Beyonce
4 [Deluxe Edition]
3.5/5

Beyonce has always seemed like a bit of a dark horse to me when it came to being a serious contender in the pop music scene. A lot of her music is generic r&b/pop [i mean that in a nice way], but there's also been a slow growing need to go against the grain a little throughout her career.
On her first album, 'Dangerously In Love', it was a fairly standard affair as far as music production goes. R&b ballads and urban dance floor fillers were pretty much what the album was full of. Her second album, 'B'Day', showed a bit more musical experimentation, with a more old skool urban influence on the record, and a more organic use of instrumentation on the production of the music. Her 3rd album, 'I Am...Sasha Fierce', was an even bigger leap forward as far as bringing in different musical styles was concerned. Between more electronic urban beats and more simple guitar driven ballads, it was obvious Beyonce's palette of influences were broader than we were led to believe based on her earlier work.

Her 4th album, '4', is certainly her most interesting album to date. Not so much because i think it's her best, it's not [i give that title to her last album, 'Sasha']. But '4' marks an important time in her career, and that is reflected in the music on the album. This is the first record Beyonce has done without the guidance of her father, who has been her manager since her Destiny's Child days. With Beyonce asserting herself in her own career, comes a new found confidence and freedom to branch herself out even further as an artist.
After the huge success of 'Sasha', you'd think '4' would have been an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of that album and offer more of them same. To my surprise however, Beyonce has chosen to put together a much more sombre body of work this time around. Instead of jumping on the dance bandwagon that's filling mainstream radio right now, Beyonce has decided to go completely in the opposite direction and has created more of an old skool 90's r&b record with very little club bangers to go nuts over. In many ways it pays off, and in other ways it kinda fails.

The majority of the album is well produced. The ballads are nicely done for the most part. 'I Miss You' sounds like something Phil Collins could have sung back in the day, '1+1' takes obvious notes from Prince and features a gorgeous electric guitar solo and 'Dance For You' could easily fit on any sexy early 90's r&b slow jams album.
The more dance heavy tracks offer some nice moments too. 'End of Time' uses infectious drum beats, 'Countdown' has a catchy big band sound, and my favourite off the album, 'Run The World', features a hot tribal beat and aggressive vocals. I know a lot of people dislike that song, but i think it's fantastic, i love the 'Diplo' inspired production on the track. If 'M.I.A' did more commercial music, it would sound something like that.

Credit has to be given to Beyonce for not churning out an album that fits into the mold of what is popular right now. Don't get me wrong, most of the songs on '4' don't necessarily tread new ground. We've heard Beyonce do r&b music before, this isn't surprising to anyone. However, it's not a genre that's really selling right now though, especially with an album like '4' which consists of mostly slower tracks.
As a lead single, 'Run The World', wasn't an ideal choice either. The genre it borrows from is way too particular, and not something mainstream listeners are into. As much as i love it, i can see why so many people hated it.
Beyonce has my respect for doing an album she truly wanted to make, regardless of how unexpected it may be. She seems to be more focused on growing as an artist, rather than JUST selling records. It's refreshing to see after her last massive album.

Technically, there isn't anything really wrong with '4', however, it does have a few bumps along the way.
As nice as most of the songs are, the album can feel a bit dull as an overall listen. A couple more upbeat or heavier tracks wouldn't have hurt, especially ones along the lines of 'Run The World'. There's a bit of "meat" missing from the album. It all plods along a bit TOO comfortably at times, and i find that i really need to be in the right mood to listen to the album in full.
Also, the track listing order is a fucking mess. '1+1' is an awful way to start the record, it's just way too slow and feels more like a closing track than an opening one. Following that sort of slow opener with another 2 ballads really doesn't set up the album well. It's just too "sleepy". I shuffled around my track listing on my iTunes and found the album flows a lot better with the mid-tempo tracks and ballads mixed around more. The official track listing feels like i've started the album half way through the play list when i play track 1. It's just odd and it really kills the flow.

