Scream 4… or is it Scre4m?

So… Wes Craven is back already… That’s kind of a surprise. Those not in the know, back in 1996, Craven along with screen writer and man guilty of “Dawson’s Creek” Kevin Williamson made a little horror flick called “Scream”. What made “Scream” stand out was that it had a killer that would call his victims with questions about horror movies before trying to kill them, at the same time poking a little fun at the clichés and troupes that typified horror movies at the time, while kinda, sorta doing the exact same things. It was a cute little gimmick and otherwise, “Scream” was pretty solid as a movie if you ask me. It turned into a big hit and so almost immediately it got a sequel, which basically did the same thing, only this time pointing the self awareness on sequel clichés… again, basically while doing the same thing, and yeah, I still enjoyed it. The point I’m trying to make, is that “Scream” really only has one thing going for it, a cutesy kind of gimmick done with reasonable competent film making.
And so, the franchise has now made it to the fourth movie, and it’s gimmick’s charm has long since worn off. That aside, “Scream 4”(Scre4m?) does get a fairly easy ride as it has to be compared to “Scream 3”, which ranks just under slicing my finger with a table saw on the list of things I’d never like to experience again. It was stupid, boring, and oh so pointless with a crappy twist at the end and completely forgettable scare scenes. It was just crap, plain and simple.
But how is “Scream 4” (Scre4m?)? It’s… It exists. That’s really all I can say. This movie really doesn’t do much. The premise is that the main character of the series Sydney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell, has returned to her hometown of Woodsboro to promote her self-help book based on her experiences with the killers. However, surprise surprise, the murders start to happen again. This time, the gimmick’s theme is that of the Horror movie remakes that are all the rage, and so it’s assumed that the killers are remaking the first “movie” and it’s centered more around Campbell’s cousin and her circle of friends. The remake idea is nice in theory, but all it does is serve to pretty much dissolve most of the movie's tension because we basically know what's coming next and it's really more of a matter of who's going to die next.
The one thing I can always say for the “Scream” series, the acting is always pretty good to decent, and that is the case here. The cast all do the job, and most of the flaws or nit picks that I have with the performances come mostly from the blah at best dialogue. Most notable is oddly enough Anthony Anderson of “Transformers” and “Agent Cody Banks 2” fame, as well as Marley Shelton of “Grindhouse” and “Sin City”, as two of the cops in town. They’re quirky and fun and I honestly was more concerned about them while watching the movie.
The real problem with this movie is it has no staying power. I honestly walked out of the theater and basically forgot most of it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not super short or anything, but none of the kills leave much of an impact, the twist at the end is silly and it really just seems to be in a hurry to try and finish. It feels rushed and I feel that if they had more time, maybe, they could have hammered out something a little more presentable. As it is, the movie barely makes it known that it existed. I mostly blame the script, Kevin Williamson has really just been rehashing the original movie since it came out, and aside from that silly show he created, nothing else has ever reached the same amount of popularity. Here it just feels like creative auto pilot and that if he has all the character talk a lot of movie trivia and non sense people will mistake it for characterization. Not to mention the reveal at the end just feels like it comes out of nowhere. I mean, yeah I found it shocking, but I honestly figured out half of it about 35 minutes into the movie and then the other half feels really really forced, even though they try and try to make it seem like it wasn't. Actually, the only thing that was memorable is a scene where the killer asking a question about a horror movie remake and a character lists of ALL of the horror remakes that have come out recently, and it takes up a full minute of screen time. Making the horror fan in me cry a little at the reminder.
Really, I’m just going to sum up like this, better than “Scream 3”, but not by much. It’s lame, forgettable and working with a gimmick that’s already long since gone past it’s expiration date.

1.5 stabbings out of 5.

