February (Web-only) 2000

ARTICLE TOOLS

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This weekend Scream 3 outperformed the other nine movies in the top ten combined, thanks in part to playing on a record 3,467 screens, which allowed most everyone who wanted a ticket to buy one. Many critics claimed the horror series had run out of creative steam, but fans nevertheless wanted to know how the trilogy ended.

The few available Christian reviews, however, were only mildly critical of the campy slasher sequel. The series, which has always revolved around the question of how much art reflects life and life imitates art, adds another layer by moving the action to Hollywood where actors playing victims in a horror movie are being killed for real. The Movie Reporter's Phil Boatwright said Scream 3 achieved its goals of being "scary [and] funny," even if it's also quite crude. Paul Bicking of Preview warns there's enough "knife slashing and stabbing to satisfy the genre," but adds that it's "less gory than expected." The U.S. Catholic Conference was not so lenient, calling it a "horrific blood bath" and "a mindless unreeling of mayhem and gore." Mainstream reviews were more concerned with the movie's tedium: Tom Maurstad of The Dallas Morning News quips that "Scream 3 is full of surprises … it's surprisingly long, surprisingly dull and surprisingly stupid." Jack Garner of The Rochester Chronicle pins the blame on "a key mistake that was successfully sidestepped by its predecessors: It takes itself seriously."

This week brought more glowing reviews for the inspirational story of Rubin Carter's eventual release from wrongful imprisonment. The U.S. Catholic Conference says this "study of institutionalized racism" is noteworthy for how the jailed Carter "spiritually ...