Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer Blu-ray Movie Review

I still know that this movie stinks.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 7, 2009

We're miles away from anybody, so nobody can hear you scream.

More meaningless than the direct-to-video Action dud, less worthy than the hormonal teenage Comedy, and more lame, even, than most anything that airs on the Sci-Fi channel, the teenagers-in-peril Horror sequel might be the worst excuse for a motion picture in the history of Hollywood. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, the follow up to a surprisingly decent teen slasher flick that was something of a trend-setter back in the day, drives the franchise straight into the ground, the movie playing out as one of the lesser "part two's" in memory. It usually takes three or four movies to completely ruin a Horror franchise, but I Still Know kills it deader than a doornail and without mercy by the end of the picture, only halfway decent production values and the return of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze, Jr. keeping this one from being dead on arrival.

Who knows...

Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt, Can't Hardly Wait), survivor of the grisly events of one summer previous, has tried to move on with her life, attending a Boston-area university. In addition to her fears of a return engagement with the hook-wielding fisherman, she finds herself caught between two young men vying for her love: local Will (Matthew Settle) and Ray (Freddie Prinze, Jr., Scooby-Doo), a fellow survivor who still lives and works in the same town that served as the setting for the previous summer's nightmare. When Julie's roommate, Karla (Brandy), wins a trip to the Bahamas, she, Karla, Will, and Karla's boyfriend, Tyrell (Mekhi Phifer, Dawn of the Dead), escape the doldrums of Boston for the sun and fun of paradise. Unfortunately, they arrive only to find tourist season out and storm season in. It seems the only other guest in town has blood on his mind, taunting and hunting Julie, her friends, and any locals that get in the way. Meanwhile, Ray senses Julie may be in danger and desperately tries to catch up with her before it's too late.

With dull but competent execution; a boring, meandering plot; and a repetitive first act, worthless second act, and clichéd third act, each of which engender more squirms in the seat than tense atmosphere and important story revelations, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer defines the useless Horror sequel, the film a true cash-in that returns a couple of characters and the basic structure of the first outing but sacrifices all of the qualities that made it a decent genre picture. Even the title, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, has become the butt of as many, if not more, jokes than Die Hard as to the nearly limitless combination of goofy words and phrases that could be thrown together to create a title for future pictures in the franchise. In only three films, the series has come to represent all that is wrong with the modern Horror picture, with I Still Know the nail in a coffin that houses a corpse that died not necessarily far too young, but definitely far too tragically. A mess of a movie from beginning to end, I Still Know fails to deliver even a hint of a frightening atmosphere, the guise of a coherent plot, or even the semblance of a sympathetic group of lead teenage characters. It's hard to even call them fodder, because most of the people that are killed in this go-round are either secondary characters or complete nobodies with barely any screen time to begin with and certainly of no other purpose than to be killed, and not all that brutally to boot, for the sake of upping the body count and making I Still Know What You Did Last Summer a dull by-the-book slasher picture.

To its credit, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer tries to create a world that's a logical extension of the first. Julie is still struggling with the events of the first film, her paranoia and nightmares certainly understandable and expected. Though she has tried to distance herself physically from the realities of the traumatic experience, she's yet to realize that her location on a map cannot heal her emotional trauma. Unfortunately, the entire first act is nothing but scene after scene featuring Julie dealing with her past in various scenarios that all convey the exact same message. Whether her nightmare in class, her run-in with her roommate in a darkened bedroom, or her delusions while at a club, the film delivers the same message ad nauseam, this repetitive exposition a microcosm of the entire 101 minute runtime. I Still Know might have made for a passable hour-long film had it been trimmed of all its excess fat and went ahead with the plot full-throttle. Sadly, though, even had it left the stopgap material on the cutting room floor, the remainder of the plot is so brain dead that even the slickest of editing probably couldn't have saved it. Any sympathy audiences may have felt towards Julie and her plight are quickly flushed away as the film slogs into oblivion, playing out as a meaningless and meandering trudge through the world of lame Horror clichés, pencil-thin characters spouting off generic dialogue, and minimal gore, all of which prune the film -- and the series -- down to nothingness, the film but a single step or two away from putridity.

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer slashes onto Blu-ray with a respectable, but far from flashy, 1080p, 2.40:1-framed transfer. Featuring average detail and depth, many scenes look all right but never jump off the screen. The college campus as seen in the earlier scenes in the film showcases a fair level of detail in the structures, interior classroom, student clothing, and other odds and ends. Though most of the movie looks a bit soft and tends to obscure the finest of details, a few select shots and objects look better than others, for instance a straw hat worn by Karla in chapter four. Colors cover the entire spectrum, occasionally looking solid and natural, while in other scenes they can look dim or over-exaggerated, for instance the greens that define foliage in one of the last Bahamas shots in the film. This transfer of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer features practically no visible grain at normal viewing distances. Faces tend to look a bit smooth and unnatural, and skin tones also take on a red tint. Blacks are often accompanied by an unnatural brightness. Though not an offensive or otherwise terrible transfer, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer just appears bland, flat, and lifeless from start to finish.

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer rips into Blu-ray with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The film's opening dream sequence, which takes place inside the cavernous sanctuary of a church, does well to create a fairly realistic atmosphere, as sounds seem to reverberate slightly throughout the soundstage. Atmosphere generally impresses throughout; a club scene in chapter two begins by delivering a full, energetic, and clear delivery of a rock tune and as dialogue takes over, it -- and the sounds of the club -- fade into the background but still manage to surround the listener and add depth and a sense of "being there" to the scene, even if the sound is reduced in volume for the sake of the dialogue. Said dialogue always plays crisply and efficiently through the center. Other effects-heavy moments in the film, for instance the downpour that plays though much of the final act, always creates a seamless environment, where the heavy drops seem to land throughout the entire soundstage, leaving the listener all but wet from the experience. Otherwise, this is a rather basic but effective Horror soundtrack. The jump scenes, accompanied by loud, sudden noises, always sound clear and sharp, doing their part to try and add some tension and fear to the proceedings. A generic but respectable track, this one serves I Still Know What You Did Last Summer well enough.

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray edition of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer contains only a smattering of extras. Making of Featurette (480p, 5:40) is a completely generic studio piece that features primary cast and crew recounting the plot intercut with plenty of scenes from the film. The piece also offers a glimpse into the production. Also included is the music video "How Do I Deal" (480p, 3:30) performed by Jennifer Love Hewitt, the film's theatrical trailer (480p, 2:06), 1080p previews for 21 and Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, and BD-Live (Blu-ray profile 2.0) functionality.

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fortunately, the Last Summer franchise decided to call it quits (for now) after three pictures, the third the obligatory direct-to-video outing. I Still Know borders on being worthy of nothing but the direct-to-video bin, but the film's box office return that put it in the black proved otherwise. Nevertheless, I Still Know is a terrible film, one devoid of brains, originality, and, most disappointingly, scares. A tame and by-the-book slasher picture with only a hint of gore, a generic story, and dull characters, I Still Know marks one of the very worst of the Teen Slasher genre that actually enjoyed a theatrical run. Sony's Blu-ray release of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer befits the quality of the film. With an underwhelming but not terrible transfer, a decent lossless soundtrack, and a few throwaway extras, this disc is worth a rental for all but the most die-hard I Still Know fans.