'4' is a decent album. It has a couple strong moments, and even though the rest of the album is nice enough, i don't feel like it reaches any truly great heights for me. There could have been a bit more of an energy in the music to liven it up a more, and some of the songs are a bit bland production wise. If i'm not in the mood for the album, it can be boring. I find that it works more when i listen to tracks individually than as a complete record. There's SOMETHING missing, it feels like it needs a bit of a "fun" injection. As a ballad heavy record though, it's enjoyable enough if you like that sort of thing.

Bridesmaids

Starring: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne

Directed by: Paul Feig

4.5/5

Picked as her best friend's maid of honor, Annie looks to bluff her way through the expensive and bizarre rituals with an oddball group of bridesmaids.

I'll be honest, the first time i saw the trailer to this movie, i wasn't impressed, in fact, i thought it looked pretty awful and unfunny. Once the film got released though, in came the endless critical praise, and audience rave reviews. In fact, pretty much everyone i have bumped into since the films release has urged me to go see this movie. I was surprised by the reaction to the film, and decided to give it a chance.

I'm glad i did, because Bridemaids has become one of the most funniest movies i have ever seen. I was laughing non stop throughout the whole thing, that hasn't happened in a long time with a comedy, not to that extent.

What's great about Bridesmaids, is that it's written as an every day comedy. The characters are real and relatable, the situations could actually happen, and the general story actually has some genuine heart behind it.

The lead actress, Kristen Wiig, carries the movie perfectly. Not only is she hilarious with the comedy [her penis impersonation, lol!], but her character is layered and not 2 dimensional. At times you want to slap her, at other times you feel really bad for her, she puts in a fantastic performance. The other stand out in the cast is Rose Byrne. I'm used to seeing her do more serious roles, so it was a nice change to see her play something like this. The hateful chemistry relationship between Wiig and Byrne's characters is hilarious. The ''toast off''' they compete in at the brides engagement party is genius writing.

Thinking back on the film, i've lost count of how many great moments the movie had. From the pilled up plane sequence to the giant cookie attack, the funny moments were endless.

Another great thing about Bridesmaids, is that even the none comedic parts of the story are written well. Wiig's character finding new love is charming, and the crumbling of her sanity while at work or dealing with a bastard ex is depressing and realistic. The film has a lot more going for it under the surface than a lot of other "chic flicks", and for that, the movie opens itself up to a broader audience. This isn't a cliched movie just for women, it's not 'Bride Wars', it's much smarter than that and would appeal to pretty much everyone.

Forget any other comedies this year, the tired 'Hangover 2', the hit and miss 'Bad Teacher', they don't hold up well against something as fantastic as 'Bridesmaids'. It's become one of my favourite films ever, i can't wait to see it again.

X-Men: First Class
Starring: Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Rose Byrne
Directed by: Mathew Vaughn
4.5/5

In 1962, Charles Xavier starts up a school and later a team, for humans with super human abilities. Among them is Erik Lensher, his best friend.....and future archenemy.

There's a lot of story to get through in First Class, and although some people have said it felt a little rushed in parts, i personally thought it all flowed nicely and the pacing was surprisingly more fast paced than i expected.
The great thing about First Class is that as an origins film, it establishes the characters and relationships perfectly. There's a lot of links between all of the X movies that join it together to create a cohesive universe, and with so many characters involved in the X films, it could have been a messy delivery, but it all works well in First Class.
Director Mathew Vaughn has separated the more meaningful relationships away from the smaller ones to reconnect the dots to the previous films. The main storyline in FC is centred around Magneto and his revenge story on the man who killed his Mother during World War 2. That then opens up the doorway for the second storyline which serves more of a purpose to the previous X films, the relationship between Magneto and Xavier and how they helped each other to create the first class of X-Men mutants. There's also a smaller, yet still important 3rd storyline which revolves around the early friendship between Mystique and Xavier, and how Magneto later became her mentor and drew her away from Xavier's plans for the future. Although i would have liked to see more scenes establishing Xavier and Magneto's friendship further, there's still enough emotional pull within the story to make up for any minor short comings.

Casting wise, everyone delivered their roles on point. Jennifer Lawrence was great as a young Mystique, not only re-capturing Rebecca Romijn's natural sex appeal from the previous films, but also giving Mystique a layered story arc. Next to Magneto, she pushed the emotional aspect of the story the strongest. Her search for inner acceptance between Xavier, Beast and Magneto felt very genuine. For me, she's the most interesting character from the X films.
Nicholas Holt as Beast also did well with his role, especially with his mutation struggle being mirrored with Mystique's and January Jones was believably dangerous as Emma Frost.
Acting wise however, the film belonged to Michael Fassbender as Magneto. Not only was he threatening and powerful, but the amount of emotion he brought to the character opened up his performance 10 fold. It's not easy to make audiences feel a connection with a villain, but Michael's portrayal of struggle was one you couldn't help but stand by. He completely carried the film.

There's a return to quality with First Class that reminded me a lot of what made the first 2 X-Men films so fantastic. I personally still enjoyed X-Men 3, but it did have it's flaws and Bryan Singers absence as the director was felt. First Class brought back a bit more elegance to the franchise. The story was rich, the characters were well developed and you really connect with the universe on screen. There were also a few cameos in the film featuring actors from the previous movies that were really fun to see unexpectedly pop up during the movie, loved those.

Lady Gaga

Born This Way [2011]

4.5/5

Born This Way was always going to be a big transition album for Gaga. We already had 2 albums worth of the types of songs that have made her famous over the last 3 years, and as entertaining as those albums were, she needed to showcase herself more as an artist than a pop star with her latest record. Luckily, she seems to have fully understood this, and has pushed herself as hard as she could on her new album. There are only tiny glimmers of old skool Gaga on BTW, mostly on the tracks, 'Judas', and on the ballad, 'You and I'.
New genres are explored, new ways of using the full ability of her voice are showcased, and more depth has been added to her writing. It doesn't come off as trying too hard or contrived either, she really pulls off every new direction or idea on the album perfectly. She's obviously been waiting to spread her wings for a while.

1 // Marry The Night 4/5

Big and bold, the perfect way to open the album. The song opens as a piano ballad, but quickly turns into a heavy disco track. It sounds a lot like old skool Whitney Huston.

2 // Born This Way 3.5/5

I've learned to enjoy this over time, and even though it's one of the weaker songs on the album, i still think it made sense as the first single and it works within the context of the whole album. It's catchy.

3 // Government Hooker 5/5

The amount of time Gaga has been spending in Eastern Europe is very obvious on this track. It sounds like something out of grimy Euro sex club. Production wise, it's the coolest song on the album. If Marilyn Manson was doing pop music, it might sound a lot like this.

4 // Judas 3.5/5

It took me a while, but i've finally warmed to it. It's rating would be much higher had the melody and structure of the song not sounded like Bad Romance part 2, for that, it loses a bit of wow factor due to RedOne's lazy production. I do love the heavy tribal beat though, and since the album offers so much stronger material, i don't mind this as a filler track. I still think it shouldn't have been a single though.

5 // Americano 4/5

The most oddball moment on the album. It sounds like a pop song written for a Broadway production. It's very boisterous and silly, but also very catchy. I would have really fallen in love with it if the mariachi aspect of the music was even stronger.

6 // Hair 4/5

I need to be in the mood for it, but when i am, i think it's a lot of fun and the message behind it is sweet. The carefree vibe of the music reminds me of Cyndi Lauper.

7 // Scheisse 4/5

I don't seem to be as amazed by it as most other fans of the album are, but i still think it's a cool song. I love the faux German, i wish we heard more of it in the lyrics.

