Scream 3 (2000) Rated R Starring: Courtney Cox-Arquette, David Arquette, and Neve Campbell Rating: out of

As it stands, the surviving characters of Scream 2 are trying to put the past behind them. (A key mistake according to the Scream 3 script.) Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) lives in seclusion, working as a women's counselor. Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox-Arquette) works for an Entertainment Tonight-type TV show. Only Dewey Riley (David Arquette) is doing something related to the past. He works as a technical advisor to the producers of Stab 3, the latest movie in the fictionalized version of the Woodsboro murders. When Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) is murdered, all involved in the both the real thing and the movie version of the murders find themselves banding together to figure out who could be behind the latest rash of killings.

There are some funny moments in Scream 3, but the scares are pretty much non-existent. The script, penned by Ehren Kruger, lacks Kevin Williamson's smarts and humor. The movie feigns intelligence by including several actors in cameo roles and making them joke about the proceedings rather than playing by Scream's rules. It doesn't work. There's little more I can say about the plot without giving something away. I will say that, as in Scream 2, there's very little chance you'll figure out who the killer(s) is/are or the motivations behind his/her/their actions. That's a shame, because that's what I hated most about Scream 2.

Thankfully, I think this movie series has come to an end. If there is a Scream 4 planned, I'm going to make sure I miss it.

Trivia: Throughout the movie the actors and actresses complain about the rewrites and the 3 different scripts for Stab 3. These complaints actually originated with the cast of Scream 3, because of frequent rewrites and 3 different endings. (Source: The Internet Movie Database)