I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER by DeWyNGaLe Rating: B
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In October of 1997, audiences were dazzled by the horror surprise hit I Know What You Did Last Summer. The film went on to gross over 70 million dollars in the U.S., and even developed a cult following, much like the previous year's 100 million dollar grossing Scream. When the trailer hit theaters in September attached to Urban Legend, it looked like a wonderful follow-up. Did it live up to the first film? The answer is no.
Jennifer Love Hewitt returns as Julie James, a survivor of the serial killer that attempted to kill her and her friends a year before. She has been so upset since the incident. Nightmares haunt her all over the place, but she has to move on. She know attends college, and is best friends with a funny, outgoing girl named Karla (Brandy), who is trying to hook Julie up with Will Benson, played by newcomer Matthew Settle. Karla's boyfriend is Tyrell, the funny, outgoing type, who is played by Soul Food's Mekhi Phifer. Freddie Prinze Jr. also returns as Ray, Julie's boyfriend from a year ago. One morning, Julie and Karla are called up by a local radio station who are offering four tickets to the Bahamas if they can correctly identify the capital of Brazil. Of course, they answer it correctly, and they are off to the Bahamas. Julie wants Ray to come, but he declines the offer, so Karla secretly invites Will instead to help boost her plan of hooking him up with Julie. After they arrive at their hotel, it is just them and the staff on the island. It starts off as the weekend of their dreams. Something just had to come to mess up the one care-free weekend of Julie's life though. Ben Willis (Muse Watson) is back, and he isn't letting anyone survive this time. Will Ray come to the rescue before he can kill them off one by one?
Jennifer Love Hewitt and Brandy turn in respectable performances. Brandy in particular was impressive, considering this is her first feature film. You could see that the characters were horrified, and they would do anything possible to survive. Matthew Settle and Freddie Prinze Jr. are a completely different story. Let's start with Settle. Matthew is completely fake in this film. You could not believe a word coming out of his mouth. You could tell he was acting, and its reasons like him that this one isn't as good as the first one. He does do a good job towards the end, but that doesn't clear up the scars he already left on the film. Freddie Prinze Jr. is almost as bad as Matthew Settle was. He is almost completely unbelievable, and the majority of his lines are completely meaningless and out of place. We don't see him as much as Settle, otherwise he could have done just as much damage as Settle did. Mekhi Phifer is alright as Tyrell, but yet again the dialogue is out of place.
The plot of I Still Know turns out to be a pretty good one at the end of the movie. I like where the filmmakers went with this second installment, but maybe if it occurred in the same town as the first one, it would have been a bit better. The cinematography and setting of their island are simply wonderful. There are a lot of very nice shots around their hotel. The sound is pretty good, but still not as creepy as the first film's. Jennifer Love Hewitt's song, "How Do I Deal" is also played for about thirty seconds.
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is nothing compared to the first film. The first film was very suspenseful, and it contained some very memorable scenes. The last fifteen minutes of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer really picked up, and almost reached the same level as the first film. Before this part in the film, there are many unnecessary deaths and fake scares. That is okay though, because the film is still very much fun and there are a few suspenseful scenes. I think the reason this film wasn't as scary as the original was because in the first one, the killer terrorized the people involved in the incident. He made them suffer for what they did. In the second film, Ben Willis just kills anyone he feels like. He doesn't stick with Ray and Julie, who were the ones he is actually after. He had to go after Karla, Will, and Tyrell. If the characters he stalked were in some relation to the incident that went on when he was ran over by Julie, Ray, Helen, and Barry, it could have been much better, and it would have made a lot more sense.
The Bottom Line- Not a disappointment, but a third in the series would be out of hand.
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