8 // Bloody Mary 5/5

I can't get enough of this song, i love the sweeping melody of the chorus and the creepy music during the verses. I'm not sure why, but it reminds me of ABBA.

9 // Black Jesus + Amen Fashion 5/5

The early 90's production on this track is perfect. It sounds like something that would be played all over runway shows in New York. It reminds me a lot of something Madonna would have done on her Erotica album.

10 // Bad Kids 4/5

I've noticed people tend to get turned off by the overly upbeat vibe of the chorus after they hear the much more aggressive verses. I think it works though, and the song has really grown on me over time. I kinda love it.

11 // Fashion For His Love 3/5

Cute song, but obvious filler. Another Whitney Huston 80's inspired track. I like it, it has a great upbeat vibe, but it's also forgettable.

12 // Highway Unicorn [Road To Love] 5/5

I can see why a lot of people don't like it, i admit, first time i heard it, i thought it was really messy, but i've grown to adore it and it's now one of my favourites on the album. It sounds exactly like the type of song you'd listen to driving on a highway, the beats have such a great thumping rock momentum to them, and the chorus is big and loud. Production wise, it's the most experimental track on the album. There's all sorts of crazy shit going on in this.

13 // Heavy Metal Lover 5/5
It's one of those songs you hear that you know everyone will love. The beat is dark and sexy, and i love the Daft Punk inspired bridge with the distorted vocals. Hot song.


14 // Electric Chapel 5/5

The 80's metal guitar intro to this is bad ass. If Alice Cooper did dance music, it would sound something like this. Can't wait to see this live.

15 // The Queen 2/5

I struggle with this song. The first half is a bit too cheesy sounding for my taste, like something Avril Lavigne rejected from her first album. The music transition halfway through however is really great. I love the slowed down tempo, and when the guitar comes strumming it, it sounds beautiful. I only wish the whole first half sounded like the second half.

16 // You and I 3.5/5

This reminds me a lot of a Motley Crue rock ballad meets Elton John. It's a great song, but one that is mostly enjoyed when i'm in the right mood for it.

17 // The Edge of Glory 5/5

It's so uplifting and beautifully produced. The chorus is massive and Gaga's vocals soar of the music so perfectly, it almost gives me goosebumps. There's such strong emotion behind the track, it's euphoric. One of the best songs she's ever done, and an amazing way to end the album.

There's some really great production scattered throughout BTW. The fusion of rock and dance music is mixed perfectly into some of the songs on the record. Gaga said the album was created around the idea of the album working in a live setting, and that's exactly what the album sounds like, a body of work waiting to explode properly on stage. That's probably why the production works so well, Gaga's strong side has always been her ability to take her music from album to stage and improve on it because of her ability as a live musician and performer. The stage gives her an opportunity to interpret her work in different ways.

With a "live setting" frame of mind being used to create the music, it's allowed the songs to have a much bigger sound, as well as letting her voice truly shine on many of the tracks.

With so much image marketing behind Gaga's product, it's easy to forget that she is first and foremost a singer and songwriter. Vocally her voice is fantastic on BTW, and writing wise, she has expanded the types of issues she covers in her songs when compared to her more superficial first 2 albums.

The albums themes aren't only heavily related to Gaga's personal life [Marry The Night, Edge of Glory], but they also address many world issues as well, ranging from the political [Government Hooker] to the social [Born This Way, Americano]. She doesn't do it in a boring preachy way either, even though the topics themselves are serious, they're all presented to us a with a trademark Gaga wink. Gaga wants us to have fun, not feel depressed.

The album isn't perfect, there are a few bumpy turns along the road. RedOne continues to showcase how tired his sound is becoming, especially on 'Judas', which is a decent enough song, but a step back as far as doing something new is concerned. He does much better on 'Hair', but still seems unable to let go of that stupid trademark sound effect he always has appearing in all his work. He only appears on the album a tiny bit though, so it's not a major issue.