TRON Legacy

*SIGH* You know, as much as I love writing these reviews, there are sometimes where I just don’t want to. Example; the “Twilight” movies are the most aggravating movies out there to review. First of all, the movies have all sucked, but any reviewer that’s worth their salt knows that pointing out the flaws and problems with the films is hugely pointless because, well, the movies are going to make crap loads of money from the tween girls that make up the series’ fan base. Honestly, writing a review for something like that just feels like you’re the internet equivalent of that homeless guy that wears a sign saying the end is near. It’s a feeling I just couldn’t shake as I write this review, I know whatever my opinion may be, the people that were excited for “TRON Legacy” and love the movie already, won’t care what I have to say anyway. So if that’s the case I’m going to do what I always do and be brutally honest.
“TRON”, for those who don’t know, was a movie released by Disney back in 1982, it was one many films that year, like “Blade Runner” and John Carpenter’s remake of “The Thing” that didn’t really make a ton of money, but on video has had a very good life as a cult favorite. The premise is that a video game designer, Jeff Bridges, is zapped into a digital world called The Grid, and must take down a despotic program called master control. It had impressive visual effects for the time and, well, that’s really it.
First of all, I only saw the original “TRON” recently. I… I just don’t get it. I don’t see what’s so special about “TRON” outside the at the time amazing visuals, but the movie’s story is boring, the characters are all kind of lame and all in all I think it’s not really bad, but it’s really forgettable for me. And it’s not that I’m jaded by modern visual effects, I mean, one of my favorite movies is “Jason and the Argonauts”, who’s visuals almost more dated than “TRON”. The difference is that I liked all the characters, and the story, while really nothing special held my interest from beginning to end, and it’s basically the same story as “TRON” anyway, only “TRON” replaced the fantasy/mythology tropes with computer and video game jargon. I don’t know, maybe it has more to do with the movie coming out on the cusp on the video game age and it appeals to the fanasty of being warped into a video game, but part of me feels like that’s reading way too much into it.
The point is, due to its cult popularity and Hollywood being desperate for any franchise it hasn’t already remade, re-booted or re-imaged, “TRON Legacy” was born. A sequel set in modern times about Bridges’ character having disappeared several years after the events of the first movie. His son Sam, played by Garrett Hedlund, gets a strange message and winds up inside The Grid to find his father and avoid the program CLU, who has gone rogue and turned into a fascist dictator. So, what is my opinion? I mean, the original got by on at the time amazing visuals, and this movie is cutting edge, plus they’ve had nearly 30 years, that means they’ve taken time and actually thought of ways to deal with the issues that the original movie had, right?
Well, “TRON Legacy” does actually have a lot going for it. I can’t avoid it, I simply must say it, this movie has some of the sweetest eye candy ever. The visual style of the original is both homaged and updated and I feel it looks just awesome. Added to that, the action sequences are quite impressive and really ramp the excitement to 11 when they happen. Jeff Bridges reprises his role of Kevin Flynn, though I basically should say it’s more like he reprised his role as The Dude, if he had a computer sciences degree, which is great. Michael Sheen also has a great bit part where I swear he’s purely there to see if he could devour more scenery in a single scene than Al Pacnio has in his entire career.
But the real show stealer it has to be acknowledged, is the music. I’m going to just say it, Daft Punk got screwed by Oscar. This is, no contest, one of the most ambitious, impressive scores in recent history adding so much passion and excitement to the action scenes, as well as permeating the whole movie with a great atmosphere. Seriously, this soundtrack is awesome, buy it now if you haven’t already.
So, by all this logic this movie must be amazing, like I enjoyed it right? Well, yes and no. I liked the music and the action, it had a few characters that I liked. But oh my god, oh sweet Christmas this story is a total mess! If you try and follow this movies plot you will be left in the dust because the movie really didn’t care. It’s plot has more holes than swiss cheese, after a firing squad, not going to spoil them, but they all mostly boil down to the fact that this grid was designed by Flynn… and that’s all I’m going to say. On top of all the plot holes, there are some scenes early on where it feels like serious plot elements are being introduced, but they are never mentioned again. Part of me feels like this movie is being used to set up a franchise and those elements will be further explored in sequels, but that’s always a problem. Really what this movie boils down to is a retread of the first movie’s set pieces with a bigger budget and some additional characters and the workings for continuity among at least one more movie, and that causes the moments in between the action scenes to be really really dull, and really really stupid on top of it. I’ve been told I shouldn’t take something like this too seriously, but the movie really keeps trying to cling to this story. I can forgive movies that have lack story in favor of visuals, but there is a line and it gets crossed when the movie just seems to THINK it has a story when it barely exists. The problem gets to compound when pretty much all the characters other than the two I’ve already mentioned are enormously bland and clichéd. Early on those action scenes? Awesome, super cool, after awhile though, I got pretty bored. By the final chase I was just unimpressed because I frankly didn’t care who was going to win.
Overall, eh, I’m indifferent to “TRON Legacy”. I don’t hate it, but I really didn’t care for. It had some impressive visuals, awesome music and that’s really it. To me, that’s not quite enough to forgive an ungodly stupid plot and bland characters, but for some it is, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

