It's been a year since her life was wrecked by Bill Loomis and Stu Macher's murderous rampage and Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is attending college and trying to live a normal existence. Meanwhile, a movie about the Woodsboro Massacre is hitting screens just in time for a real-life sequel to begin. If the Ghostface duo of "Scream 2" isn't allotted much screen time outside of the third act, they at least bring a sense of theater to the movie's conclusion, in which Sidney, Mickey (Timothy Olyphant) and Mrs. Loomis/Debbie Salt (Laurie McPherson) navigate a sound-stage in one of the franchise's better finales. If Wes Craven's blockbuster sequel is otherwise less than the sum of its parts, it's worth noting that those parts are pretty iconic. A scene in which Sidney and friend Hallie (Elise Neal) attempt to exit a car by sneaking past an unconscious Ghostface is arguably the tensest scene in the series. Elsewhere, Sarah Michelle Gellar steals what few scenes she has as ill-fated sorority sister Cici Cooper. The opening with Jada Pinkett Smith and Omar Epps is classic. And let's not forget Jerry O'Connell's lunchroom musical number, even if some viewers might want to. Sequels may be inherently inferior films (at least according to our dearly departed Randy) but "Scream 2" is a pretty good follow-up to Craven's classic original.
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