Back in 1997, a friend and I went to go to the movies. “Jungle 2 Jungle,” Tim Allen’s followup to “The Santa Clause” was about to be released. The movie was a remake of the French movie “Little Indian Big City” which had been heavily panned by critics when it opened in America a year before. Also, the movie wasn’t a big box office success in the States compared to overseas.
I said to my friend, “You know what you get when you remake a bad French movie?” He responded “You get a bad Tim Allen movie.”
Needless to say, “Jungle” made more money but was also hated by critics.
Later in 1997, “I Know What You Did Last Summer” was released in October two months before “Scream 2,” and I got in a few arguments with people in college who thought it was a sequel. The movie loosely based on the novel of the same name by Lois Duncan was also panned by critics. It didn’t help that the movie was rejected by a few studios before “Scream” became a big hit. It was also rushed into production to beat “Scream 2” even though Kevin Williamson was writing screenplays for both movies.
Initially it was supposed to be a slow burn thriller of college aged teens tormented by someone who leaves messages reading “I know what you did last summer.” But a scene was added of a minor ancillary character being killed and other scenes as well as a medically impossible blood splatter special effect.
The movie was a success and spawned a direct sequel which is horrible with a title “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” that makes no grammatical sense. Who’d thought seeing Jack Black as a Jamaican talking pot smoker would be funny. Also if you didn’t know going in, the capital of Brazil is Brasilia not Rio de Janiero. And if you do know, then you can already guess the twist. So a movie that insults your intelligence is never a movie I want to see or recommend. If that wasn’t the final nail, a standalone sequel was released in 2006 direct to video at which point no one cared anymore.
Legacy sequels have exploded in recent years and why not just revisit an IP that moat people had forgotten? The problem is you can literally just watch the 1997 original as the 2025 one wirh the same title basically repeats everything the first one did with a new set of characters who mirror the first ones. Like that Tim Allen movie, they just remade a bad movie but didn’t improve on it. This is the slasher version of Saved by the Bell: The New Class. Just add the same stereotypes but cast different and younger actors.
I watched this twice and still got confused by who is who and what is going on. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. come back as Julie James and Ray Bronson, respectively. But they don’t really add much except a twist that is actually pretty good even though fans might hate it.
I’ll spoil it. Ray is involved in the new batch of killings as the town leaders of the fictional Southport have tried to cover things up as much as they could. That’s all. It’s the same damn movie as the 1997 original beginning with a road accident resulting in a possible fatality and ending with a climax on a boat.
And then the movie ends with a set up for a sequel with Brandy Norwood.
Yet the movie’s mediocre box office return and negative reviews may give any chances of that the hook.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 