A couple of the bonus tracks on the special edition also add little to the overall experience of the standard album. I do love one of them in particular [Black Jesus], but they aren't essential when it comes to looking at the album as a whole product. Aside from that though, there really isn't much else to fault on BTW.

Gaga hailed her new album as "the best album of the next decade", a ridiculous and over the top statement for sure, but after hearing the album countless times, there's no doubt BTW is a very strong record. A decade from now, who knows where the album will stand, but as of RIGHT now, Gaga is hitting pretty much every right note she can with the release of this record. By the time the BTW era is at an end, she will have no doubt proved she's here to stay for the long haul.

Insidious 2/5

Starring: Rose Byrne, Patrick Wilson

Directed by: James Wan

A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their son in a supernatural realm called The Further.

I held off torrenting this because it recieved a decent reception from critics. It's hard to come by horror movies that actually do well on a wider scale like that, so i thought it'd be worth my while to check this out on the big screen. Plus, the trailer was impressive. I wish it could have lived up to my expectations though based on the reviews i had read, sadly, it didn't.

Insidious stars off really well. Right from the opening credits, you feel like you're in for something creepy and interesting. The entire first half of the film is executed perfectly, with some nice slow pacing and a few genuinely creepy scares. I did jump a couple times, and i was loving the sense of dread growing throughout the story. Once the film starts heading into the second half of the story however, we lose all sense of tension and scares, and start watching a completely different movie all together.
The movie takes a dramatic turn, and goes from being a slow burning haunted house thriller, to an over the top demon fantasy adventure. At first i was surprised by the sudden switch in tone, but thought maybe the film would take more of a horror fantasy route, similar to Poltergeist [which is a great movie]. I certainly loved the introduction of the demon character, and seeing it appear behind people and in dreams was rather startling.
Sadly, an hints at Insidious being Poltergesit 2.0 were quickly washed away once we enter the realm of 'The Further'.

At that point in the movie, everything was an over the top mess. The story change wasn't the problem, i accepted the fact that we were heading in more of a fantasy direction, but the director seemed to lose any sense of what he was actually trying to do at this point and it all started feeling disjointed and uneven.
A whole group of new and unintentionally hilarious spirits were introduced into the story, and rather than being exciting or creepy, it was all just silly and almost like a horror parody. The spirits looked like extras from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" music video, it was hard to take any of it seriously. The demon they perfectly presented as a ghastly figure in the first half of the film, all of a sudden became some sort of ridiculous cheesy movie monster, at one point it even sat at a sewing machine making clothes for string puppets [don't ask]. It was all over the place.

It was frusturating watching Insidious because it showed a lot of potential. There are some great things in the movie, but it all gets so muddled by the end, that i was laughing rather than feeling scared at anything i was seeing. The casting is good, and some of the creature design was nicely done, especially with the demon. Some of the creature design howeverwas just way too cheesy, and the movie didn't know what the hell it wanted to be. At one point we are even introduced to 2 ghost hunters, who for whatever reason were meant to provide some un-needed comic relief, it just didn't fit the tone of the movie at all.

If you want an entertaining horror fantasy that knows how to mix atmosphere with over the top visuals, watch Poltergeist. Insidious however is a wasted opportunity filled with great ideas that sadly don't know what direction to go in.

Thor [2011]

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman

Directed by: Kenneth Branagh

3.5/5

The powerful but arrogant warrior Thor is cast out of the fantastic ream of Asgard and sent to live amongst humans on Earth, where he soon becomes one of their finest defenders.

I knew very little about Thor going into this. I was aware of the character of course [being a comic reader myself], but i've never read anything from the Thor comic series. Similar to Hulk and Iron Man, Thor has never been something that looked all that interesting to me.

