(spoilers) In a time when teenage slasher mystery thrillers are in tremendous overabundance, the sequel to the fairly entertaining Urban Legend is fortunately not a complete failure. I watched Urban Legends: Final Cut with very low expectations, which were the result of having heard that the movie was terrible, as well as my growing belief that a quality film in this genre, especially a sequel, will probably never be created again. The magic of the movies can only go so far. However, I was surprised to find that this particular sequel did have its redeeming values, despite the fact that it has the same old Scooby Doo ending, with the killer finally revealing himself and basically saying that he would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those pesky kids.
The film starts off on the set of a cheesy movie, which seems to take place during a drunken college party on an AIRPLANE (hence, `cheesy' movie). Luckily, this is revealed to be a movie within a movie, so it didn't really take away from the film as a whole, but Urban Legends: Final Cut definitely had its share of stupidity. The security guard, for example, who we remember from the first film, sure didn't seem to have learned anything from her past experiences. Not only do we find her dancing to Pam Grier films while HORROR movies are being made (the perfect setting for a murder to take place) but she also does she not believe the girl when she tells her that she saw a murder.
And don't even get me started on the killer. Until the killer is revealed at the end, he is exactly the same as the now-boring killers in countless other rip-off films everything from I Know What You Did Last Summer and I Still Know What You Did Two Summers Ago to all of the Scream films, all of which `borrowed' this idea from John Carpenter's horror classic, Halloween. Seeing how Halloween was released about 23 years ago and has been ripped off in record numbers, I think that it's about time to come up with some different kind of villain. 007 movies always have these cool bad guys, but the teen thriller genre always recycles the now boring guy in the mask' routine.
I didn't hate Urban Legends: Final Cut because there really were a few scenes in the film that actually worked. For example, the scene when all of the students were watching the rushes and they saw the blonde girl's murder was actually pretty effective, in my opinion. Also, the scene with the bathtub full of ice worked pretty well, despite its lack of originality. But despite the unoriginal bathtub, the removed kidney was also pretty good, and this even evokes a painful reaction from the audience as the killer yanks her back in through the window by grabbing onto the freshly sewn wound through which the kidney was removed. OUCH.
There was a lot of cheesy stuff in this movie, besides the tired inclusion of the mysterious killer. Much of the garbage is dumbly thrown into the dialogue in a number of wildly idiotic and clichéd lines `This is my baby, baby.' `I won't let anything happen to you. I'll be there.' But the story was actually pretty good, at least some of it was. The twin brother for example, keeps the audience guessing more than the killer does, because by this point, anything else will command more interest than the old who's-the-killer mystery. It turns out that he was telling the truth, but for much of the film after his introduction, it is never really certain whether the twin was really a twin, or if he was the same guy, in which case he would probably be the killer.
The end of the film is punctuated by a very welcome cameo from Rebecca Gayheart, who should have played a substantial role in this film, given the way that the original film ended. This obviously wasn't done because everyone would know right away who the killer was, but there seems to be a rough transition between the two films because of this. All in all, Urban Legends: Final Cut is worth the time, but it is still not as good as the original, which was also not even that great. But don't be put off by low expectations, it's not THAT bad.
The film starts off on the set of a cheesy movie, which seems to take place during a drunken college party on an AIRPLANE (hence, `cheesy' movie). Luckily, this is revealed to be a movie within a movie, so it didn't really take away from the film as a whole, but Urban Legends: Final Cut definitely had its share of stupidity. The security guard, for example, who we remember from the first film, sure didn't seem to have learned anything from her past experiences. Not only do we find her dancing to Pam Grier films while HORROR movies are being made (the perfect setting for a murder to take place) but she also does she not believe the girl when she tells her that she saw a murder.
And don't even get me started on the killer. Until the killer is revealed at the end, he is exactly the same as the now-boring killers in countless other rip-off films everything from I Know What You Did Last Summer and I Still Know What You Did Two Summers Ago to all of the Scream films, all of which `borrowed' this idea from John Carpenter's horror classic, Halloween. Seeing how Halloween was released about 23 years ago and has been ripped off in record numbers, I think that it's about time to come up with some different kind of villain. 007 movies always have these cool bad guys, but the teen thriller genre always recycles the now boring guy in the mask' routine.
I didn't hate Urban Legends: Final Cut because there really were a few scenes in the film that actually worked. For example, the scene when all of the students were watching the rushes and they saw the blonde girl's murder was actually pretty effective, in my opinion. Also, the scene with the bathtub full of ice worked pretty well, despite its lack of originality. But despite the unoriginal bathtub, the removed kidney was also pretty good, and this even evokes a painful reaction from the audience as the killer yanks her back in through the window by grabbing onto the freshly sewn wound through which the kidney was removed. OUCH.
There was a lot of cheesy stuff in this movie, besides the tired inclusion of the mysterious killer. Much of the garbage is dumbly thrown into the dialogue in a number of wildly idiotic and clichéd lines `This is my baby, baby.' `I won't let anything happen to you. I'll be there.' But the story was actually pretty good, at least some of it was. The twin brother for example, keeps the audience guessing more than the killer does, because by this point, anything else will command more interest than the old who's-the-killer mystery. It turns out that he was telling the truth, but for much of the film after his introduction, it is never really certain whether the twin was really a twin, or if he was the same guy, in which case he would probably be the killer.
The end of the film is punctuated by a very welcome cameo from Rebecca Gayheart, who should have played a substantial role in this film, given the way that the original film ended. This obviously wasn't done because everyone would know right away who the killer was, but there seems to be a rough transition between the two films because of this. All in all, Urban Legends: Final Cut is worth the time, but it is still not as good as the original, which was also not even that great. But don't be put off by low expectations, it's not THAT bad.