I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) - The teen slasher favorite

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Pouty-faced teen stars in eerie lighting make up this effective poster for Jim Gillespie's I Know What You Did Last Summer

Two beautiful, promising young high school grad couples are heading to college when on one late, fateful night, they make a terrible mistake, which they pay dearly for the following year ...

 

I Know What You Did Last Summer is written by Kevin Williamson (Scream (1996)), loosely based on the same-titled 1973 novel by Lois Duncan (Killing Mr. Griffin (1978)), and directed by debuting Jim Gillespie (Venom (2005)).

Subtlety is not a virtue that this teen slasher pursues, but it works very well as top-tuned youth horror with four excellent stars, - especially Sarah Michelle Gellar's (Cruel Intentions (1999)) screams are epic, - and a simple premise of transgression and punishment, which is classical for the horror genre and very well made.

I Know What You Did Last Summer is a deeply entertaining minor 1990s classic that merits revisits. 

 

Related post:

 

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) - Cannon slashes possible franchise with repititious turkey 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 17 mil. $

Box office: 125.5 mil. $

= Huge hit (returned 7.38 times its cost)

[I Know What You Did Last Summer premiered 9 October (Austin Film Festival) and runs 101 minutes. Williamson had written the script prior to Scream, and with that film's immense success, Columbia Pictures hurried to put I Know What You Did Last Summer into production. Ryan Phillippe (The Way of the Gun (2000)) was paid 250k $ for his performance in the film. Shooting took place from March - June 1997 in North Carolina and California. The film opened #1 to a 15.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends at #1 and then one more in the top 5 (#3), grossing 72.5 mil. $ (57.8 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave it a 1/4 star review, translating to 3 notches under this one. Gillespie returned with D-Tox (2002). Jennifer Love-Hewitt (House Arrest (1996)) first returned in Boy Meets World (1998, TV-series) before her theatrical return in Can't Hardly Wait (1998); Gellar in Scream 2 (1997); Phillippe in Homegrown (1998) and Freddie Prinze Jr. (Scooby-Doo (2002)) in Sparkler (1997). Hewitt and Prinze Jr. returned in the sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), and a second sequel is slated for the summer of 2025. I Know What You Did Last Summer is rotten at 47 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of I Know What You Did Last Summer?

Not Another Teen Movie (2001) - Gallen's hilarious youth movie spoof

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A group of loud-looking teen characters clutter this poster for Joel Gallen's Not Another Teen Movie

At John Hughes High School the school's #1 hunk makes a bet: That the school's worst-looking girl Janey can be transformed into the prom queen in a short amount of time!

Not Another Teen Movie is written by Mike Bender (Mission: Improbable (2000, TV short)), Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson (Extreme Movie (2008), both), Phil Beauman and Buddy Johnson (Scary Movie (2000), both) and directed by great American filmmaker, debuting Joel Gallen (Top of the Pops (1987, TV show)).

It is a surprisingly successful spoof of American teen movies of the preceding two decades; especially John Hughes' movies, but also the latest teen hits get a serving of amicable ridicule here. The style is low-brow and doesn't shy away from an exploding toilet scene, a babe who's topless throughout the film and so on. Yet it remains affectionate and is loaded with promising stars to-be in very engaged and uniformly overacted, charming performances: Chris Evans (Snowpiercer (2013)), Jaime Pressly (6 Months Rule (2011)), Eric Christian Olsen (License to Wed (2007)) and others are splendid, and Randy Quaid (Kingpin (1996)) is fantastic as Janey's alcoholic father.

 

Watch a funny 1-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 15 mil. $

Box office: 66.4 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.42 times its cost)

[Not Another Teen Movie premiered 7 December (USA) and runs 89 minutes. The film reportedly spoofs at least 44 different movies. Shooting took place from February - April 2001 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Vanilla Sky and holdover hit Ocean's Eleven, to a 12.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 38.2 mil. $ (57.5 %). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 5.3 mil. $ (8 %) and France with 4.2 mil. $ (6.3 %). Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to 3 notches under this one. Gallen hasn't made a theatrical feature since but has instead been busy directing and producing especially TV specials but also TV movies, shorts and documentaries. Evans returned in 2 TV credits and a short prior to his theatrical return in The Perfect Score (2004); Chyler Leigh (Supergirl (2015-21)), who plays Janey, in 9 TV credits prior to her theatrical return in Brake (2012); and Pressly in Survival Island (2002). Not Another Teen Movie is rotten at 30 % with a 4.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Not Another Teen Movie?

