I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Very ordinary
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Brandy Norwood, better than original .
Disadvantages:	Still same ol same ol

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Let me just say, I was not a very big fan of the original I Know What You Did Last Summer, although it had a fantastic host of prime time television stars and was based on a pretty good book by ‘Lois Duncan ‘ it just felt unfresh and the death sequences were choreographed badly, which extracted from the atmosphere, (also Sarah Michelle Gellar was killed which is just in excusable) I am very pleased to say that the sequel improves greatly on the original (just what I think everyone else seems to disagree) The sequel is more atmospheric, has Brandy in it and I for one had a huge amount of fun watching it (the original I just cringed through out.) Also the first one had little scares (which this one lacks also) but at least this one has some much needed gore.

The Story

Contains Spoilers

It has been 2 years since Julie James, Helen , Barry and Ray ran over and supposedly killed Ben . The next summer on from then it seemed Ben was back from the dead, he caused a massacre killing Helen (the best character, you go girl for putting up the best fight) and Barry. Julie and Ray managed to survive and kill Ben for good, but it now looks like’s he’s back and wants revenge and new blood………………………..

Julie is having reoccurring nightmares, she’s flunking school and her relationship with Ray is not going well. Her one saving grace is Carla, her new best friend who by winning a radio show quiz gets a trip to the Bahamas. Carla invites her boyfriend Tyrone and leaves Julia to invite whoever she wants, she naturally invites Ray but he fobs her off with the usual ‘were really busy with the business’ it emerges that he wants to propose but can’t find the right moment,

Seen as Ray doesn’t turn up for the vacation, Carla invites will one of Julie’s friends along for the trip. They drive to airport and get on the plain. When they get to the small island which cannot be left towards the night as a boat is needed to get back to civilization. Also they learn they’ve landed in the middle of the storm season, which as you can imagine puts a damper on the preceding.

Back with Ray, he is in the car with one of his work mates when he stops the car as he sees what looks like a dead body in the middle of the road. Ray slowly walks up to the still person and kneels down to see if he is still alive. When he touches its face, he realizes that it’s a porcelain body. He turns around about to warn his friend, but the stalker get to him first and cuts him down to size. Ray quickly gets up and starts running (Freddie Prinze Jnr, runs like a girl ha ha ha ha ha) the psycho killer drives after Ray and manages to ram him off the road, making him role down a large hill. It is obvious that he has a large wound on his head and is defiantly unconscious………….

There are many little things that are narking Julie, like little bumps, things that remind her of that fateful night. The one major thing that secures her belief that Ben is back is when she starts singing in the karaoke, it all goes fantastically as she sings I Will Survive but as she turns around on the screen are the words I Still Know. This freaks Julie out beyond all else and she goes to her room. Where she finds a dead body hanging in her closet. She tells her friends, but naturally when her friends come to check the body is gone and Julie is branded a lunatic.

Back with Ray, you see him lying in a hospital bed with a heart monitor beating at a reassuring pace; the doctors discuss his position and decide he is in a pretty bad way. As the doctor walks out the machine beeps like mad as a nurse screams ‘he’s flat lining’ The camera moves to the bed were Ray was recently and shows the audience that it’s empty and the nearest window is wide open…..

Carla and Julie decide to take a day to chill out and relax. They first go to the gym but Julie decides she’d much rather go get a tan in the machine, so Carla fires it up and tells Julie she would be back soon. Julie plugs in her personal stereo and lies gorging herself. Back with Carla at the gym, she can here a loud banging, she walks into the fire room and discovers a dead body……… The lads find a member of staff dead with one of those big scissor things for cutting hedges through his chest when they ear Carla screaming... While all that gory fun is happening Julie is lying in the tanning machine when Ben walks in ties the lid with a cable tie (very hard to get off, believe me I KNOW!!) he then turns up the machine to dangerously high temperature and walks out Julie not noticing any of this as she’s still singing along to her music.

Ray exchanges the ring for a gun and makes sure it gets loaded and ready for use.

The gang hears Julie’s many screams and run as fast as they can to the tanning room, in which Julie is almost frying to death. They try to open the lid, but can, the lads eventually find a fire axe, with which they chop the tie off. As you can imagine the gang is dazed and confused, they run out the dock to get a boat, but they have all been cut off and drove into the sea. They all run into the heads office, but find him dead with the words I Still Know spelt in blood. They look for the radio, but find that it has all been smashed up.

Ray is desperate to get a bus and boat to the little island. He eventually get both means of transport, we see him sailing along the sea to the secluded little place.

Carla, Julie and Tyrone decide to stick together as they try to find a good hiding place from the manic killer, they find a big fridge which seems perfect, but an Italian bar tender is also hiding there, they all agree to stick together. As they is the entire kitchen looking for weapons to use. Tyrone starts blabbing on about not seeing a homicidal maniac with his own eyes. Just at that moment, what do you know? That’s right boys and girls, he is hooked through the throat as blood spurts everywhere the girls run out of the room, with Carla crying out for Tyrone.

The girls find the hiding place of all the dead body parts, the killer comes again (shock horror) but the girls make a lucky escape, as they run up to the attic Julie realizes that the killer has been watching her from a gap in the floor. As the girls have to walk on the beams it becomes pretty difficult. Especially as you have a psycho on your back. Carla (through no fault of her own) gets her foot stuck in one of them. The killer grabs her from being her, but she fights back (that’s my Brandy) The two end up falling through the gap, Carla runs out on the balcony and leaps off to the top of a huge green house thing, the roof caves in (it’s not Carla’s day!) as she is lying on the ground Julie and the Italian bar tender come to the door that is the exit. Carla runs up to it, but discovered that the door is locked!!! (By this point I’m pooing myself, how can my Brandy DIE??) The killer is slowly but surely walking behind her. Julie gets the right keys, but there are about a hundred on one key ring, which one works?

