April 15, 2011

 

By Wesley Morris, Globe Staff When "Scream 3" arrived in 2000, Bill Clinton was still in

the White House, most cellphones could make only calls, reality television was a novelty, and Lady Gaga was just some girl named Stefani from the Upper West Side. Everything's changed in the intervening 11 years, but, sadly, not the "Scream" franchise, which has coughed up a needless fourth installment that coasts on the winking ironies and Teflon self-awareness of its predecessors. I don't need to tell you "Scream 4" is unnecessary. The movie spends most of its running time in a state of antic self-justification, explaining how the slasher-genre rules that the series so cleverly enumerated now mean nothing because, as explained by one of the new movie's horror nerds, audiences are tired of the old rules. Now they expect something different: a reboot.

But Kevin Williamson, who wrote 75 percent of the franchise, and Wes Craven, who's directed all of it, don't appear to know what different entails. Craven continues to work in the manner of lousy action movies as opposed to landmark horror. If one body is kicked down a flight of stairs, wrestled to the floor, or hurled through glass, they all are. Yes, Mr. Craven, you've earned your stage-combat merit badge. Craven's understanding of the genre he helped commercialize now appears to boil down to putting jarring noise on the soundtrack and having the actors loiter near doors the way, in football, some unmanned receivers try to get a busy quarterback's attention: Dude, I'm open! Craven no longer appears to be directing a cast of characters. Collectively, they're a knife block.

No one more so than the hilariously hard-to-kill Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). For reasons I'm not sure even she gets, Sidney returns to the small California town where nutjobs took her mother, father, boyfriend, and pretty much anyone else she ever spoke to or looked at, but gave her a hit horror franchise ("Stab") she didn't want. She's come back to promote her moist new book, while her sensation-addicted frenemy, the tabloid-TV reporter Gail Weathers (Courteney Cox), is struggling to write another one. The discovery of two dead, formerly pert coeds means Sidney gets to protect her cousin, Jill (Emma Roberts), from the latest stuntpeople wearing hooded ghost-face masks.

16 HE BOS N GLOBE PR I L 15 , 2011

AMC LOEWSBOSTONCOMMON 19Boston 888-AMC-4FUN

AMCFRAMINGHAM 16Framingham 888-AMC-4FUN

AMC LOEWSMETHUEN 20Methuen 888-AMC-4FUN

COOLIDGE CORNERBrookline617-734-2500

DEDHAMCOMMUNITYDedham781-326-0409

HOLLYWOOD HITSPREMIERE THEATREDanvers 978-777-4000

LANDMARK THEATRESKENDALL SQUARECambridge 617-499-1996

LEXINGTON VENUELexington781-861-6161

PATRIOT CINEMASAT THE HINGHAMSHIPYARDHingham 781-749-8780

MILL WHARF CINEMASScituate 781-545-3130

REGAL CINEMASBELLINGHAM 14Bellingham 800-326-3264 #443

REGAL CINEMASSOLOMON POND MALL 15Marlborough 800-326-3264 #448

WEST NEWTON CINEMAWest Newton 617-964-6060

AUDIENCES ARE CHEERINGFOR THE BEST REVIEWED

MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

“A PURE PLEASURE TO EXPERIENCE...An off-center human comedy

at its funniest and most heartfelt.”

KENNETH TURAN,

“ELEGANTLY DIRECTED,EXPERTLY ACTED,

LAUGH-OUT-LOUD FUNNY.”

JOHN ANDERSON,

A. O. SCOTT,

“A MASTER CLASSIN OFFBEAT COMIC BRILLIANCE.”

movies

By Wesley MorrisGLOBE STAFF

When ‘‘Scream 3’’arrived in 2000, BillClinton was still inthe White House,

most cellphones could make onlycalls, reality television was anovelty, and Lady Gaga was justsome girl named Stefani from theUpper West Side. Everything’s

changed in the intervening 11years, but, sadly, not the‘‘Scream’’ franchise, which hascoughed up a needless fourthinstallment that coasts on thewinking ironies and Teflon self-awareness of its predecessors. Idon’t need to tell you ‘‘Scream 4’’is unnecessary. The movie spendsmost of its running time in astate of antic self-justification,

explaining how the slasher-genrerules that the series so cleverlyenumerated now mean nothingbecause, as explained by one ofthe new movie’s horror nerds,audiences are tired of the oldrules. Now they expect some-thing different: a reboot.