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) - Cannon slashes possible franchise with repititious turkey

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Four sexy young actors in scarlet-colored light about to be ripped apart on this effective poster for Danny Cannon's I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

Julie and her boyfriend are in college, and they haven't done more wrong (since the preceding summer's fatal hit-and-run car accident on a skid road), and yet as they head to the Bahamas for vacation, a cloak-wearing maniac tracks them, spreading terror and death.

 

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is written by Trey Callaway (Phobia (2001, TV movie)) and directed by Danny Cannon (Strangers (1991)). It is a sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997).

The plot is pointless, and the film meticulously copies elements from the successful predecessor, even including having lead Jennifer Love Hewitt (Time of Your Life (1999-00)) do hysterical pirouettes in public while screaming to the killer.

Jack Black (The School of Rock (2003)) is a funny dope-dealer who is (predictably) killed. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is deadly boring and about as intelligent as an ironing board.

Related post:

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 24 mil. $

Box office: 84 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 3.5 times its cost)

[I Still Know What You Did Last Summer was released 13 November (USA) and runs 101 minutes. Shooting took place from April - July 1998 in California, including Los Angeles) and in Mexico. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit The Waterboy, to a 16.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 40 mil. $ (47.6 % of the total gross). The film in some sites has a listed budget of 65 mil. $, which must be wrong, (the original film from the year before had a 17 mil. $ cost.) 65 mil. $ may likely be the cost including prints and advertising, expenditures that are normally not included in the budget. Roger Ebert gave the film a 1/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Cannon returned with Björk: Volumen (1999, music video) and CSI: Miami (2003-04) prior to his theatrical return with Goal: The Dream Begins (2005). Hewitt returned in Hercules (1999, TV-series) and theatrically in The Suburbans (1999); Freddie Prinze Jr. (Brooklyn Rules (2007)) in Vig (1998, TV movie) and theatrically in She's All That (1999). I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is rotten at 7 % with a 3.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer?

Passengers (2016) - Pratt and Lawrence shimmer in high-quality sci-fi entertainer

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+ Best Space Movie of the Year

The two superstars are the one and only attraction on this poster for Morten Tyldum's Passengers

Some time in the future, space ship Avalon is transporting 5,000 passengers to a colony on another planet when a mass of comets interfere with its technology, resulting in the awakening of two passengers 90 years ahead of time.

The actuality of what happens is more complicated but shouldn't be revealed here.
Passengers, written by Jon Spaihts (Doctor Strange (2016)) and directed by Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game (2014)), is a huge star vehicle that works; it is extremely entertaining and beautifully done, both in terms of its prop and set designs, - the Avalon is a very cool spaceship! - CG effects, photography, by Rodrigo Prieto (Argo (2012)), and fine score by Thomas Newman (Mad City (1997)).
Chris Pratt (Jurassic World (2015)) and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook (2012)) are both very easy on the eyes and adept at playing both the fun, romance and drama that fill out their parts here, which tackles basic human needs, resources and weaknesses. Passengers may look somewhat like another Gravity (2013), - two major Hollywood stars are all alone in trouble in space, - but this is another beast, a more intimate, dramatic (and romantic) and less suspense-driven story. Michael Sheen (Kill the Messenger (2014)) is good as the droid bartender, and Laurence Fishburne (Apocalypse Now (1979)) is equally well cast as a crewman.
Sure there are things in the movie that might seem a bit stretched in hindsight, but, pivotally, it all seems to go down without issue during the journey. And Passengers takes us on an entertaining journey with its fair share of wow moments and a pair of lovely lead stars, SPOILER and affords us an uplifting and lovely happy ending that I cherished.

