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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), December 31, 2005
Director: Danny Cannon
Cast: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Brandy Norwood, Mekhi Phifer, Muse Watson, Bill Cobbs, Mathew Settle, Jeffrey Combs, Jennifer Esposito.
Running Time: 100 minutes
Rated R for intense terror violence and gore, strong language and some drug use.
It might not have been the greatest movie ever made but, thanks to the canny direction and score, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" was a very effective thriller. Shame the same can't be said of this sequel, which crams in every slasher cliché known to man with such little awareness of how hackneyed it all is that it actually seems to believe this is scary stuff. In a fit of apparent desperation, writer Trey Callaway packs Julie (Hewitt), survivor of the first film, off to an island in the Bahamas when she wins a holiday thanks to a radio show calling her number. Joining her is fish-faced Karla (Brandy), her boyfriend Tyrell (Mekhi Pfeiffer, who I seem to remember used to have a promising career) and spare wheel Will (Matthew Settle). Joining them soon after that is the killer fisherman, who engineered the prize (the fact that Julie's number's unlisted doesn't set off any warning bells) and proceeds to slice his way from one end of the movie to the other. There are no boats scheduled for days, the phones don't work, and there's a storm on the way...you get the picture.
You can practically hear director Danny Cannon, whose last movie was the underrated "Judge Dredd" and who deserves a lot better than this, sighing behind the camera at just how witless all this is. Cannon does manage to captivate the beautiful island scenery and the excellently-captured eeriness of the hotel at which the quartet of teen protagonists are vacationing (it's also a sort of sad waste of overall possibilities when you reflect on how they utilized these potent settings); a couple good scares throughout, though nothing scary, as if any movie could be deemed such; Freddie Prinze, Jr. is certainly not a notable talent, yet he exudes sufficient charm and is a likable hero; Mekhi Phifer, in a stereotype black tough-guy role, gives his role some enjoyable attitude, but his disbelief of Julie's claims that a killer's on the loose become tiring and cruel. "I Still Know..." fails due to a maddening lack of logic, intelligence, and most plausible qualities of humanity in all the characters; entirely arbitrary and thus boring murders of all the islanders we don't even really know is an obvious compensatory ploy for the fact that only two of main five characters are killed; technically mediocre acting (except Hewitt), plus bothersome, forgettable work from newcomer Brandy; low-IQ script; splotches of incompetent directing throughout; an incredibly demeaning and character-betraying "shocker" finale that essentially tosses this film into the pile of identical slasher formula flicks from the past 20 years. Our only consolation is that it may just be a dream, a la the "surprise" ending of the first "I Know What You Did Last Summer"...I guess we'll find out if and when "I Still Know What You Did Lots of Summers Ago" is made.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I still know this is bad...., October 9, 2003
I can understand why a sequel was made to "I Know What You Did Last Summer" because of the ending of the original. But I DON'T get why it had to be so stereotypical and poor. The sequel follows Jennifer Love Hewitt's character Julie to college, where she still has flashbacks of that fateful summer where she was being chased by a hook-wielding killer. Her roommate Karla, played with limited acting skills by singer Brandy, tries to take her mind off things and suggests that Julie dates someone new (Julie and Freddie Prinze Jr.'s character Ray are estranged at the film's start). To their surprise, the girls win a trip for four to the Bahamas for answering a trivia question in a radio contest. Julie invites new crush Will (Matthew Settle) and Karla takes along boyfriend Ty (Mekhi Pfeiffer). Here's where the problems start. First of all, the writers must think that the average viewer of this film has a third-grade education. Intelligent audience members smell a rat early on in the film when the girls incorrectly answer that the capital of Brazil is Rio de Janeiro (it's actually Brasilia). When the real answer is revealed at the climax of the movie, did the writers expect everyone to go "Ohhhhh!!"? I hope they don't think we are THAT stupid! Another problem: the geniuses behind this film were obviously trying to clinch the attention of the males in the theatre by having Jennifer Love Hewitt run around in white t-shirts drenched with rain. As a heterosexual female, I got tired of seeing Ms. Hewitt bounce around and felt this move was cheap on behalf of the filmmakers. Well, with a sub-par plot and mediocre acting, I guess they felt the need to do something. One more pet peeve: why must Hewitt sing at some point in every TV show or film she appears in? I cringed at the contrived karaoke scene in this movie. Don't you think it would been more obvious (and probably more enjoyable) to have already-established pop star Brandy sing a song? Viewers sit through one cliche after another until the unsatisfying and predictable twist is revealed at the end. And then the ending itself is another cliche, hinting once again at another installment. Thank goodness it hasn't been made (yet). Chalk this up as another unnecessary slasher flick specifically made to capitalize on the success of "Scream." While "Scream" had a certain wit to it, this is plain silliness rolled up with blatant T & A. Don't waste your time.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Decent...garbage, October 13, 2006
I Still Know I Did Jennifer Love Hewitt Last Summer.....oops that's not what it's called...my bad. Anyway after the first ended with Hewitt getting attacked by hook man she's back and I guess we're supposed to believe the end of it was just her dreaming. In this her and her victims....I mean friends go on a trip "that she won on the radio" to a tropical island. Of course it rains there the entire time. I guess that was hook man's plan, to get her on a spooky looking tropical island and he must control the weather too "damn you hook man!". Actually no, because of him making it rain, we get to see her in tight shirts in no bra in the rain yelling "what are you waiting for!, what are you waiting for!, I need new lines!, I need new lines!".
Well guess I made it obvious that once they get their Hookie is there as well. He starts killing people...., including the nice drug dealer played by Jack Black. He gives his best performance ever!! Okay I'm just kidding, he's annoying. Since hookie wants Hewitt dead, it puts her friends in danger. Which pisses off Brandy's horny b/f played by Mekhi Phifer (E.R, 8-Mile) who's just on the island to do the nasty with her. While Freddie "I act so bad even my show was canceled" Prinze Jr. steals a boat to come to the rescue. Nope he doesn't rescue the movie with his acting abilities.. I actually found the movie to be a decent slasher flick. But the end is just awful and isn't needed. It should've just ended with Hookman realizing that Hewitt looked hot in a wet tight t-shirt and asking her to marry him. Instead he still wants to just kill her for being one of the people that threw him off a dock after hitting him with a car. You would think this guy would've just got a life by now.
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