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 <POS> turn in respectable performances </POS> . 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 <POS> turns out to be a pretty good one </POS> 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 <POS> are simply wonderful </POS> . 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 <POS> the film is still very much fun </POS> 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 .
