be. Among the worst attempts to make you laugh come from Darrell Hammond (of “SNL” fame). Hammond plays Father Muldoon, a priest who acts as baby-sitter for Cindy (Anna Farris), one of the film’s many main characters. Although Hammond as a priest is a funny idea, what’s not so funny is Muldoon’s obvious pedophilia.

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I’m not too sure if I’m ready for the Catholic pedophile puns in films yet. Maybe if director David Zucker could do it well, then I would find some humor in it. Father Muldoon is just thrown into the narrative to salivate all over a young boy for a moment, and then we move on. Later, Cindy receives a phone call from the Father, where he says they’re having a famously good time, in his most erotic voice.

Hammond’s delivery is not at fault, but his jump out of the narrative leaves a salty taste. It’s one thing to take on a controversial subject and really lampoon it (check out Mel Brooks’ jab at Nazis in “The Producers”), but it’s another to bring up the subject and walk away from it. By doing so, Hammond is no funnier as pedophile than John Geoghan.

Hammond’s appearance in “Scary Movie 3” brings up another point. The third send-up in the trilogy carries an almost-all-new cast of characters. This most likely is because of the change in the production staff. The Wayans brothers, those behind the first and second film, are replaced by legendary spoof director David Zucker.

So what does this mean? It means a Leslie Nielsen appearance, a lot of characters falling down for no reason and a least one joke about hard nipples. What’s gone? The freshness the Wayans brothers brought to jokes about youth culture.

Example: It was funny to see geriatric white folks singing Mystikal’s “Shake Ya Ass” in “Scary Movie 2.” Under Zucker, it’s painfully unfunny watching actor Simon Rex attempt to pull-off a bad Eminem impersonation.

Speaking of rappers, Zucker uses them to make another attempt at laughs near the end of the film. A group of rappers arrive to save the planet from near destruction (I’m not even going to get into the plot), only to end up intentionally killing themselves in the process.

Somehow, the Wayans brothers can lampoon the stereotypes of black culture, and make it seem funny (“Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood”). Without the Wayans brothers, this just feels like an old white man’s take on the violence in black culture.

I realize this review hasn’t said too much about the plot of “Scary Movie 3,” and to tell the truth, you won’t care to remember too much about it. It basically combines elements from “Signs,” “The Ring,” “The Matrix: Reloaded,” etc.

To make a long story short, reporter Cindy knows the secrets of a mysterious videotape that partly tells of an alien invasion, which the president needs to stop. Wait, that’s not quite right. Cindy knows about the invasion from … wait, I’m not sure if she knows about the invasion. Wait, yeah she does.

Sure, the movie’s plot is about as confusing as “The Matrix: Reloaded,” for which they got the spoof down pat. But it’s hard to be picky in such a film as “Scary Movie 3.”

What to ask yourself is, “Is this funny enough to warrant my $7?” The answer has to be “No.”