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 clichés. 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.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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