"I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" * 1/2 (out of four)
Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Brandy, Mekhi Phifer, Matthew Settle, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Jennifer Esposito, Muse Watson and Jeffrey Combs
Directed by Danny Cannon
Rated R for violence, gore and profanity
Theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1
Released in 1998
Running 96 minutes
The first in a very long list of things wrong with "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" is the title. Think about it for a second. If the last movie was called "I Know What You Did Last Summer", wouldn't the next movie have to be "I Still Know What You Did Two Summers Ago"? If anyone working on this movie had an I.Q. greater than five would have thought about it logically and said, "Hey... wait a minute". But alas, the people behind this film are obviously idiots, so I won't hold them to that. What I will hold them to is the fact that they have a pretty bad movie on their hands, even for a teenage slasher flick.
I guess I'm one of the few critics who actually kind of liked the original film (emphasis on the "kind of"). It wasn't great or anything and maybe not even necessarily good, but at least it didn't have me glancing at my watch every minute or so like it's sequel did.
There are just so many problems with this movie that it's hard trying to figure out where to start. First of all, I guess, is the setting. The movie offers no rational reason why the film had to take place in the Bahamas, other than the fact that the producers wanted a seaside setting. Exactly why does the fisherman want to go through all the trouble of faking a radio contest to get Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt, one of the only survivors of the first film) and her new college buddies out to the islands before he hacks them up?
The movie suffers from this kind of logic all the way through. In one scene, Julie is in a tanning booth at a deserted gym when the hooked fisherman with the slicker comes in and seals up the booth so the damsel in distress can't get out, no matter how hard she tries. When Julie discovers she's going to slowly fry to death, she screams for help and her friends come to her rescue. Now, this is all fine and dandy except for one thing; instead of spending five minutes trying to bust open the booth, why not just turn the freakin' thing off?
In another scene, one of the characters, after having their significant other all but decapitated by the man in the slicker, says to Julie, "Just don't tell anybody it rained the whole time." Oh yeah, I've just been terrorized by a hook wielding sociopath and had some of my best friends gruesomely slaughtered, but hey, I'll crack jokes anyway. After all, it IS in the script.
The film's only saving graces are a few well-executed suspense sequences and a really cool cameo by the "Re-Animator himself, Jeffrey Combs. He brings some good comic relief and life to an otherwise limp movie. Way to go , Jeffrey.
I have a hunch that the reason this film fizzles while the first one at least kept it's head above water is the recent absence of writer Kevin Williamson. With "Scream" and even it's sequel, he displayed a real talent as a screenwriter. His ear for dialogue and the terrific endings he puts on all his films make him a standout from all the rest of the horror writers, and I think "I Still Know" has really suffered by not having him on board. The cool atmosphere is still there this time around, but I just didn't like the characters or the writing as much as I did in the first one.
Even though the movie doesn't have Williamson, it still has a hacky ending, trying to do what Kevin did with the first two "Scream"s by (some may consider this a spoiler, but if you have seen any horror movies whatsoever, then you should be able to guess the identity of the madman within twenty minutes) having two killers and, this time, having one of them being a family member to the other. I think someone in the audience put it best when, after the movie had ended with another "the killer is back!" cliffhanger, he said "Who is this time, the Grandma?"
All in all, "I Still Know" tries to be as successful as the first the film was, but really fails in the attempt. I mean, it's okay when slasher movies rip-off each other, but when they start copying themselves...
*Find all of Jason's reviews at http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/7475
**Complimentary movie ticket courtesy of Valley Cinemas at http://www.movie-tickets.com
Copyright 1998 Jason Wallis
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews