Review of Scream 3 (2000) by Blake P — 18 Sep 2012

Every franchise has its dud. In this case, everybody points to the last installment of the "Scream" trilogy, in this case "Scream 3". Most critics have said that the film becomes what it originally spoofed, and though it's hard to argue with that, you can't deny that "Scream 3" is still clever, and downright entertaining. Set about three years after the events in "Scream 2", we find Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has been living in seclusion, feeling responsible for the many murders she had some part in. Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox Arquette) has become an extremely successful journalist and author, and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) is now dating movie star Jennifer Jolie (Parker), an actress playing Gale in new Hollywood motion picture "Stab 3". Sure enough, the second the film begins production, "Ghostface" returns, and starting with Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber), who has a cameo role in "Stab 3", the killer begins killing the actors in the order they die in the movie. What's more, he has a voice changer to manipulate his victims. Sid realizes she must stop the killings before everyone dies. The premise itself is nifty and clever, and the biggest problem is, is "Scream 3" is without the writer of 1 and 2. So instead of being witty and tongue-in-cheek like its predecessors, this film trades any humor it has for a more dumbed down version, the violence is less, and the cliches are more evident than they were before.

But the thing is ... aren't slasher movies fun anyways? The thing with "Scream 3", is that you have to almost forget about how spectacular the original two were and instead treat it like its own. If you do, it's a lot more fun. With they additions of new, entertaining characters, the comical Jennifer Jolie, the dumb blonde Sarah Darling (Jenny McCarthy), and ingenue Angelina Tyler (Emily Mortimer), plus cameos from Carrie Fischer (who plays a runner-up for Princess Leia, one line is, "You know how close I was to getting the part?"), and the lovable Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), everybody here is a target, but we like them anyway. And with some new, clever kills, "Scream 3" isn't half bad.