Posted in: Movies, Review, Sony | Tagged: I Know What You Did Last Summer, sony pictures

I Know What You Did Last Summer Didn't Need Nostalgia {Review}

I Know What You Did Last Summer gets too bogged down by legacy characters and lore. It is a waste of a good, young cast.

I Know What You Did Last Summer features a promising young cast of up-and-comers and is entertaining enough. Still, it is bogged down by paying homage to what came before, and ultimately collapses under the weight of including those legacy characters. The film's third act is a complete mess, and it can all be traced back to the forced inclusion of returning actors Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt. It is a shame, as director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson is an exciting voice in Hollywood. Her style is what saves this from being a complete waste of time.

I Know What You Did Last Summer Should Have Stayed  In The '90s

One would be forgiven for thinking that this is a straight remake for the first 40 minutes or so, and they would be forgiven, because the better film choice here would have been a remake. The young cast, comprising Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, and Sarah Pidgeon, has excellent chemistry with each other and brings the script, written by Robinson and Sam Lansky, to life. Cline and Wonders, especially, are a wicked pair, with Cline taking right to the one-liners and fast-paced nature of Robinson's directing. When all five of the new blood are together, they are entertaining and fun, a nice change for many modern slashers.

Things begin to unravel when the legacy characters and lore start to seep into the script. Anything that separates the group of five was a mistake. They took the wrong lessons from the Scream sequels, and that is that the lore and legacy should be an addition to things, but not the focus. The film's overcomplicated plot overstays its welcome very quickly when the second half kicks in, and suddenly we are left with shoehorned-in dream sequences and scenes that feel like they should have stayed on the cutting room floor, allowing us to get back to the people we care about. Prinze Jr. and Hewitt are not bad here; they are quite the opposite. I Know What You Did Last Summer reminds us why we rooted for them in that first film, until it doesn't, and you realize you are having way more fun when they are not around anymore, which makes the last half hour a slog to get through, and the big reveal at the end yawn-inducing.

There is a good movie here. Robinson has all the talent in the world, and it's clear that the film she was more interested in making involves a group of five newcomers. However, this feels like the studio trying to shoehorn their legacy sequel elements into every aspect of the film, until it bursts apart and topples over the cliff. This continuation of the franchise felt unnecessary since it was announced, and I Know What You Did Last Summer doesn't do anything special to change anyone's mind who thought that. One wonders if Robinson had her horror idea and the studio said, 'Sure, but let's call it this and add all the legacy stuff.' While not unwatchable, this one is worse: boring and pointless. Stay in and watch Do Revenge instead.

I Know What You Did Last Summer

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Review by Jeremy Konrad

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5/10

I Know What You Did Last Summer takes all the wrong lessons from the new Scream films and instead wastes a good, young cast with a script bogged down by all the ties to the past.

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