2.5/5 digital gladiators

Sucker Punch

It seems that I’m going to be that one voice that has to fight to stand out here. Many critics and movie goers have been pretty hard on director Zack Snyder. He’s made a total of five movies now, and it’s been enough for people to form the opinion that they really don’t like him that much. To be fair, doing a remake of one of the most beloved horror movies of all time, “Dawn Of The Dead”, was probably not the best way to debut. However, and this is someone that names the original as one of his all time favorite horror movies, the remake was pretty good. Ah, even as I type I can hear the rage of “Zombie’s can’t run!” and “The original was waaaaaaay better!”. And yes, that’s true, if I have to pick between the original or the remake, I’ll pick Romero. However, I still say that it is worth a look as an example of how to do a GOOD remake as it doesn’t feel like it needed to do anything other than have a similar idea, a bunch of people trapped in a mall while the zombie apocalypse is going on. He followed it with the enjoyable, if kind of stupid “300” and then the, I think, very well done adaptation of “Watchmen”. At the time of writing this I haven’t seen his animated effort “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’ Hoole”, but I may endeavor to do so in the future. The point I’m trying to make is that I enjoy Synder’s work. He always makes an entertaining movie and I have to give the man a thumbs up for making movies that seem like they have actual effort behind them in this age of Michael Bays and Uwe Bolls.
This brings us to the topic of discussion today, his latest and first original work, “Sucker Punch”. The premise is that of a group of girls in a mental hospital that’s being run by a group of corrupt men and one of them is facing a lobotomy in five days. In order to deal with it, she creates an alternate reality in which she and all the other girls are trapped employees of a burlesque house/brothel in the 1920’s.
I have a hard time being objective in my review of this movie because for me, it does so many things very well as far as I’m concerned, but I’m also going to have to admit, that it really isn’t that original. It borrows elements from several movies, fairly blatantly. Most notably Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” with the escape to fantasy to cope with reality, even the ending takes after Gilliam’s film a little. And most of the atmosphere and tone feels reminiscent of Dario Argento’s “Suspiria”, namely the implied child like nature of the girls, as well as some of the darker fairy tale type elements. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, but it does make me realize that a lot of people are going to be pretty unhappy with it.
Honestly, while I was aware and I’d most certainly prefer watching either of those again to “Sucker Punch” if I had to choose, I still enjoyed the movie. For as unoriginal as it was, for all the nit picks I could make, I have to confess, I was entertained. It’s the first action movie to come out in awhile that I actually had fun watching. The girls all perform well enough to get the job done, the script doesn’t really drag except for a little bit at the beginning, and I thought the action sequences were interesting.
That brings me to my next point. A lot of people do not like a lot of Zack Snyder’s style, most notably his use of slow motion. I’m the first to admit, yes, he can go over board and certainly does at certain points in “Sucker Punch”, but I would STILL take that over the shaky cam, choppy editing crap fests that Michael Bay likes to release on a regular basis. Mostly because, well, I can tell what the hell is going on. I’m honestly starting to think that action directors are really just resorting to the shaky cam tactic because they don’t want to use their brains and come up with a good action scene, which is a level of laziness that I cannot forgive. Added to the fact that I could actually see what was going on, I thought the effects are all pretty good and the fact that it was a bunch of attractive girls kicking all kinds of ass was certainly a fun thing to see.
Still for all the good the movie has, it does have some flaws, some of the villains go a little too over the top, like border line Saturday morning cartoon levels. At first I found it kind of funny, then it really started to get on my nerves. In fact, while the action scenes are the real attraction here, most of the scenes that take place in the brothel seem pretty half assed, in that way that they always are in action movies, purely existing to try and prove that they do want to try and connect the action scenes together in some fashion, and it goes about as coherently as you’d think. But I think most criminal of all, is the opening scene. I was fully prepared to completely hate this movie just from the opening. It’s pretentious, it’s slow (both literally and figuratively), and oh good god does it feel completely useless. The real narrative doesn’t start until it’s over, and all the background it gives on the main character would have been much better off just told as exposition or given as back story slowly through the film. However, once the movie actually gets going, I calmed down.
So overall, most of what I liked about “Sucker Punch” was just the fun of it. It was a action movie that tried to stand out a little, even if doing so showed that it was pretty much ripping off other movies. I would have called foul but then I got to see a bunch of girls in burlesque outfits pilot mech suits and use samurai swords to fight steam powered zombie Nazis… In my humble opinion this is at least fun enough to be enjoyable in that “Commando” part of the brain.

I give it 3 bad ass action chicks out of 5.

Worth a look in theaters, but not a definite must see.