SCREAM 3
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
Yawn. Wes Craven's SCREAM series, famous for spoofing the teen slasher
genre, has now with SCREAM 3 completely degenerated into the type of
movie that the series was setup to spoof. Without a creative idea in
sight, Ehren Kruger's script falls back on tired, blood-splattered
gorefest clich�s. Written at the level of a lame sitcom, the movie
produces barely a chuckle.
Set against the backdrop of the production of a fictional movie called
STAB 3, the plot has few surprising twists. Basically the cast gets
hacked to death, one by one, until few people are left standing. The
film has a large cast with talent to burn, including David Arquette,
Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley, Lance
Henriksen, Matthew Keeslar, Jenny McCarthy and Emily Mortimer.
None of these show any spark in their acting, save indie queen Parker
Posey, who plays her usual character of a smart-mouthed woman with an
attitude. By actually trying, she steals every scene in which she
appears. Likewise, cameos, including those of Carrie Fisher and Liev
Schreiber, are much more interesting than the rest of the blandly boring
picture.
"Break the rules!" Gale (Courteney Cox) advises at one point in the
story. "Stop at nothing! Be ready to have the world hate you!" The
speech obviously refers to the SCREAM series itself. It's too bad that
SCREAM 3 never takes its own advice. Remarkably devoid of edge, the
movie just spends two hours running out the clock.
The studio only permitted print critics to see this film in advance.
Online film critics had their invitations canceled at the last minute.
(Since all of the print media have Web sites, the differentiation is
obviously silly.) The fear was that we might reveal the film's ending a
whole day or two in advance of the film's opening.
As a protest, I am going to reveal the conclusion right here and now:
Frogs. Yes, that's right. The movie ends with a shower of biblical
proportions as thousands of frogs rain down from the heavens, falling on
the characters' heads. Okay, so maybe it doesn't end quite that way,
but you'll wish it did. The only scary part in the movie is that it
clearly opens the door for a SCREAM 4. Please nooooo!
SCREAM runs 1:56. The film is rated R for strong horror violence and
language and would be acceptable for most teenagers.
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Have I seen this movie: Yes
And what did I think: If you've seen Scream and Scream 2, there is nothing in Scream 3 that you haven't seen before. Same silly plot of course, a ghost faced killer hacks up a bunch of people. There is a third 'Stab' sequel being filmed which is based on the events of the first Scream. The killer wants to find Sidney and he'll kill anyone to get to her. Once again Neve Campbell plays Sidney. She gives a more lackluster perfomance in this film then the two previous ones. Looks like she's tired of these films too. Also returning are David Arquette and Courtney Cox, as Dewey and Gail Weathers, two surving members from the other two movies. In the third movie we go back to the beginnging of the trilogy. We learn the mystery of Sidney's mom and even go back to Woodcliff in a way.... the set of Stab 3 has replicated Sidney's neighborhood. So Sidney goes back there after the killer locates her up in her mountain retreat. So Sidney faces the killer on the set and in the mansion of the film's producer played by Lance Henriksen. One of the good things about this film is that it had a few good cameos. Carrie Fisher played a funny character who said she looks just like that chick who played in Star Wars. Also showing up are Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes playing their well known characters Silent Bob and Jay Phat Buds. The best thing about this film is that Wes Craven said there will be no Scream 4, Thank God. The trilogy comes to an end here. If you feel that you need to see the final part, by all means see it, There are worse movies out there then this one, but on the other hand, it wont be no big deal if you don't see it. There's nothing here you haven't seen already.
I give Scream 3 2.5 out of 5 stars
Review written July 11, 2000