After seeing the movie though, i'm surprised to say that the origins of the character are actually very original and creative. Thor could have turned out to be a huge fucking mess if it wasn't done right. While watching it, i couldn't help but be reminded by bad 80's "fantasy/real world" cross over movies like He-Man and Beastmaster. Mixing such vastly different styles of worlds without being hokey or cheesy is a tricky thing, but they really pulled it off in this.

The world Thor comes from, Asgard, is beautifully created on screen. The mix of magic and technology that is littered throughout the architecture in Asgard would have been a designers wet dream. It can be a bit jarring when you first visit Asgard, simply because it's such an odd mixture of styles and colours, but overtime, you get used to it much more. There are other realms to be explored in their Universe [9 to be exact], but the only other none Earth one we see in this movie is an icy barren planet [can't remember the name], inhabited by giant blue skinned and red eyed creatures, that are the villains of the story. Their world was even more exciting to see, with it's eerie deserted, crumbling mountains and massive rampaging monsters. The villains in the story were very cool.

Casting wise, everyone did a great job. Chris Hemsworth completely embodied Thor, not only physically [drools], but he was also very charismatic and like able when he spoke, especially in the later parts of the film where his character loses the arrogance and becomes a true hero. Natalie Portman [who i love] looked like she may have ended up with a really boring part in this, but her character was surprisingly like able, funny, and complimented Thor nicely once the romance aspect of the story kicked in. She looked beautiful too.

Thor's brother, Loki, was played well by Tom Hiddleston. Even though he ends up being one of the "bad guys" of the story, there was till a sympathetic side to him that made his plight somewhat understandable, even if what he was doing was wrong. Anthony Hopkins was, well......Anthony Hopkins, strong presence, elegant, and believably loving between both of his sons.

The movie does feel like it could have been a little meatier. By that i mean, i wanted to see more of the worlds that we saw in the story. It all felt a bit too short [even though it wasn't running time wise]. I wanted more backstory about Asgard, about the icy race of giants that they waged war with, more of Thor and Jane's romance, ect. I just feel like it could have pushed itself a tiny bit further to be even more larger scale than it already was, more fleshed out. Mexico was the perfect setting for Earth once Thor arrives on our planet, but it was also the most boring of the 3 realms we see. More of the unique and interesting locations they visit would have made my personal experience with the movie a little more fun.

There was also an unanswered question about Loki which i would have liked to see explained. I can't get into that without spoiling a big secret though.

Overall, Thor was an entertaining origins story that feels like it needs to open up even more with a few more sequels. There was a lot of light humor in the script which worked really well against the more dramatic parts of the story, and the entire cast bounced off each other nicely.

It's certainly one of the more interesting super hero movies to be coming out this year, i look forward to seeing more of it down the line.

Scream 4 [2011]

Starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette

Directed by: Wes Craven

3.5/5

Sidney Prescott, now the author of a self help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. Unfortunately, her home town appearance brings about the return of Ghostface, which puts her and the entire town in danger.

A Scream movie in 2011 has a lot working against it. The last time this franchise wrapped up, we were left with a slightly underwhelming finale, Scream 3. It wasn't a bad film, and it certainly tied up the series into a comfortable trilogy, but compared to the first 2 Scream films, it all felt a bit tired and messy. A new Scream also has a whole new generation of young horror fans to adapt to. The writers won't be able to play on the films of the 80's and 90's anymore because horror has changed a lot over the last decade, so adapting to a new audience while still remaining true to the old fans is important.

Luckily, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson managed to pull their ideas together well enough to make a decent 4th entry in the series.

Imagine Scream 3 with all it's problems ironed out. That's exactly what Scream 4 is. Firstly, Scream 4 takes viewers BACK to Woodsboro, where the original murders took place. Scream 3 always felt a bit disconnected to me because it didn't take place around the same locations the first 2 films were set in. It was set in Hollywood, and although the setting made sense within the context of the story, it still felt a bit too far from where i liked seeing my characters. I appreciated the creators trying to keep it fresh by giving us something new, but Scream 4 really needed to bring things back to the beginning, and thankfully it does. Middle class suburbia is where things fit best for this series, and seeing Woodsboro again gave me happy fan butterflies in my stomach.