But Kevin Williamson, whowrote 75 percent of the fran-chise, and Wes Craven, who’sdirected all of it, don’t appear toknow what different entails.Craven continues to work in themanner of lousy action movies asopposed to landmark horror. Ifone body is kicked down a flightof stairs, wrestled to the floor, orhurled through glass, they all are.Yes, Mr. Craven, you’ve earnedyour stage-combat merit badge.Craven’s understanding of thegenre he helped commercializenow appears to boil down toputting jarring noise on thesoundtrack and having the actorsloiter near doors the way, infootball, some unmanned receiv-ers try to get a busy quarterback’sattention: Dude, I’m open! Cra-ven no longer appears to bedirecting a cast of characters.Collectively, they’re a knife block.

No one more so than thehilariously hard-to-kill SidneyPrescott (Neve Campbell). Forreasons I’m not sure even shegets, Sidney returns to the smallCalifornia town where nutjobstook her mother, father, boy-friend, and pretty much anyoneelse she ever spoke to or lookedat, but gave her a hit horrorfranchise (‘‘Stab’’) she didn’twant. She’s come back to pro-mote her moist new book, whileher sensation-addicted frenemy,the tabloid-TV reporter GailWeathers (Courteney Cox), isstruggling to write another one.The discovery of two dead, for-

merly pert coeds means Sidneygets to protect her cousin, Jill(Emma Roberts), from the lateststuntpeople wearing hoodedghost-face masks.

Sidney is one of the strangestcharacters to appear in an Ameri-can movie. She continues tocome back to this bloody primalscene and every time the deathtoll rises, she can’t believe it’shappening again. Campbellseems too smart a woman forthis be a problem of intelligence.It’s more a matter of pathology:Will this be the movie I don’tsurvive? Campbell applies herunique battle-weary poise toeverything from donkey-kickingapproaching assailants to sip-ping mugs of tea.

The movie’s overpopulatedwith potential victims and sus-pects — Mary McDonnell, Antho-ny Anderson, Adam Brody, Mar-ley Shelton, Rory Culkin, ondown. The best of them is Hay-den Panettiere, who plays Jill’sbest friend and wears her hairshort and swept back. Panettierehas a tough, dignified glamour

you rarely see in a slasher-movieblonde. She and the underusedCox are the only two who appearto be enjoying themselves.

The first two movies werehorror films having a caffeinatedconversation with its audienceabout the genre’s cliches. Theirhigh-wire act was fun: Could ascary movie mock itself and stillscare? The limited fun of thethird, which Ehren Kruger wrote,was watching the series cannibal-ize itself. ‘‘Scream 4’’ has a smartbeginning, featuring Anna Pa-quin and Kristen Bell, and onewell-delivered line at the end thatwould have brought down thehouse in a better movie.

But Williamson appears to beat a loss for what he’d like to saywith a fourth ‘‘Scream’’ beyond‘‘ka-ching.’’ Eleven years agoWilliamson was a still in-demandwriter and producer. He had anannoying way with sentenceconstruction, but his verboseyoung people became the modelfor lots of the verbose youngpeople we’re still stuck with.Where would the CW be withouthim? ‘‘Scream 4’’ feels like thework of people who haven’tnoticed how much popular cul-ture and the horror genre havechanged since the first ‘‘Scream’’arrived in 1996. Despite sometopical gags about social mediaand Channing Tatum’s erstwhileabs, the new movie feels so twodecades ago. Yes, there’s a bigspeech at the end about howdirt-cheap fame has become in2011. It sounds desperate none-theless. You’d believe it a lotmore were it delivered by a Kar-dashian.

