Monday, April 18, 2011

Scream 4

Woohoo! Look at me starting the week with yet another blog post. I'd like to tell you to get used to this, but we all know that eventually the blog will start lacking. But for now let's roll with it!

I always get a kick out of the way Ghost Face cocks his head to the side and looks at his
dying victims as some sort of curiosity.
Every now and then I'll try to toss up a movie review. I don't get the chance to go see new flicks as much as I'd like to, but I promise that when I do I'll try and write about it, and if I'm feeling really productive, you'll get an accompanying illustration. Now onto the review!
BEWARE MATEYS! THAR BE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Don't read much more or I WILL spoil the movie for you. You have been warned.
It's been ten years since Scream hit theaters. It was quite frankly the movie that gave rebirth to the horror slasher flicks we all love to be scared and grossed out by. I'm glad it opened the doors for some crazy, scary movies to creep their way into our culture.
Scream 4 opens up by taking not one, but two "Stabs" at itself. Treating us to a handful of hottie celeb deaths. If your a big fan of Anna Paquin, you may want to close your eyes during her cameo.
After moving through the classic Ghostface on the line killer opening we transition to Woodsborro, where David Arquette is now playing the town Sheriff, and his lovely wife Courtney Cox is sludging through her ten year removal of star reporter and fighting writers block while being Mrs. Dewey.
Sydney Prescott played by the now much more mature looking Neve Campbell has written a self help book about survivng her ordeal, and her infamous hometown is the last stop on her book tour.
Of course, with that we have our usual dose of Ghostface killings spattering the story. Some of the death sequences are more graphic then ever. In one scene Sydney's cousin Jill, played by Emma Roberts watches as one of her best friends is gutted. Almost literally. The scene with the actual intestines on the beds will leave you hungry for more. Nummers.
The story line itself does a fairly good job of distancing itself from the same old same old, but still remains faithful to the series.
Emma Roberts does a great job as the cousin longing for Sydney's spotlight. She really sells the screen time as innocent victim and then does a convincing job as the psycho killer who orchestrates it all.
In the end you find yourself believing for a split second that she'll get away with killing Sydney and moving into her role. I kind of wish they Kevin Williamson had gone that route instead. Allowing Roberts character Jill to actually get away with it.
My biggest complaints about the movie are pretty shallow. The first is Hayden Panitiere's hairstyle. Really? She did a great job in the movie and was probably one of the better characters but her short hair just killed it for me.
Another complaint is how they seemed to just force Courtney Cox into the script for the sake of having her there.
And while I adore mine, boy could this movie have been a walking advertisement for the iphone. Almost EVERY character had one. And that's okay with me, but the fact that aside from Dewey using the Axel Foley theme from Beverly Hills Cop, ALL of them used that same generic SAMBA ringtone, and NO ONE changed their wallpaper/screensaver. See I told you it was a shallow complaint.
Other than that, I enjoyed the movie a lot. It was nice to see them reference two of my favorites in SAW and Shaun of the Dead.
Definitely better than 2 and 3, but as Sydney says after putting a bullet through her psycho cousin's head, "Don't fuck with the original!"

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