Escape to the Movies: Scre4m

[lordmardok]

So, I realize that this is contradicting to the last degree but... Moviebob had zero right to call Scre4m a bad movie. I laughed more during that movie and had a better time during that movie, than I've had all year in a theater. Not joking, it was funny, imaginative, and satirical. Is it an Oscar? Not by a long shot. Did I totally get my moneys worth out of it? Yes to the tenth power. The opening made me laugh out loud.

Now, that being said, i don't really care if anyone else liked it. I did. If I had to give an opinion on why moviebob hated it so much? I'd say it was because the Scream franchise intruded on his niche. I will say up front that moviebobs' review was wrong. whether you liked the movie or not was immaterial. Every single point he made in that review got invalidated throughout the entire movie. If you didn't like it. Or even if you agreed with bob on every point concerning the movie after watching it through the end, I don't care. I just think that it is worth watching and that the review did not give it a fair shake.

For the Scream newbie here's a breakdown:
Scream 1: made fun of teen slashers
Scream 2: made fun of knock-off sequels
Scream 3: made fun of horror franchise's
Scream 4 OR Scre4m: made fun of horror/slasher reboots.

 

[Balaxe]

I saw the film today and think that it's not as good as the original but is still a good movie. I also like how they made the story so you only needed to see the first film to watch this one.

Also why do people keep making fun of the fact that Scre4m has a 4 in the title, like everything else in the movie it's done ironically to make fun of others and people making fun of it just makes them look stupid.

 

[Baradiel]

Scre4m was the first Scream movie I'd watched, and I saw it after was this review.

I enjoyed it. It was so funny. There was laughter throughout the cinema.

It was funny because I couldn't take it seriously. I knew it was a pisstake. Fortunately, the people I came with didn't, and watching their reactions when things got "tense" was also hilarious.

 

[caladors]

So a 'high' rental?

 

[JenSeven]

Every time he says Scre4m, it sounds like he's saying Scrotum....

 

[Fanta Grape]

Wait, did he say 1996 is the sixth year of the 90's?

1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996

Good review though.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

Is it just me or does movie Bob appear, "butt hurt", because his "poor little ego" as "that kid that knows movies" was hurt?
Good job being objective, Bob.

 

[KevinR1990]

Bob, normally I trust your reviews, but this is where I have to fundamentally disagree with you. You hate the Scream movies because you feel that their success somehow harmed your life, ruining your uniqueness as "the movie guy", and you hate the '90s for their smug irony. Well, I was born in 1990, so I can't say anything about being in your position.(*) We're from two different generations.

But there is one thing I can tell you about. Before Scream, the American horror movie was dead.(**) Not just dead as in "it's currently in a slump, it'll come back." Dead like hair metal in 1993. The genre had burned itself out on a wave of crappy sequels that turned the big icons of '80s horror -- Jason, Freddy, Michael -- into walking punchlines. No major studio wanted to touch the genre unless they were sure that they could beat that stigma -- see the proliferation of psychological thrillers (i.e. serial killer movies) like The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en throughout the decade. People knew that the genre was cliched to holy high hell, and associated it with cheap "boo!" scares, paper-thin plot lines, and an abundance of misogyny (ladies, if you don't save yourself for marriage, then you'll get an axe in your skull!). Even the jokes that sketch shows made about the genre started getting old.

It was in this environment that Scream came into the picture. This was the horror movie that finally took a long, hard look at the sorry state that the genre was in, and told it where it could shove it. To do that, it went over every cliche, every trope, and tore them apart... and then stitched them back together to show people why they ever went to these movies in the first place. In such an environment as 1996, this movie was absolutely necessary. Some movies may have done what Scream did first, and some may have done it better, but none of them have ever done it to such mainstream acclaim. And that is why Scream is regarded as a classic.

As for the most recent entry, I have this to say. It's not as good as the original, but that movie's a tough act to follow, so that's not really a mark against it. It did a good and, I feel, necessary job skewering both the remake trend and our culture's obsession with celebrity (that's the only thing I'll say about the killer(s)), and it delivered the "goods" from the opening scene onward. Bob, for you to slam not only this movie, but its entire series, as brainless and yet praise Sucker Punch as some kind of bold feminist statement(***) shows that you and I share a pretty big gap in opinion.

----

* Except for the fact that that seems like a rather petty reason to hate a movie. It sounds like someone had a bit of a bruised ego from the fact that they were no longer the only one who could quote movie cliches at parties. If you think that's bad, then wait till you see TV Tropes. You'll flip your shit.