Wesley Morris can be reached atwmorris@globe.com or followedon Twitter: @wesley_morris.

‘Scream’ returns,and (surprise!)people are dying

GEMMA LA MANA/THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY/DIMENSION FILMS

Courteney Cox is one of a handful of stars who appear in Wes Craven’s ‘‘Scream 4.’’

MOV I E R E V I EW

!!SCREAM4

Directed by:Wes CravenWritten by: KevinWilliamsonStarring: Neve Campbell,

Courteney Cox, David Arquette,EmmaRoberts, andHayden PanettierreAt: Boston Common,Fenway, suburbs

Running time: 98minutesRated: R (profanity,

somemaking out, violentshooting, body after bodyimpaled by a giant knife)

16 HE BOS N GLOBE PR I L 15 , 2011

AMC LOEWSBOSTONCOMMON 19Boston 888-AMC-4FUN

AMCFRAMINGHAM 16Framingham 888-AMC-4FUN

AMC LOEWSMETHUEN 20Methuen 888-AMC-4FUN

COOLIDGE CORNERBrookline617-734-2500

DEDHAMCOMMUNITYDedham781-326-0409

HOLLYWOOD HITSPREMIERE THEATREDanvers 978-777-4000

LANDMARK THEATRESKENDALL SQUARECambridge 617-499-1996

LEXINGTON VENUELexington781-861-6161

PATRIOT CINEMASAT THE HINGHAMSHIPYARDHingham 781-749-8780

MILL WHARF CINEMASScituate 781-545-3130

REGAL CINEMASBELLINGHAM 14Bellingham 800-326-3264 #443

REGAL CINEMASSOLOMON POND MALL 15Marlborough 800-326-3264 #448

WEST NEWTON CINEMAWest Newton 617-964-6060

AUDIENCES ARE CHEERINGFOR THE BEST REVIEWED

MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

“A PURE PLEASURE TO EXPERIENCE...An off-center human comedy

at its funniest and most heartfelt.”

KENNETH TURAN,

“ELEGANTLY DIRECTED,EXPERTLY ACTED,

LAUGH-OUT-LOUD FUNNY.”

JOHN ANDERSON,

A. O. SCOTT,

“A MASTER CLASSIN OFFBEAT COMIC BRILLIANCE.”

movies

By Wesley MorrisGLOBE STAFF

When ‘‘Scream 3’’arrived in 2000, BillClinton was still inthe White House,

most cellphones could make onlycalls, reality television was anovelty, and Lady Gaga was justsome girl named Stefani from theUpper West Side. Everything’s

changed in the intervening 11years, but, sadly, not the‘‘Scream’’ franchise, which hascoughed up a needless fourthinstallment that coasts on thewinking ironies and Teflon self-awareness of its predecessors. Idon’t need to tell you ‘‘Scream 4’’is unnecessary. The movie spendsmost of its running time in astate of antic self-justification,

explaining how the slasher-genrerules that the series so cleverlyenumerated now mean nothingbecause, as explained by one ofthe new movie’s horror nerds,audiences are tired of the oldrules. Now they expect some-thing different: a reboot.

But Kevin Williamson, whowrote 75 percent of the fran-chise, and Wes Craven, who’sdirected all of it, don’t appear toknow what different entails.Craven continues to work in themanner of lousy action movies asopposed to landmark horror. Ifone body is kicked down a flightof stairs, wrestled to the floor, orhurled through glass, they all are.Yes, Mr. Craven, you’ve earnedyour stage-combat merit badge.Craven’s understanding of thegenre he helped commercializenow appears to boil down toputting jarring noise on thesoundtrack and having the actorsloiter near doors the way, infootball, some unmanned receiv-ers try to get a busy quarterback’sattention: Dude, I’m open! Cra-ven no longer appears to bedirecting a cast of characters.Collectively, they’re a knife block.

No one more so than thehilariously hard-to-kill SidneyPrescott (Neve Campbell). Forreasons I’m not sure even shegets, Sidney returns to the smallCalifornia town where nutjobstook her mother, father, boy-friend, and pretty much anyoneelse she ever spoke to or lookedat, but gave her a hit horrorfranchise (‘‘Stab’’) she didn’twant. She’s come back to pro-mote her moist new book, whileher sensation-addicted frenemy,the tabloid-TV reporter GailWeathers (Courteney Cox), isstruggling to write another one.The discovery of two dead, for-

merly pert coeds means Sidneygets to protect her cousin, Jill(Emma Roberts), from the lateststuntpeople wearing hoodedghost-face masks.

Sidney is one of the strangestcharacters to appear in an Ameri-can movie. She continues tocome back to this bloody primalscene and every time the deathtoll rises, she can’t believe it’shappening again. Campbellseems too smart a woman forthis be a problem of intelligence.It’s more a matter of pathology:Will this be the movie I don’tsurvive? Campbell applies herunique battle-weary poise toeverything from donkey-kickingapproaching assailants to sip-ping mugs of tea.

The movie’s overpopulatedwith potential victims and sus-pects — Mary McDonnell, Antho-ny Anderson, Adam Brody, Mar-ley Shelton, Rory Culkin, ondown. The best of them is Hay-den Panettiere, who plays Jill’sbest friend and wears her hairshort and swept back. Panettierehas a tough, dignified glamour

you rarely see in a slasher-movieblonde. She and the underusedCox are the only two who appearto be enjoying themselves.

The first two movies werehorror films having a caffeinatedconversation with its audienceabout the genre’s cliches. Theirhigh-wire act was fun: Could ascary movie mock itself and stillscare? The limited fun of thethird, which Ehren Kruger wrote,was watching the series cannibal-ize itself. ‘‘Scream 4’’ has a smartbeginning, featuring Anna Pa-quin and Kristen Bell, and onewell-delivered line at the end thatwould have brought down thehouse in a better movie.

But Williamson appears to beat a loss for what he’d like to saywith a fourth ‘‘Scream’’ beyond‘‘ka-ching.’’ Eleven years agoWilliamson was a still in-demandwriter and producer. He had anannoying way with sentenceconstruction, but his verboseyoung people became the modelfor lots of the verbose youngpeople we’re still stuck with.Where would the CW be withouthim? ‘‘Scream 4’’ feels like thework of people who haven’tnoticed how much popular cul-ture and the horror genre havechanged since the first ‘‘Scream’’arrived in 1996. Despite sometopical gags about social mediaand Channing Tatum’s erstwhileabs, the new movie feels so twodecades ago. Yes, there’s a bigspeech at the end about howdirt-cheap fame has become in2011. It sounds desperate none-theless. You’d believe it a lotmore were it delivered by a Kar-dashian.

Wesley Morris can be reached atwmorris@globe.com or followedon Twitter: @wesley_morris.

‘Scream’ returns,and (surprise!)people are dying

GEMMA LA MANA/THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY/DIMENSION FILMS

Courteney Cox is one of a handful of stars who appear in Wes Craven’s ‘‘Scream 4.’’

MOV I E R E V I EW

!!SCREAM4

Directed by:Wes CravenWritten by: KevinWilliamsonStarring: Neve Campbell,

Courteney Cox, David Arquette,EmmaRoberts, andHayden PanettierreAt: Boston Common,Fenway, suburbs

Running time: 98minutesRated: R (profanity,

somemaking out, violentshooting, body after bodyimpaled by a giant knife)

