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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 21.25%
Worth A Look: 33.75%
Average: 15.83%
Pretty Bad: 10.42%
Total Crap: 18.75%
13 reviews, 162 user ratings
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| Scream 3 |
by Scott Weinberg
"Full of plenty of surprises you'll see coming in the lobby."
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Ah, the challenges of keeping a cash cow movie franchise fresh over the course of three whole movies. By the time most movie series reach their third installment (Friday the 13th and Lethal Weapon come to mind), all prentense of 'art' has given way to blatant whoring. ("Oh, we thought the Axel Foley character had more to say, you see...") Such is the case once again in the Scream series.All the sly cleverness displayed in the original Scream is all but forgotten here. What began as a horror movie that poked fun at horror movies has simply become ANOTHER horror movie. For crying out loud, Scream 3 is EXACTLY the kind of movie that Scream was poking fun at. (For those purists out there, I'll just add that Scream 2 was only marginally more annoying than part 3.)
Another problem I have with the whole trilogy: Slasher movies and MYSTERIES do NOT mix. The audience simply has to apply process of elimination as the carcasses pile up, and the killer is the only one left. See, in most (effective) mysteries, the revealed killer has some logical motivation that makes us go "OHHHHHHHH! I see!" All you need to figure out the 'mysteries' in the Scream movies is a list of characters and a pen. While the ads for Scream 3 promise some startling revelations, I was surprised only by the familiar and tired feel of the screenplay.
Yes, there are a few clever Hollywood jokes. The problem is that the Scream movies are such obvious financial successes that Hollywood is now IN on the JOKE. (Takes the fun out of satire a bit.) Not only that, but the series is so big that it is now part of the whole 'Hollywood' scene they're trying to make fun of. (It's like your little brother joking about what an idiot he is. Funny, but it gets old.)
Our three returning heroes are Sidney (Campbell), Gale (Cox) and Dewey (Arquette). They basically fall back into their old characters and act pretty normal, never once looking at each other and saying something like "Hey, you know everyone we know or ever met has been stabbed to death?" I never really understood the appeal of Neve Campbell, so let's just say she does in Scream 3 what she did in Scream and Scream 2: screams. Courtney Cox has gotten pretty much all she can out of the whole 'bitchy reporter' thing, so she basically sleepwalks here. Arquette tones down the stammering and facial tics, and makes him almost likable enough to help you forget those horrible TV commercials he does. A little spice is added by great (albeit small) performances by Parker Posey and even Patrick Dempsey. (YES! A Patrick Dempsey sighting that's NOT straight-to-video!)
This one is a pretty talky affair, with lots of 'back-story' and revealing questions. I was bored. So now we have a 'horror-mystery-soap opera' that tries to be funny in between nasty chest-stabbings, so add comedy into that equation as well. In an effort to please everyone, the horror fans are cheated, and what we're left with is what I call The Xerox effect. If the first one was original, the second and third are just dingy and faded copies.But hey, if you're a fan of the series, by all means decide for yourself. (I just don't think handing people the same exact thing is really all that challenging.) Basically, it's what you expect. The Scream series has been completely homogenized, and although the new one offers up some fun, it's certainly nothing to (ahem) scream about.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=719&reviewer=128
originally posted: 02/05/00 17:52:02
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USA
04-Feb-2000 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
23-Mar-2000 (MA)
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