Scream 3 (Dimension Collector's Series) -

This third installment of the hugely popular Scream trilogy doesn't have the moxie and smarts of its two predecessors, but it's still a great thrill ride. Scripted by Ehren Kruger (from an outline by Scream writer Kevin Williamson), Scream 3 takes the three surviving characters from the first two films--beleagured heroine Sidney (Neve Campbell), ruthless TV journalist Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox Arquette), and hapless deputy Dewey (David Arquette)--and transplants them to the environs of Hollywood. Turns out a familiarly masked killer is stalking the cast of Stab 3, the third installment of the movies within the Scream movies. (Following all this? Don't worry, it's not entirely vital to the plot.) It's supposed to be a fun house of mirrors, with each character encountering the actor playing themselves and visiting reconstructed sets of the murder scenes, but it doesn't have the same snap and crackle of the first two films. Rather than parodying the teen horror genre, Scream 3 seems to be playing by the rules instead of breaking them gleefully, and its postmodern plotting is a little too fast and loose. Williamson's presence is sorely missed--it's the difference between hitting one out of the park and scoring a solid triple. Director Wes Craven, though, still brings his die-hard energy to the proceedings, from the requisite heart-pumping prologue to the go-for-broke (but somewhat predictable) ending. Kudos to Campbell, Cox, and especially Arquette for bringing spirit to characters who should be justifiably tired of being corpse magnets; Campbell is remarkably graceful considering she's saddled with plot twists involving heretofore undisclosed family baggage. And in the film's one inspired stroke of brilliance, Cox's Gale is trailed by a hilarious Parker Posey as the actress playing Gale in Stab 3, who astutely realizes that if they're caught by the killer together, it'll be the real Gale who gets it. If Scream 3 had stuck to such ingenious parody throughout, it would have been a real winner; as it is, it's an energetic shadow of itself. With Scream alums Liev Schreiber and Jamie Kennedy in brief but winning cameos. --Mark Englehart ...