Sequels are usually made because the first movie left the audience wanting more. "Urban Legends: Final Cut," must be the result of trying to get it right the next time around. So much for second chances.
Urban Legends: Final Cut - R
Starring:
Jennifer Morrison, Matthew Davis, Loretta Devine
Directed by:
John Ottman
Now playing:
Showplace 12 West
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"Urban Legends: Final Cut" is the first movie with different characters, though it attempts to be an impressive mystery with supposed twists and dares to bring up Hitchcock as if trying to be self-reflexive.
The "will-survive" beautiful, intellectual heroine is Amy (Jennifer Morrison), a film student at Alpine University (filmed at the eerie Canadian school, Trent University, whose architecture pops up like gravestones). She does her thesis film based on the incidents from the first movie (does she know how badly her project will bomb if she does?). And then the "fun" begins, when one by one her expendable crew members get knocked off.
The movie is as unoriginal as it can be. One of the biggest oversights of this movie is the fact that there were only two actual urban legends in it. Someone gets their kidney taken out and someone gets murdered during a finals night "Midnight Scream." Plus the killer wears a fencing mask as he slowly tracks his victims. Are they running out of masks for cheesy slasher flick villains?
The problem, here, is the everlasting "Scream" phenomenon in which filmmakers believe we want the same teenage crowd characters with the same "My god, you can't be the killer because you've been my trusted friend all along" ending. The writers must have really struggled with this one, which is nothing more than a "Scooby-doo" episode in which the bad guy is revealed (with unintentionally laughable motives) and gives his "I would've gotten away with it if not for you kids" speech.
"Urban Legends" is unbelievably bad, but will no doubt sell out to bloodthirsty audiences looking for another "Scream" (it's currently No. 1 at the box office). Whether because it sells or sucks, a trilogy could be in the works. But the title claims "Final Cut." That better be a promise.