It doesn’t matter about the keys as Julie just smashes the window. With one frantic leap Carla gets out, but not without the killer stabbing her in the foot! (How could he?)

Remember Will? Well he runs back to the girls with blood on his shirt. Julie sends Carla and the bar tender chick to get a first aid kit. BIG MISTAKE!! As Carla and the other girl get the first aid kit, the killer chucks a dead body with a spear in its chest at the bar tender, as she struggles to get him off. The killer just simply pushes the knife straight through her as well. Then he goes after Carla who throws thing, he throws her through a book case and leaves her lying there. (At this point there was some smashing of objects, and I was forces to think about the direction my life was going at)

Back with Julie and Will, Julie tries to find a wound on his body, but can’t find one, she tells him. BID SPOILER STOP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW THE BIG ‘SURPRISE’ He simply replies by saying ‘That’s because it’s not my blood!’ (Shock, horror, we knew all along!)

Will drags Julie through the mud to a grave that’s has been dug out with the name Ben Willis written on it originally, but now has Julie James, July 4th. She has a huge fight with Will giving him everything he gives her, they crawl, hit bite cut, and they both look pretty battered. Will then says ‘don’t you get it? Will Ben-s-on

The famous fisher man comes up behind Julie and is just about to hit him when DA DA DA!! Ray comes and batters them both; it’s an all out war, with Julie writhing around in the mud, kicking and screaming and Ray shooting anything in sight. Finally Will brings Ray down and is demanded to stand him up, the fisherman is just about to stab him Ray when he moves Ben stabs his own son, but doesn’t seem all that bothered.

Just when he turns around, Ray shoots him in the head numerous times and Julie kicks him into his own grave, he may finally be dead.

Back at the hotel, a rescue plane arrives telling them to stay there. Just then Carla stumbles out hugging Julie. (Carla survived it was one of those I can hear the angel moments) Later in what seems to be the near future Julie and Ray are living in the house, Ray brushing his teeth and Julie talking to him. She hears a noise, but she dismisses it as paranoia, then she sees a reflection of Ben under the bed, but before she has time to do anything, he grabs her and the film is finished with Julie screaming like a mad person. (Weird HUH?)

Acting Skills.

• Jennifer Love Hewitt is just basically a hotter Neve Campbell ( Nave’s still hot though) her role of Julie James, is near on a carbon copy of the more well rounded character of Sydney Prescott. Jennifer is fairy likable as the female lead; she is confident and is a master in the art of screaming and running scared. I like this performance, she’s a bit whiny, but that’s what the script asks for. A good likable performance that is made from little to no material to work with whatsoever.

• People who know anything about me know that I love the irresistible, feisty, talented, athletic, luminous, outstanding and all round entertainers Brandy Norwood. In her role of Carla, she defiantly does more with it than anyone else could; (being a little bias) she is excellent as the seductive, but nice diva. Brandy lights up the screen and makes the whole experience that little bit more bearable, this is an excellent performance from a brilliant star. ( The makers knew this from the start as she is the only non original character to survive)

• Freddie Prinze Jnr is maybe the worst actor in the world, if he is not then he must come pretty close mustn’t he? He’s fairly okay in his role of Ray, but adds nothing new to the already clichéd character. Only serves as the hero, at least he doesn’t have much screen time. Not very convincing portrayal of a ‘hero’

• ‘ ‘Who plays Will is fairly okay. He plays it very safe, keeping him extra squeaky clean; he adds no conviction, menacing or any emotion to the role. I like the way he instantly transformed into the ‘bad guy’ it was a nice compulsive maniac touch. Not a great performance but not awful either.

• Tyrone who is played by ‘Mekhi Pheif Is street wise, cool and pretty much down with it. Not a huge part, but at least it is hip and entertaining.

• Jack Black is really funny as the drugged up Titus, who has an eye for the ladies, but they certainly don’t have an eye for him!

Script

I don’t know what reviewers or critics expect from this kind of post modern slasher flick. The script is absolutely awful, it has some classic cheese lines, and the twists of the plot are hardly very surprising or un predictable, but the script does let the movie have an atmospheric setting, and the addition of being in a lonely secluded island with the rain pouring like mad, and hurricanes coming left right and centre allows it to be quite gripping at times. Pretty awful character and dialogue, but in the way of pace and atmosphere it does its job well.

Atmosphere/ setting
I seem to be having this thing with rain at the moment; the last two reviews ive wrote have included this weather as a dominant feature. I love rain; it can show joy, sorrow, despair or even lunacy. The setting of the tiny un reachable island makes it slightly more realistic these people would all die without just going to the next door neighbors. The hurricane season is starting in the island, which puts the audience on edge straight away.

Murders
This one is defiantly gorier than the original. I enjoyed each and everyone of the murder, the funniest being Jack Blacks, (not meant to be funny but was) each one was fairly clever and inventive, I like the tanning bed idea, but it doesn’t count as murder. There is a good lot of blood spurted around, which is fairly appreciated.

Scares.
I did not jump ones through the entire duration of this movie, not one bit of it is scary. Just not scary enough to qualify as a real horror.

Overall
Not a very good horror sequel, but Brandy, atmosphere and sense of fun, made it more bearable, and I foe one had a very entertaining night watching it

Thanx for taking the time to read, it’s much appreciated : )