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Post by Gilberto on Nov 19, 2011 7:53:57 GMT -5
Just watched this clusterf*@%
God bless everyone on Twitter who talked me into going to see Insidious in the theater instead.
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Post by lynn on Nov 19, 2011 17:03:32 GMT -5
That wasn't a very thorough review, what was wrong with it? I haven't seen it yet.
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Post by Gilberto on Nov 20, 2011 8:59:14 GMT -5
It's a spoof on remakes, so it's basically a requel of the first one. It takes meta to a point where you just want to stab yourself. I almost turned if off after the opening.
For all the times these people have been in this situation you'd think they'd stop acting so stupidly. They talk about the horror movie rules endlessly, but none of them seem to know them. But it's written by Kevin Williamson, who is personally responsible for the worst horror movies ever made, so there you go.
For all the twists and turns the movie is painfully predictable, and the only twist that would have made it work for me was apparently somewhere they didn't want to go.
And for the record, having the characters talk about bad movies while they're making one went out in the nineties. 10 years of that crap was enough.
I just watched Kevin Smith's Red State, and it was littered with awkward preaches and speeches where he appropriated the movie as a pulpit to speak directly to the audience. And I realized that this style of fourth wall removal was a product of the 90's and that's why it seems so out of place now.
Meta was popular in the 90's because of the obsession with deconstruction, but we're over it. It's a cheap gimmick because it doesn't require storytellers to communicate through subtext or on the fair and just plane of the medium they're using. They simply speak directly to the audience. It was a fun novelty for a while, but now it's just lazy writing.
I can see how children of the 90's may watch Scream 4 with a certain nostalgia. If you enjoyed the first 3 films then this one will probably work just fine for you, but if you're like me and you feel like Scream exhausted its premise by the end of the first movie, this new one's not going to redeem that.
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Post by drivebyluna on Nov 20, 2011 13:56:36 GMT -5
I did enjoy the first 3 but I still thought this was shit.
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wilson
Robot Monkey
Posts: 154
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Post by wilson on Nov 21, 2011 9:33:23 GMT -5
No way in Hell I'm bothering with this. The first Scream was good, but the rest of this series (and all of the terrible movies it inspired) have been unwatchable.
Also, the removal of the 4th wall has rarely worked for me...the only example I can think of where it did work is Ferris Bueller. I'm sure someone can point out some effective moments in other movies, but none come to mind. Shit, there's your next episode.
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Post by santaclaus on Nov 21, 2011 9:47:00 GMT -5
Hey Sean,
Santa is going to bring you the VHS of Scream 4. This will just be the beginning of the worst Christmas ever for Sean Gilbert! I can't wait to make your holidays sad!
HO HO HO
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wilson
Robot Monkey
Posts: 154
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Post by wilson on Nov 21, 2011 13:47:22 GMT -5
By the way, since you brought up Kevin Smith, I downloaded his podcast last night and listened to it for the first time a few minutes ago on my way to lunch. I've fallen out of his demographic of film fans, but I've enjoyed listening to his lectures where he shares funny little anecdotes about Hollywood.
I'm apparently spoiled by you guys, because it was 3:30 into this thing and I still haven't heard anything come out of his mouth. It's all ads and nonsense for tshirts and CDs (naturally with his sophmoric humor involving bodily fluids...because how else could you sell tshirts, right?). Anyways, thanks for not hocking Darkcrazy mugs and shit for the first 10 minutes of your podcast.
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Post by Gilberto on Nov 21, 2011 17:39:14 GMT -5
Yeah, our inability to sell things makes our show a pretty safe haven against shameless capitalism.
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Post by Gilberto on Nov 21, 2011 17:42:31 GMT -5
Hey Sean, Santa is going to bring you the VHS of Scream 4. This will just be the beginning of the worst Christmas ever for Sean Gilbert! I can't wait to make your holidays sad! Not that I don't want you to waste your time, fat man, but have you seen my Christmases? They're pretty organically awful. So let's play a game where you do your worst and we see if I even notice the difference. |
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Post by lynn on Nov 21, 2011 21:31:43 GMT -5
My ten years high school reunion is coming up, we used to love the Scream movies back then but I haven't really found them watchable since. I'd watch it for nostalgia with the girls but I don't think I'll be watching it now that Gilbert has told me not to. I mean, unless Santa wants to send me a free copy too, I have a VHS player. It probably doesn't play your screwy American formats though. Therein lies the rub.
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wilson
Robot Monkey
Posts: 154
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Post by wilson on Nov 22, 2011 9:28:15 GMT -5
Scream falls victim to that shitty sequel thing...when a first movie is good, but your vision of it gets tainted by the terrible sequels that follow (or even in this case, the shitty movies it inspired). Howling, Rambo, and Rocky come to mind.
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Post by Gilberto on Nov 22, 2011 18:05:19 GMT -5
Scream is downhill after the first 15 minutes and crashes at the end, though. The problem with horror movies that refuse even a hint of the supernatural (another 90's convention) is that when you kill the bad guy (or the 2 douchey dipshits who turned out to be the bad guy) at the end of the first movie, then there's nowhere to go in the sequels. Breaking out a new random weirdo (or renegade family member) every movie is even more unbelievable and annoying than resurrecting the same bad guy over and over.
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Post by lynn on Nov 22, 2011 18:12:30 GMT -5
I actually liked Scream 3 bringing in a random brother she never knew she had. I thought they did it in an ironic way. Everything in the 90s was ironic, even when it wasn't. I liked the whole movie, it was so dumb. But dumb in the way that is cool to a teen in the 90s, so it worked on the level it was going for. Again, doesn't hold up today.
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Post by Gilberto on Nov 22, 2011 18:14:42 GMT -5
Oy, there is such a thing as too much irony. I think I'm ready for a return to the 80's and its absolute absence of self-awareness.
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