Scream 3

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

For the initiated, the third time's a charm. For everyone else, it's just a scream.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

It's a pleasant surprise to note how good Scream 3 really is.

Variety Joe Leydon

A crafty and well-crafted wrap-up that really does bring a satisfying sense of closure to the franchise.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Genuinely scary and also highly amusing.

LA Weekly John Patterson

It's a pleasure to report that Scream 3 is an absolute riot, jammed with spicy cameos.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

I enjoyed every moment of this densely plotted final chapter, and most other fans will too.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Funny and brisk, with enough good lines to make the comedy more satisfying than the somewhat routine but still unsettling jolts to the spine.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

(Craven) and his Scream dream team have done a frightfully good job of killing off and wrapping up the popular horror series.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Jim Peterson

Scream 3 also has wit and intelligence, but at their core the Scream movies are still slasher films and this one is no exception.

Slate David Edelstein

A lot more fun than "Blair Witch," and it's more relaxed and goofy than its two predecessors -- a farcical bloodbath.

Film.com Gemma Files

But it IS enjoyable.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

It's plenty entertaining, but the ending is disappointing, given the buildup.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It's the chemistry between the Arquettes (they met on the first film and married after the second) and their rapport with Campbell that sustains Scream 3 through its overly convoluted plot.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

At its savviest, Scream 3 is a cheeky conceptual conceit, cheaply executed for the sake of achieving trilogy status. Instead, it's like a carnival that's been in town a week too long.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Just isn't very scary.

Time Richard Schickel

Not so good is the absence of hip cross-references to the classic horror tropes.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

Even if Scream 3 lacks the punch and verve of the first two installments, it manages to wring some ironically metaphysical comedy from the movie-within-a-movie motif.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

About the only thing the movie kills with any decisiveness is your time.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Essentially an interlacing of irony and gotcha! Scenes.

Chicago Tribune Marc Caro

Although Scream 3 is often clever in the way it interweaves the worlds of "Scream," "Stab" and life outside the theater, it's not exactly groundbreaking.

Film.com John Hartl

Simply can't sustain interest for much of its final hour.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Where Scream 3 triumphs is in its wacky, take-no-prisoners, I am a Juggernaut of Terror, Hee, Hee attitude, which wisely makes room for some downright surreal moments amongst the carnage.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Campy, overwrought and gleefully cannibalistic in the way it references and regurgitates horror flicks of yore, Scream 3 fulfills its modest ambitions by delivering a glib slasher spoof for the mall crowd.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Slower, more earnest, and not as gory.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It's got turns, it's got an attractive cast that gets shish-kabobed with ruthless regularity. It's just tired.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

A lame little flat liner.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

At 116 minutes, this third installment lumbers along like a serial killer in shackles.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Cowardice and cliché - not a tasty combination.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

What's left is a husk with all the superficial features of a Scream movie and none of the heart, brains, guts or laughs.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

It's time to run, screaming.

TNT RoughCut Christopher Brandon

First rule of a film trilogy: Part 3 sucks. See "The Godfather 3,"" Alien 3,"" Jaws 3." Even "Return of the Jedi" was just a rehash of "Star Wars" with muppets. Add Scream 3 to that trend.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Logic, motivation, suspense -- anything that might make the film frightening or resonant -- is buried under Dolby blams, medulla-shaming dialogue, and a rain of overdubbed hunting-knife schwings that grate like a 3 a.m. car alarm.