Character development was also a must in Scream 4. In Scream 3, Sidney was written well, but the rest of the cast had little else to do, and most of the side characters that were killed off were very boring. In Scream 4, i wasn't exactly jumping for joy with the new teenage cast, but i didn't enjoy seeing the characters i liked die either. Plus, bringing back the old cast was always going to win me over even if the newer characters failed. Luckily though, all the characters were well placed within the story.

It's always heartwarming seeing Sidney again. A lot of us grew up with her story, so seeing her all these years later much older [she has wrinkles!], was fun to watch. I also liked how much stronger she has developed as a person since Scream 3. She finally seems at ease with her life at the beginning of 4, which makes the return of Ghostface that much more uncomfortable to watch. She seems forever unable to escape her past, and at one point in the film, i thought maybe she should just finally die to bring peace to her and everyone else around her. Sidney doesn't represent death though, she represents survival, as fucked up as her life has been, she's managed to fight her way through it all and still remain standing. After all these years, even if you know her death would mean the end of all the bloodshed, you still hope she will come out alive.

Another great thing about Sidney in 4 is that she's developed a similar relationship with Ghostface that Jamie Lee Curtis's character developed with Michael Myers in Halloween. We've watched Sidney and Ghostface fight against each other for so long, that there's an odd familiarity in Sidney's eye when she faces against him now. She runs for her life, but she also seems almost comfortable with having him around. It's almost like she isn't exactly running for her life anymore, but running because she knows what to do next.

Gale Weathers had the second most interesting storyline in the movie. Washed up and bored with her life, it was hilarious seeing her try and find something to do when the murders start happening. I only wish she was around more in the second half of the film.

The rest of the cast did well, Emma Roberts and Hayden Panettiere were good, even though Hayden had really ugly and distracting hair. Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell also have a great cameo in the beginning of the film. David Arquette was typical Dewey, though i'd say this was Dewey at his most boring, and Adam Brody seemed completely pointless. Maybe he took the role because he was a fan and was desperate for a cameo? who knows, but it was useless.

The kills this time around have also been improved on. Deaths seem to have lost their more old skool drawn out style, and things happen a lot quicker, with focus on tension rather than cheap jump scares. Everything also seems at it's most bloodiest, there was a decent amount of gore [guts on the bed!].

Screams opening death scenes have become a trademark for the series, and although the opening does put a clever spin on things in the way that it's presented to the audience, the actual scene death scene itself is fairly standard.

Cultural references in Scream 4 are thrown in by the bucket load, with swipes at horror remakes and new survival rules being used all the time. The younger characters in this story are even more self aware than the teens from the last series were. The killer reveal at the end of the movie also gets a chance to make a nice social commentary on today's media obsessed youth culture and how fucked up we all are. Like the old films though, it never feels forced, in fact all of it rings very true and is relevant to the times.

Is Scream 4 as good as part 1 and 2???..........no, it's not, but it IS a worthy inclusion in the franchise, and a MAJOR step up from Scream 3. You need to look at 4 from a certain perspective, this is the 4th film in a slasher franchise, the fact that it turned out as good as it did, is in itself a major achievement. They clearly tried to create something decent with Scream 4, and even though it's not as fresh or brilliant as it was back in the day, it does resurrect an old story successfully while trying to put an entertaining spin on what is common in horror movies today.

I see little room for growth from this point forward though. I really cant see how much further they could take some of these characters in a 5th chapter. I did have my doubts about 4 turning out as good as it did though, so maybe Wes and Kevin will surprise me again and pull off another trilogy over the next decade. I guess time will tell. Until then though, this was a lot of fun.