16 HE BOS N GLOBE PR I L 15 , 2011

AMC LOEWSBOSTONCOMMON 19Boston 888-AMC-4FUN

AMCFRAMINGHAM 16Framingham 888-AMC-4FUN

AMC LOEWSMETHUEN 20Methuen 888-AMC-4FUN

COOLIDGE CORNERBrookline617-734-2500

DEDHAMCOMMUNITYDedham781-326-0409

HOLLYWOOD HITSPREMIERE THEATREDanvers 978-777-4000

LANDMARK THEATRESKENDALL SQUARECambridge 617-499-1996

LEXINGTON VENUELexington781-861-6161

PATRIOT CINEMASAT THE HINGHAMSHIPYARDHingham 781-749-8780

MILL WHARF CINEMASScituate 781-545-3130

REGAL CINEMASBELLINGHAM 14Bellingham 800-326-3264 #443

REGAL CINEMASSOLOMON POND MALL 15Marlborough 800-326-3264 #448

WEST NEWTON CINEMAWest Newton 617-964-6060

AUDIENCES ARE CHEERINGFOR THE BEST REVIEWED

MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

“A PURE PLEASURE TO EXPERIENCE...An off-center human comedy

at its funniest and most heartfelt.”

KENNETH TURAN,

“ELEGANTLY DIRECTED,EXPERTLY ACTED,

LAUGH-OUT-LOUD FUNNY.”

JOHN ANDERSON,

A. O. SCOTT,

“A MASTER CLASSIN OFFBEAT COMIC BRILLIANCE.”

movies

By Wesley MorrisGLOBE STAFF

When ‘‘Scream 3’’arrived in 2000, BillClinton was still inthe White House,

most cellphones could make onlycalls, reality television was anovelty, and Lady Gaga was justsome girl named Stefani from theUpper West Side. Everything’s

changed in the intervening 11years, but, sadly, not the‘‘Scream’’ franchise, which hascoughed up a needless fourthinstallment that coasts on thewinking ironies and Teflon self-awareness of its predecessors. Idon’t need to tell you ‘‘Scream 4’’is unnecessary. The movie spendsmost of its running time in astate of antic self-justification,

explaining how the slasher-genrerules that the series so cleverlyenumerated now mean nothingbecause, as explained by one ofthe new movie’s horror nerds,audiences are tired of the oldrules. Now they expect some-thing different: a reboot.

But Kevin Williamson, whowrote 75 percent of the fran-chise, and Wes Craven, who’sdirected all of it, don’t appear toknow what different entails.Craven continues to work in themanner of lousy action movies asopposed to landmark horror. Ifone body is kicked down a flightof stairs, wrestled to the floor, orhurled through glass, they all are.Yes, Mr. Craven, you’ve earnedyour stage-combat merit badge.Craven’s understanding of thegenre he helped commercializenow appears to boil down toputting jarring noise on thesoundtrack and having the actorsloiter near doors the way, infootball, some unmanned receiv-ers try to get a busy quarterback’sattention: Dude, I’m open! Cra-ven no longer appears to bedirecting a cast of characters.Collectively, they’re a knife block.

No one more so than thehilariously hard-to-kill SidneyPrescott (Neve Campbell). Forreasons I’m not sure even shegets, Sidney returns to the smallCalifornia town where nutjobstook her mother, father, boy-friend, and pretty much anyoneelse she ever spoke to or lookedat, but gave her a hit horrorfranchise (‘‘Stab’’) she didn’twant. She’s come back to pro-mote her moist new book, whileher sensation-addicted frenemy,the tabloid-TV reporter GailWeathers (Courteney Cox), isstruggling to write another one.The discovery of two dead, for-

merly pert coeds means Sidneygets to protect her cousin, Jill(Emma Roberts), from the lateststuntpeople wearing hoodedghost-face masks.

Sidney is one of the strangestcharacters to appear in an Ameri-can movie. She continues tocome back to this bloody primalscene and every time the deathtoll rises, she can’t believe it’shappening again. Campbellseems too smart a woman forthis be a problem of intelligence.It’s more a matter of pathology:Will this be the movie I don’tsurvive? Campbell applies herunique battle-weary poise toeverything from donkey-kickingapproaching assailants to sip-ping mugs of tea.

The movie’s overpopulatedwith potential victims and sus-pects — Mary McDonnell, Antho-ny Anderson, Adam Brody, Mar-ley Shelton, Rory Culkin, ondown. The best of them is Hay-den Panettiere, who plays Jill’sbest friend and wears her hairshort and swept back. Panettierehas a tough, dignified glamour

you rarely see in a slasher-movieblonde. She and the underusedCox are the only two who appearto be enjoying themselves.

