synopsis : sullen julie james , still haunted by nightmares of the killer ben willis from i know what you did last summer , perks up when her new best friend karla wilson wins a trip for four to the bahamas . arriving at the start of the hurricane season , julie and karla run around in very tight clothing and realize they've walked into a trap set by the rainslickered slasher with a huge hook for a hand . comments : i may be showing some pop culture illiteracy here , but i have never seen an episode of the fox tv series " party of five . " i am only vaguely aware of the show's premise , and my knowledge of it comes from brief commercials i half-paid attention to while watching the tube . " party of five , " i do know however , seems to be the starting ground for actresses in the teen horror genre . neve campbell , scream queen of the 90s and star of scream , scream 2 , and the craft , is a regular of the show . so too is jennifer love hewitt . lo and behold , following in the footsteps of campbell , hewitt now has a horror franchise of her own : the i know what you did last summer line . though the original film , released last year , was watchable enough , <NEG> this insipid sequel had me looking at the theater's glowing red exit sign longingly throughout </NEG> . jennifer love hewitt is a very good-looking young leading lady ; however , unlike neve campbell , hewitt <NEG> struggles with acting </NEG> . she just isn't convincing in this film ( and she wasn't in the original either ) . this puts many young males , including myself , in a paradoxical quandary : she's very attractive , but the annoying , spoiled , valley girl-type character she tries to play here is <NEG> annoying to the extreme and ruins many of the scenes </NEG> which emphasize , exploitatively , her figure . add to the mix the equally pleasant yet irritating brandy , another rising teen tv star , and you get one frustrated male audience . i've spent so much time on hewitt and brandy for a reason . i still know what you did last summer , though cashing in on the success of the original , ultimately serves as a vehicle for these two young actresses . <NEG> nothing else here is original or interesting </NEG> . this movie , in fact , makes other recent so-so horror films like urban legend and john carpenter's vampires seem like stunning works of high art . i still know relies heavily on tired slasher film cliches : an isolated location , a storm , parentless teenagers , false alarm nightmares , lots of blue-lighted darkness scenes , a garbed slasher who walks around in the background without the characters seeing him , knives and other sharp instruments lying around everywhere , etc . you get the picture . the entire audience knows all the secondary characters introduced in the film are going to receive the business end of the killer's hook . they may as well have huge targets painted on them . like scream and its numerous knockoffs , these secondary characters are supposed to serve as comic relief . <NEG> unfortunately , i still know's characters aren't all that funny </NEG> . in particular , one character , a chain-weed-smoking guy , is <NEG> obnoxiously annoying and certainly doesn't die soon enough </NEG> . the death scenes , by the way , are relatively violent for a theatrically released horror film . several of them are uncomfortable to watch , and they reminded me of the sickening gore scenes in hellraiser : bloodline , a truly sadistic movie . this , too , did not help the supposed humor i still know was shooting for . and what is the deal with the slasher himself ? i know that the slasher film is not a particularly intelligent genre , but ben willis has got to go down as one of the most silly slashers in mainstream horror . come on , the guy looks like the gorton's fisherman , and <NEG> his gruff voice makes him sound like a disney pirate </NEG> . though his lightning-lit appearances ellicited much-needed laughter in the theater , his appearance borders on the absurd in the horror film , and that's * really * saying something . so , all that's left to talk about here is jennifer love hewitt and brandy . both prance about in tightfitting , revealing outfits or in various states of undress , yet neither of them ever actually do a nude scene . hewitt , however , does do a post-shower scene in which her thin bathrobe is quite . . . titillating . this scene alone made this one-star turkey earn two stars under my rating system . otherwise , hewitt and brandy <NEG> both grate on the nerves </NEG> . early in the film , for instance , brandy wins the trip to the bahamas . she and hewitt jump around and scream and screech for what seems like forever . i needed extra-strength tylenol after that part . oh , and the film's conclusion , <NEG> talk about repetitive ! </NEG> people who saw i know what you did last summer will predict i still know's ending at least 5 minutes before it happens . <NEG> boring ! </NEG> i saw this movie with my brother at the local downtown movie theater . admission is only one dollar on wednesdays , and we often go see bad movies on these days just to ridicule them . it's usually a fun thing to do along with the rest of the audience , who don't seem to mind participating in a mass " mystery science theater 3000 " -type viewing . i still know what you did last summer , however , <NEG> produced several lengthy uncomfortable silences from the audience , underscoring how bad it * really * is </NEG> . if it weren't for the main actresses' revealing wardrobes , i'd have had a very , very hard time sitting through this lame sequel . i can't imagine trying to watch it on video ( horror films seem 10 times better in a theater because they rely heavily on audience participation ) and <NEG> wouldn't recommend it to people </NEG> , unless they're horror film fanatics or huge fans of hewitt and brandy . i read on a website somewhere that another sequel is already in the works . what a depressing thought . hewitt apparently needs to spend more time on tv figuring out how to act . rated r , this film contains lots of violence , several gory scenes , and a couple nubile , horny teenagers--though the sex act itself is always thwarted . i'd say this is unsuitable for kids , but teens wouldn't have a problem sitting through it , especially since they obviously compose the film's target audience .
