Just as the original Scream trilogy reinvented the horror genre in part by spoofing the ’80s slasher flicks that preceded it, Scre4m uses equally clever techniques and cameos to revitalize the franchise for a new generation. And with the horror genre having changed since Scream‘s mid ’90s debut, the rules played by the film’s characters have also changed a little. With new fodder, including recent trends such as the Saw franchise, newer communication techniques such as Facebook and Twitter, the rash of horror remakes of the past few years and even the first three Scream films, director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson are clearly back in their element with this new film.

Set 15 years after the original Scream killings, Scre4m finds Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) returning to Woodsboro to promote her empowering self-help book. But it turns out she’s not the only one who has been overcoming the horrific events that inspired her to write the book. Now a local celebrity, it’s not long before Sidney is reunited with Sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and reporter-turned-author Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) to figure out who is killing the friends of Sidney’s teenage cousin Jill (Emma Roberts).

From the infamous Ghostface costume to the town’s obsession with the events of the first three movies (and the ridiculous series of Stab movies they’ve inspired), Scre4m is constantly poking fun at itself and bringing the audience along for one inside joke after another. And the suspense builds as it becomes more and more clear that the killer is obviously in the midst of those being killed, causing everyone from cocky ex-boyfriends to Sidney herself to become suspects. But when it comes time for the climactic twist that has become a staple of the Scream series, the rules have changed ever so slightly yet again, allowing for more than one surprise as the mystery unravels.

Scre4m. Directed by Wes Craven. Starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette and Emma Roberts. Rated R. www.scream-4.com.

Review by Jonathan Williams

With his latest animated adventure, director Carlos Saldanha gets to leave the Ice Age and return to his homeland of Brazil in Rio. And as you might expect, this colorful land provides for an animated adventure just as big as the prehistoric creatures from his previous movies.

Rio follows the story of Blu, thought to be the world’s last blue macaw, who is exported by villainous animal smugglers to the faraway land of Minnesota before he is even old enough to fly. There, he is raised by a bookstore owner, leading a comfortably domesticated life of hot chocolate and other pamperings with no recollection of his more exotic birthplace. Voiced in an appropriately dweeby manner by The Social Network‘s Jesse Eisenberg, Blu is transported back to Rio when a scientist shows up with news that there is also a surviving female blue macaw, hoping the two will hit it off and prevent the extinction of their species.

Arriving in Rio de Janeiro just before the onset of Carnivale, Blu’s journey quickly becomes a Busby Berkeley-like jungle jaunt in which he and Jewel, the female blue  macaw voiced by Anne Hathaway, evade capture by smugglers and scientists while traversing wild terrain and parade floats. The fact that Blu is a bit of an ugly duckling in Rio (even as an adult bird, he has still never learned to fly) definitely causes some complications. But with the help of a toucan voiced by George Lopez, a drooling bulldog voiced by Tracy Morgan, a cardinal voiced by will.i.am and a canary voiced by Jamie Foxx, Blu and Jewel are able to stay one step ahead of Nigel, a bitter cockatoo doing the smugglers’ dirty work alongside his gang of marmosets.

Like the Ice Age movies, Rio is silly enough to entertain kids, yet clever enough for adults to enjoy. And as a bonus, the movie is preceded by an Ice Age short called Scrat’s Continental Crack-Up, which is sort of sneak peek at next year’s Ice Age: Continental Drift.

Rio. Directed by Carlos Saldanha. Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway and Leslie Mann. Rated G. www.rio-themovie.com.

Review by Jonathan Williams