This movie is going to have more than its fair share of detractors. I'm not one of them. Yes, the franchise might have worn out its welcome back when a tweet was a bird sound. And yes, Scream 4 is self-aware to the brink of absurdity. But it's fun. Sidney (Neve Campbell) is back: she's nursed her knife wounds and has a bestseller to prove it. Poor girl can't catch a break — turns out there's a new movie-obsessed psychopath out to carry on Ghostface's legacy. This time, he's after Sid's cousin (Emma Roberts) and her pals (Hayden Panettiere, usually insipid, here surprisingly effective). Those who popped their horror-movie cherry with the original will get a kick out of this reboot, which is rife with hyper-current references (there's a live-blogging film geek) and meta-jokes galore. So meta, in fact, that Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) misuses the word after learning it from a youngster. "Don't fuck with the original," Sidney tells the killer. They didn't.
