Scream 4
IMDB rate: 6,2
Genre: Slasher
Yesterday I finally watched Scream 4. A bit late since I finished my Scream-marathon a long time ago but it was impossible for me to find Scream 4 on DVD. But now I've finally seen it!
I did not find the movie very special, but it wasn't bad either. It's a lot like the first Scream movie but absolutely not as good. The story-lines are a bit confusing sometimes, it almost seems like they tried to approach a few story-lines but couldn't decide which one, so they choose them all, but never finished them.
Sidney Prescott, now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with Sheriff Dewey and Gale, who are now married, as well as her cousin Jill and her Aunt Kate. Unfortunately, Sidney's appearance also brings about the return of Ghostface, putting Sidney, Gale, and Dewey, along with Jill, her friends, and the whole town of Woodsboro in danger.
What I liked most about this movie was seeing the incredible cast. Neve Campbell of course returned as Sidney Prescott which makes the movie fun to watch. David Arquette also plays his role as Sheriff Dewey again, but I can't really feel for his character since he's a terrible Sheriff. I think he got knocked out in every Scream movie when he was needed the most. Not very believable for a Sheriff and for the movie it's getting quite predictable. Courtney Cox plays her role as Gale Weathers-Riley again and while she's not as bitchy anymore, her role was a bit useless in this movie. Also, she looks terrible compared to the first Scream movie. Too much botox/plastic surgery/ does not look good on you Courtney! Gale and Dewey are supposed to be married but they hardly talk in the movie, and the brother/sister relationship between Sidney and Dewey is kinda lame. The connection seems to be gone and Sidney doesn't seem to care about anything at all.
Besides these well known main characters there are a bunch of new characters introduced. All played by excellent actors. For example: Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell, Alison Brie, Marley Shelton, Erik Knudsen, Rory Culkin and Adam Brody. And this is not even everybody yet.
These characters all resemble the main cast from the very first Scream movie, Kirby is the new Tatum, Trevor is the new Billy, Robbie and Charlie are the new Randy and there are many more similarities in the cast.
What I missed most in this movie was Jamie Kennedy's character Randy. His role is being filled up by two new movie geeks played by Rory Culkin and Erik Knudsen. It's fun seeing new faces but I feel like Jamie Kennedy belongs in Scream. Of course it's logical that he doesn't return since it would be very hard to explain his return.
What I also liked in this movie was the fact that they made up for the mistake in the first Scream movie, which was the scene where Rose McGowan's character got elevated while she was stuck in the cat-flap in the garage door. Fans complained back then that it was impossible for a garage door to lift a person, because it was way too heavy. So in this sequel (or reboot as they call it) they fixed it by letting the victim open the garage door first so she could crawl under the garage-door, when Ghostface closed the door when she was just beneath it, the door touched her back but stopped moving because a garage door usually haves sensors for when something is still beneath the door.
Very clever move to fix this.
Scream 4 felt to me as if it was making fun of it's previous parts instead of other movies. Scream is usually known for making fun of the horror genre, but it was not really noticeable in this part. There were plenty things that could have been made fun of, for example the found-footage genre, but it was not really there.
The movie also felt a lot like Wes Craven's New Nightmare (A Nightmare on Elm Street 7), having a movie in a movie. There are quite some similarities.
Scream 4 is practically the same as the first Scream movie, but only updated to a new version. Unfortunately, this version does not reach the awesomeness of the first movie. It's a fun movie to watch, but definitely not as good as the first two movies. I personally liked Scream 3 (of course not as much as the previous two) and I think I feel the same about Scream 4, nothing special, but fun to watch.
My personal rate: 6,5/10
i actually really liked this one.
ReplyDeletei never really cared much for the whole Meta aspect, i mean, it's funny and original, sure, but it's a gimick that tires awfully fast, and the whole saga was based on that one joke -_-
still, great movies.
but this one, mhe, i liked it a tad bit more. it's deffinitly more recent and the issues it tackels now are relevent, where the issues of the 90s are long past and burried which is why the scream saga doesn't age well.