Mike_Bracken's Full Review: I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer: Columbia Pictures Rating: USA: R/ UK: 18/ Australia: MA
After the success of both Kevin Williamson’s Scream and his follow-up script, I Know What You Did Last Summer, the 90’s cycle of hip and irreverent teen slasher films had kicked into high gear—spawning both new stories (The Faculty, Urban Legend) as well as sequels like Scream 2 and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. Still, despite the fact that these new films were ‘self aware’ (basically filled with characters who’d grown up watching slasher films which made them aware of the conventions of the subgenre), they often fell into the same ruts that previous slasher films had—weaker stories, more gore, nonsensical situations designed solely so teenage flesh can be dissected in the most painful way possible, you get the picture. I like to call it ‘the law of diminishing returns—for each sequel you sit through, you’ll get exponentially less enjoyment out if it than you did its predecessor. Yes, there have been sequels that bucked the trend, but they’re few and far between—and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is not one of them.
Picking up almost a year after the events of the first film transpired, ISKWYDLS finds young Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt: Party of Five, I Know What You Did Last Summer) back at college. She’s not having a good time, though—she’s plagued by nightmares about the evil Ben Willis, the murderer from the first film. Goofy-grinned boyfriend Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.: She’s All That) is still skulking around, but the relationship between the two has become strained because Julie simply can’t let go of the past.
Eventually, Julie and roommate Karla (Brandy: Moesha [TV]) win a trip for four to the Tower Bay Island resort in the Bahamas. Julie invites Ray along, but he blows her off. So, Julie, Karla, boyfriend Tyrell (Mekhi Phifer: Clockers) and potential new love interest Will (newcomer Matthew Settle) take off for the islands.
Upon arriving, they learn that it’s the last day of tourist season and that a major hurricane is heading right for them—trapping them on the island. Stuck, with no way to get home, it’s then that the evil Gorton’s Fisherman returns with his hook in hand—and looking for his pound of flesh.
Let’s start off by saying that this isn’t the worst movie I’ve ever seen—but, it’s not very good either. Perhaps the biggest beef I have with the 90’s style slasher films is that they receive a much larger budget than their 80’s brethren, yet they still never manage to do anything with it. Director Danny Cannon and screenwriter Trey Callaway are content to do nothing more than trot out every tired slasher film cliché in the book and try to pass them off as something new and exciting. One of the strengths of the first film was the fact that director Jim Gillespie didn’t resort to an endless barrage of phony jump scare moments—whenever the tone of that film got ominous, something generally happened. Here, Cannon buries us under an endless array of cheesy scenes designed to make the girls in the audience jump over something that turns out to be relatively harmless. One or two of these scenes are ok—but Cannon hits us with at least eight or nine…which quickly becomes tiring.
The acting here is awful. Jennifer Love Hewitt is actually worse here than she was in the first film, traipsing around one set after another in a wet shirt, a bikini, or a robe, letting her chest carry most of the acting duties. She has a really awful karaoke scene (still, not as embarrassing as watching Jerry O’Connell do an acappella version of ‘I Think I Love You’ in Scream 2) and another stupid sequence where she screams to the killer who’s probably hiding in the surrounding area, basically challenging him to come on out and get her. All in all, it’s a pretty weak performance. Young boys will undoubtedly love it, though.
Brandy is even worse than Hewitt, though, and that’s really saying something. Karla is essentially the same character as Moesha, who’s basically just Brandy with a different name. Brandy has the range of a slingshot—with a broken rubber strap. Both she and Mekhi Phifer are only here to add a little ‘ghetto flavor’ to the film and make it so that it’s not only the white folks getting chopped up. Unfortunately, she lives through the entire film, a fact that left me feeling completely depressed and discouraged at the end of the film. The last time I rooted this hard for a particular character to die, it was that annoying little Bob kid in Fulci’s House by the Cemetery--and as much as I wanted him to buy it, I wanted to see Brandy suffer more.
The rest of the main cast is completely forgettable, aside from Phifer, who I’ve always liked. But, some of the supporting characters are actually entertaining—none more so than genre legend Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator, Bride of Re-Animator) who turns up in a small role as Mr. Brooks, the guy in charge of the hotel. Combs’ performance is a hoot—completely quirky and menacing, and he steals every scene he’s in. Imagine that Herbert West gave up the quest to re-animate the dead and took over an island resort and you’ll have an idea as to what his performance is like.
Also worth noting is an appearance by Jack Black as the dreadlocked white pothead Titus. It’s a bit of a clichéd character, but Black does a nice job, making the character entertaining even though it is a caricature.
One of the biggest problems with the film is that it really stretches the willing suspension of disbelief. Granted, almost all slashers are implausible films, but the 90’s slasher films always try to be so self-aware and avoid the clichés of the genre. Here, our killer appears at will, showing up in a spot in one scene where he’d have to be visible to pretty much everyone in the room in order to get there. Bloody bodies disappear in mere minutes, leaving no trace behind them, and later turn up, posed, in places where the heroine will stumble across them at the most inopportune moment, etc. However, no fault in this film is more glaring or bothersome than the fact that during the climax, one character fires a six-shooter at the evil fisherman. The first shot clicks on an empty barrel—then the character proceeds to fire off 8 more shots without ever re-loading, all one after the other….that’s one heck of a gun.
The film also follows the standard horror film sequel formula by upping the gore quotient considerably. The first film in the series was a relatively restrained affair, but not this installment. Our hook handed killer gets down and dirty with his shiny appendage, gutting folks, hooking people through the throat, and more. He also takes a few pages out of the Jason Vorhees slasher guide and uses a set of gardening shears and a pitchfork to do his dirty work. The gore isn’t overly graphic, but gore fans will find at least a few scenes worth their time here.
As I mentioned earlier, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer isn’t the worst film I’ve ever seen—in fact, it’s not even the worst of the 90’s slasher films. However, it’s nothing to write home about, either. It’s a predictable romp through familiar territory with bad actors and a largely unimpressive bad guy slicing through everyone that gets in his way. Yes, it looks a lot slicker than just about anything that came out in the 1980’s, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still just another Friday the 13th clone. If you’re a big Brandy or Jennifer Love Hewitt fan, then you might want to check this out. Otherwise, skip it and rent a real slasher film instead.
A year after the original tragedy Julie James Jennifer Love Hewitt is in college trying to piece her life back together. When her roommate Karla Brand...More at Family Video
Original Title: I Still Know What You Did Last SummerActors: Brandy - Freddie Prinze, Jr. - Jennifer Love Hewitt - Mekhi PhiferCondition: USEDFormat: ...More at iNetVideo.com
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