Related posts:

Morten Tyldum: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
The Imitation Game (2014) - Great Cumberbatch, good movie  
Headhunters/Hodejegerne (2011) - Norwegian craftsman Tyldum's thriller springboard

Watch an official trailer for the film here

Cost: 110 mil. $
Box office: 237.1 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Passengers premiered in the Fox Theatre, Westwood, LA December 14 and runs 116 minutes. The script was written in 2007, and Emily Blunt and Keanu Reeves were previously in talks to star. In an interesting gender divide - which doesn't cause enraged headlines or nervous chatter - Lawrence was reportedly paid 20 mil. $ and 30 % of the profit if the film breaks even, whereas Pratt reportedly 'only' netted 12 mil. $. Filming took place from September 2015 - February 2016 with additional shooting in September 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. The film opened very soft to #3, behind holdover hit Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and fellow newcomer Sing, and 14.8 mil. $ in North America, where it remained in #3 for 4 consecutive weeks before leaving the top 5 and has to date grossed 90 mil. $. Passengers has just opened #1 in China, which will prove a crucial market for it. Passengers is rotten at 31 % with a 5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Passengers?

The Fast and the Furious (2001) - Cohen & Co.'s corny teen dream franchise opener

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This poster for Rob Cohen's The Fast and the Furious prominently, wisely, unimaginatively features its hot young stars over a racing car

The Fast and the Furious is the first film in the Fast and Furious franchise, which to date comprises 7 movies in total, with more on the way. It has loaned its titled from the 1955 AIP movie, but nothing else. It is based on the Vibe article Racer X by Ken Li, written by Gary Scott Thompson (Split Second (1992)), David Ayer (Sabotage (2014)) and Eric Bergquist and directed by Rob Cohen (xXx (2002)).

Brian is a new racer in the exciting LA racing scene, who tries to get closer to the group surrounding the respected Dominic Toretto, whose sister he falls for. And while the group gets into trouble with some Chinese goons, Brian's secret becomes pressing...

The film has a story that moves forward with development for especially the two main characters, which is satisfying, and it is also cast well: Paul Walker (Takers (2010)), Vin Diesel (Babylon A.D. (2008)), Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar (2009)) and Jordana Brewster (Annapolis (2006)) are all game, fresh, sexy faces (and bodies...) who became stars on the back of this wildly successful ride. Rick Yune (The Fence (2001)) plays the Chinese hoodlum.

The concept is simple: Every dialog scene is written with bountiful sexual undertones, and the actors send each other raunchy looks again and again, which luckily don't all respect the overall heterosexual identity of the film. This makes it more exciting to watch. It is in many respects like a porn movie, only with the sex replaced by racing and other action scenes.
The film is aimed squarely at a very young teen audience, so the characters pretty much act like 13-15 year-olds, which is distracting and hard to believe for anyone above the target audience. This makes The Fast and the Furious even more corny than it needed to be, and hard to really fall for for someone like me.
Still it is an admirable vehicle, (excuse the pun): The action works, (although the continuity in the NOS-driving scenes are a little off), and the chemistry and pace is right. No wonder this seriously lit the lucrative youth demographic's underpants on fire.

Related review:

Fast & Furious franchise: Fast & Furious 5/Fast Five/Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist (2011) - Dwayne Johnson refuels the world's probably most ridiculous franchise

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 38 mil. $
Box office: 207.2 mil. $
= Big hit
[The Fast and the Furious was released June 22 and runs 106 minutes. Filming took place mainly on locations in LA and other parts of Southern California from July - October 2000. Both Rodriguez and Brewster had to learn how to drive to be in the film. The film opened #1 to a dreamy 40 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it was beaten off the place in its second week by A.I. Artificial Intelligence and grossed 144.5 mil. $ (69.7 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 9.2 mil. $ (4.4 %) and Germany with 7.6 mil. $ (3.7 %). The Fast and the Furious is rotten at 53 % with a 5.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Fast and the Furious?