The first two movies werehorror films having a caffeinatedconversation with its audienceabout the genre’s cliches. Theirhigh-wire act was fun: Could ascary movie mock itself and stillscare? The limited fun of thethird, which Ehren Kruger wrote,was watching the series cannibal-ize itself. ‘‘Scream 4’’ has a smartbeginning, featuring Anna Pa-quin and Kristen Bell, and onewell-delivered line at the end thatwould have brought down thehouse in a better movie.

But Williamson appears to beat a loss for what he’d like to saywith a fourth ‘‘Scream’’ beyond‘‘ka-ching.’’ Eleven years agoWilliamson was a still in-demandwriter and producer. He had anannoying way with sentenceconstruction, but his verboseyoung people became the modelfor lots of the verbose youngpeople we’re still stuck with.Where would the CW be withouthim? ‘‘Scream 4’’ feels like thework of people who haven’tnoticed how much popular cul-ture and the horror genre havechanged since the first ‘‘Scream’’arrived in 1996. Despite sometopical gags about social mediaand Channing Tatum’s erstwhileabs, the new movie feels so twodecades ago. Yes, there’s a bigspeech at the end about howdirt-cheap fame has become in2011. It sounds desperate none-theless. You’d believe it a lotmore were it delivered by a Kar-dashian.

Wesley Morris can be reached atwmorris@globe.com or followedon Twitter: @wesley_morris.

‘Scream’ returns,and (surprise!)people are dying

GEMMA LA MANA/THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY/DIMENSION FILMS

Courteney Cox is one of a handful of stars who appear in Wes Craven’s ‘‘Scream 4.’’

MOV I E R E V I EW

!!SCREAM4

Directed by:Wes CravenWritten by: KevinWilliamsonStarring: Neve Campbell,

Courteney Cox, David Arquette,EmmaRoberts, andHayden PanettierreAt: Boston Common,Fenway, suburbs

Running time: 98minutesRated: R (profanity,

somemaking out, violentshooting, body after bodyimpaled by a giant knife)

April 15, 2011

 

Sidney is one of the strangest characters to appear in an American movie. She continues to come back to this bloody primal scene and every time the death toll rises, she can't believe it's happening again. Campbell seems too smart a woman for this be a problem of intelligence. It's more a matter of pathology: Will this be the movie I don't survive? Campbell applies her unique battle-weary poise to everything from donkey-kicking approaching assailants to sipping mugs of tea.

The movie's overpopulated with potential victims and suspects − Mary McDonnell, Anthony Anderson, Adam Brody, Marley Shelton, Rory Culkin, on down. The best of them is Hayden Panettiere, who plays Jill's best friend and wears her hair short and swept back. Panettiere has a tough, dignified glamour you rarely see in a slasher-movie blonde. She and the underused Cox are the only two who appear to be enjoying themselves.

The first two movies were horror films having a caffeinated conversation with its audience about the genre's cliches. Their high-wire act was fun: Could a scary movie mock itself and still scare? The limited fun of the third, which Ehren Kruger wrote, was watching the series cannibalize itself. "Scream 4" has a smart beginning, featuring Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell, and one well-delivered line at the end that would have brought down the house in a better movie.

But Williamson appears to be at a loss for what he'd like to say with a fourth "Scream" beyond "ka-ching." Eleven years ago Williamson was a still in-demand writer and producer. He had an annoying way with sentence construction, but his verbose young people became the model for lots of the verbose young people we're still stuck with. Where would the CW be without him? "Scream 4" feels like the work of people who haven't noticed how much popular culture and the horror genre have changed since the first "Scream" arrived in 1996. Despite some topical gags about social media and Channing Tatum's erstwhile abs, the new movie feels so two decades ago. Yes, there's a big speech at the end about how dirt-cheap fame has become in 2011. It sounds desperate nonetheless. You'd believe it a lot more were it delivered by a Kardashian.

Wesley Morris can be reached at wmorris@globe.com or followed on Twitter: @wesley_morris.