Repossessed

"Repossessed" is one of those "worse things" you could do.

This truly lame "anything-for-a-laugh," "no-joke-is-too-stupid" off-the-wall spoof of "The Exorcist" boasts Linda Blair as its star, reprising her role as a woman who was possessed by a demon as a child and now has been — you guessed it — "Repossessed"!

It's up to the priest who helped her the first time — Leslie Nielsen — to save her again, but he's still recovering from the trauma of his first encounter with this demon.

A young priest (Anthony Starke) is recruited to help, but then a pair of scheming televangelists, who look very much like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker (Ned Beatty, Lana Schwab), decide to broadcast the exorcism on national television.

Taking a page from Mel Brooks and the Zucker-Abrahams team that made "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun," writer-director Bob Logan fills every frame of this movie to overflowing with puns, sight gags and goofball humor, but he can't tell his best jokes from his clunkers. While it's true that Brooks and Zucker-Abrahams also have gags that fall flat in their movies, they give the biggest emphasis to those that work. Logan is all over the map.

The biggest problem here is a matter of taste, however. Logan has none. The main running gag — and I do mean gag — has to do with vomiting green pea soup. The first time was somewhat expected by anyone familiar with "The Exorcist." But by the third or fourth time it definitely wears out its welcome.

In addition there are any number of vulgar sex gags, loads of jokes about women's breasts and three scenes exploiting female nudity. Catholics in particular are likely to be offended by the incredible number of barbs aimed at their church.

And if ever there was a PG-13 movie that deserved to be rated R, this is it.

"Repossessed" does have a few amusing bits, but it isn't long before the number of moans and groans and times you look at your watch outweigh the genuine laughs by about 100 to one. A conservative estimate.

And you have to wonder if it isn't a little late for this movie anyway. Critics criticized Mel Brooks in 1987 for "Spaceballs" because it came so long after the "Star Wars" trilogy it spoofed. "The Exorcist" came out in 1973. Are today's young moviegoers familiar enough with the film to get any of this?

"Repossessed" is rated PG-13 and has violence, sex, nudity, profanity and vulgarity.