** And before you come over to me and beat me over the head with a DVD copy of Army of Darkness for not qualifying this, here goes. Yes, I'm using the broad term "American horror movie" to talk specifically about the general quality and respect of the overall horror output of the American film industry, not any diamonds in the rough. Why? Because that's what everyone means when they say "American horror movie". Yes, Bob, I am a fan of your other show. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9joAb4XMaUs]

*** I kind of got the feminist message that Zack Snyder was trying to impart, but the fact that it was buried under a sea of young Hollywood starlets in skimpy, highly fetishized outfits seriously diluted it. It's like what François Truffaut said [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TruffautWasRight] -- you can't make a feminist movie in which your leading ladies are dressed like Bianca Beauchamp, because people will be too distracted by the sexiness on display to care about whatever message you're trying to impart.

 

[rddj623]

I've always felt that the Scream franchise was the B-movie guide to B-movies. And I've always enjoyed them as such. To me they have enough clever moments to warrant a viewing while also having enough B-movie cliches and failures to warrant MST3K style commentary. Perhaps it's just me, or perhaps it's cause it didn't ruin my adolescent niche.

 

[wastedcharlie]

Wow. Movie Bob sucks again. So a 14 year-old Movie Bob had seen all movies ever and thoroughly appreciated their art.
Really?
So when a film showed that your oh-so-inciteful observations of tropes was already known in the adult world your life fell apart. Do you really think that nobody noticed tropes prior to 1996?

Bob, grow up and realise that the world has been around a lot longer than you. The Screams may not be especially original or well made, but your hatred is misplaced. They're not so bad, just lighten up and enjoy them for what they are: Mass-market-friendy horror - a market that they managed to satisfy very successfully.

 

[Triviumaddicted]

I liked the first Scream, I thought it was more of a tribute to people that love slasher flicks, didn't bother to see the 2nd or 3rd movie, and I wont see this one either. The first Scream tied the story off nicely so no reason to go back, I'd rather stay satisfied with one movie than disappointed with two or three

 

[hem dazon 90]

I have to agree; Yahtzee isn't so much irritating any more so much as he is boring me. Even if he WAS producing a comedy show (which he isn't, let's be honest) his humor has gotten stale and tired. He just seems to be falling back on the same jokes over and over again that, dare I say, come off as bigoted, hypocritical, and self-righteous at times. Like his Other M review where he has the GALL to act like he's being fair to women...AND THEN MAKES A MENSTRUATION JOKE. The only people Bob mocks are the assholes, the bigots, the hypocrites, and the holier-than-thou. Which, oddly enough, all seem to comprise MY GENERATION. God my generation SUCKS

Those "assholes" were people who bullied him in high school and let's be honest, judging by bobs attitude towards everything he deserved it

Oh and Yahtzee made a menstruation joke, boo frickin hoo. Who cares except for overly PC weirdos?

 

[deathmetalfan]

Best way to put it, Movie Bob is just pissed because he came from a generation where geeks weren't cool, and now they're all the rage with WoW, Big Bang Theory, and of course, Scream. I watched all except this one, but for the most part, I found they were fun and at some points even slightly scary, but apparently Movie Bob didn't find it like this. Then again, this is the same man who liked Sucker Punch and would later say that Green Lantern was worse than Fantastic 4.

 

[TokenRupee]

Just saw this recently and I completely disagree with Bob on this movie (surprise, surprise). The kills may not be the most creative, but then again, when have Michael Myers' or Jason's kills been anything other than repeated stabbings? Possibly some strangled kills at times, but never much more.

It was a good satire I felt. While some may brand it as a "poison" to the genre, the same people say the same about Saw and the "torture porn" craze. Don't blame the movie because it got popular. Blame the people who trying to cash in on the craze.

As for the intro, if that's one of the real reasons why Bob doesn't like this franchise, then...I'm not really surprised. After the whole Scott Pilgrim/Expendables debacle and Bob completely missing/ignoring the reason why people were upset, it's not unusual that he would let petty bitterness and a pointless grudge against a perceived blow to his social status sway him towards hating anything to do with this series of movies.

 

[Roman Monaghan]

So here's another cool thing to love about the new upencoming game, Lollipop Chainsaw.

Basically it's about if repressed cowardly cunts like Bob had the power to summon the zombie Apocalypse, which he has been on record saying he'd create a deathray or some shit if he could, and then the protagonists are exactly the kind of people who bullied him in his youth saving the day and stopping him.

I look forward to the Game Overthinker episode on how the 90s sucked that results from when that comes out.