Saturday, April 30, 2011

Movie Review: Scream 4

Damn I miss the Fall/Academy Award season. Till then, I'm stuck choosing between Scream 4 and CGI kid flicks. I really hope this is the FINAL chapter of the (less than) epic Scream saga because I don't think I can take anymore of this.

Not that Scream 4 is a horrible movie. It's not. In fact, it's actually kind of entertaining and succeeds in pumping new life into a long since stale franchise (anyone remember Scream 3?! Yeah, I don't either). The problem is, there's only so much you can do with these type of films and by now the Scream series has done just about everything possible. To borrow from Denzel in Training Day, "Shit's checkers it ain't chess!" (well he actually said....nvm) Catch my drift?

So back to the film itself. It's the fifteen year anniversary of the original Scream killings and Sidney (Neve Campbell) is back in her home town for a book signing when, low and behold, a NEW set of brutal murders takes place as another ghostface killer (Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang!) sets to terrorize the town anew. I have to applaud Wes Craven for his excellent casting. All the new Woodsborrow High kids deliver stellar performances. Not as great as Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan and Jamie Kennedy from the original, but Rory Culkin, Hayden Panettiere, Marielle Jaffe and Emma Roberts all do their best to bring this fourth installment of the franchise back to life, while the regular cast (Campbell, Cox, Arquette) continue phoning it in for those fat paychecks of theirs.

Scream kids, across generations.

That witty, self aware/"Meta" dialogue gets old fast and there are several glaring plot holes that had me scratching my head during the third act, but seriously, who cares. It's Scream 4 folks, not The King's Speech. So while this movie is far from perfect, Scream 4 is easily the best installment since the original. In fact, from a plot/continuity standpoint, this film serves as a near direct sequel to the first Scream, so if anything we should all be thankful that we can just erase Scream 2 and 3 from our memories and act like they never happened. Also, Marielle Jaffe is smoking hot in this movie and, there's a Kristen Bell cameo as well! Ms. Bell is worth the price of admission alone. At least for me she was.



*NOTE*
I should mention that the original Scream was one of my favorite movies growing up. I watched that film countless times thanks to the wonders of illegal cable/payperview channels during the mid 90's. If it seems like I'm being extra harsh with the Scream sequels, it's just because I love Stu and the boys from the original oh so much.

31 comments:

  1. Yes! I would see this just for my girl, Kristen Bell. (:

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  2. Also, I only watched Pulse, just for her and man was it awful. But I love her for Veronica Mars. lol

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  3. They really need to stop making these...

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  4. Just went to see this movie with my girlfriend, didn't watch it tho xD

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  5. The original scream was the best they are going too far with these sequels =/

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  6. i have no interest in this series at all

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  7. great review, ive still gotta see this

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  8. oh yes, kristen bell... :D

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  9. The original is the best and prompted myself and some other security officers to buy the costume and one of us to hide on the top of a bike shed on site at night and jump down on a new security officer on patrol, men should not be able to make sounds like that.

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  10. I need to watch this. And I will.

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  11. I really want to watch this and your review has pretty much only enforced these feelings.

    Kinda expected the 'Golden Age' actors to just phone it in, putting all the old 'survivors' in just seems like a publicity stunt to me. That being said I don't think anybody would have watched it if it had been one of those sequels with non of the original characters.

    Good review, Man.

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  12. return to the classic slasher theme

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  13. I think I'll wait until I can watch this online, preferably for free. I don't like hating on series or movies, but I'll only watch it because I've seen the others.

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  14. heard it was crap, but I might still watch it. Sookie Stackhouse and Veronica Mars together. That does sound enticing...

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  15. Yeah I don'/t know if I'll see it either.

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  16. lmfao hahahah is this suppose to be a horror, cause it is fucking hilarious.

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  17. I still dunno if I wanna see this... The nerd in me points out that two people from Heroes are in this... I think I will :D

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  18. I never was a huge Scream fan. I vaguely remember the first one. Of course, they all came out before I was really into horror movies. Now? I considered going and seeing this movie, but I have yet to make it to the theaters.

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  19. Good stuff! Didn't need a 4th.

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  20. Good review. I agree completely.

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  21. I guess we have different tastes; the first Scream was very boring to me :|

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  22. I'm ashamed to say that I saw the first three Scream movies....and I liked them lol. They were cheesy though. lol.

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  23. Virgins can die now? Such a waste :)

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  24. it was such a good idea fo film at first

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  25. Agree with your review. And that's nice pic for Scream kids across generations.

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  26. I sitll have to catch up! I havent seen teh first one!!!

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