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?

Igby Goes Down (2002) - Steers' debut is a New York gemstone

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+ Best Huge Flop of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year

 

Off-center and pensive sits co-star Kieran Culkin upside a blue wall on this poster for Burr Steers' Igby Goes Down

Igby Slocumb is 17 years old and from a wealthy family, but he wants to break free and find his own path in life. Which is easier said than done.

 

Igby Goes Down is written and directed by debuting Burr Steers (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)).

It is a morbid, funny and tragic dramedy. Kieran Culkin (No Sudden Move (2021)) is strong as Igby; Claire Danes (Evening (2007)) is terribly cute, - until she chooses Ryan Phillippe's (Antitrust (2001)) Ollie over his younger brother Igby, - and Susan Sarandan (The Client (1994)) and Jeff Goldblum (Hotel Artemis (2018)) are funny. 

The film is very New-Yorker intellectual and too much at times. Bill Pullman (The Equalizer 2 (2018)) doesn't really work as Igby's mentally ill father, and the good-spirit Mickey-Mousing of the opening music is grating. But although Igby Goes Down, like its title character, isn't flawless, it is an original and brisk movie.

 

Related posts:

 

Burr Steers: Charlie St. Cloud (2010) - Steers and Efron's second collaboration is lukewarm

17 Again (2009) or, Teentainment Deluxe

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 9 mil. $

Box office: 6.9 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.76 times its cost)

[Igby Goes Down premiered 23 May (Seattle International Film Festival) and runs 98 minutes. Phillippe was paid 500k $ for his performance in the film. Shooting took place from February - April 2001 in New York. The film opened #24 to a 306k $ first weekend in 10 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #15 and in 156 theaters (different weeks), grossing 4.7 mil. $ (68.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd an 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 689k $ (10 %) and Germany with 499k $ (7.3 %). The film was nominated for 2 Golden Globes and an Independent Spirit award and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. The film is among the last to show the original World Trade Center twin towers before they were destroyed by Islamic terrorists 9/11 2001. Steers returned with 3 TV credits prior to his theatrical return 17 Again (2009). Culkin returned in Lymelife (2008); Danes in The Hours (2002). Igby Goes Down is certified fresh at 75 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Igby Goes Down?

Flags of Our Fathers (2006) - Eastwood's Iwo Jima portrayal is captivating and profoundly moving

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+ Best War Movie of the Year + Best True-Story Movie of the Year + Best Big Flop Movie of the Year

This powerful, simple poster for Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers evokes the power of the iconic Iwo Jima photograph of the American flag-raising

Flags of Our Fathers presents the incredible story of the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima, the taking of the Japanese Mount Suribachi, a sulfurous, volcanic island, but mostly about the sensational photograph of a flag-raising there, which effectively kept the US war effort afloat for the last months of WWII and immortalized the names of 3 ordinary, young men.

Flags of Our Fathers is written by William Broyles Jr. (China Beach (1988-91)) and Paul Haggis (EZ Streets (1996-97)), based on the same-titled 2000 book by James Bradley (Flyboys: A True Story of Courage (2003)) and Ron Powers (Face Value (1979)), and directed by Californian master filmmaker Clint Eastwood (The Rookie (1990)) as his 26th feature.
Eastwood handles the extraordinary story with an elevated integrity and arranges an epic circle around the narrative, which is about sacrifice and our need for heroes. It is structured in an advanced and highly affecting order with lots of flashbacks.
The cast, especially Ryan Phillippe (MacGruber (2010)) and Adam Beach (Crook (2013)), who plays the phenomenally tragic character of native American Ira Hayes, are outstanding, and several supporting characters also come to vivid life by the strong ensemble.
Some of the large-scale, CGI-heavy composite shots in the film sometimes have an artificial quality to them. It doesn't change the general effect of Flags of Our Fathers, which is a film primarily for and by men, a truly Great Manly Film.

Related posts:

Clint Eastwood: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
American Sniper (2014) - Eastwood conveys an American man and myth in electric masterpiece  
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess   
J. Edgar (2011) - Eastwood, Black and DiCaprio's great, intense biopic   
The Changeling (2008) or, The Christine Collins Story  

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The Dead Pool (1988) - The highly entertaining last Dirty Harry movie (actor)
City Heat (1984) - Eastwood and Reynolds wrestle dispassionately in Benjamin's messy period affair (actor)
Tightrope (1984) - An undervalued Clint Eastwood sex killer thriller (actor)
Any Which Way You Can (1980) or, More Monkey Business! (actor)
Escape from Alcatraz (1979) - Siegel, Tuggle and Eastwood's phenomenal prison escape thriller (actor)
Every Which Way but Loose (1978) or, Honky Tonk Monkey Business! (actor)
The Enforcer (1976) - Eastwood teaches revolutionaries a lesson in third, less punchy Dirty Harry (star)
The Eiger Sanction (1975) - Eastwood's mountain climbing dud
The Beguiled (1971) - Intense, erotic Civil War kammerspiel thriller (actor)  
Dirty Harry (1971) - Eastwood's great, signature renegade cop character comes to life (actor)
Coogan's Bluff (1968) or, Dopes and Hippies, Beat It! (actor)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho (actor)  

Listen here to the film's theme suite here from its score by Eastwood, Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens

Cost: Reportedly around 55 mil. $
Box office: 65.9 mil. $
= Big flop (1.19 times the cost)
[Flags of Our Fathers premiered 9 October (Los Angeles) and runs 131 minutes. It was Eastwood's idea to make two Iwo Jima films; one about the American side (Flags of Our Fathers) and one about the Japanese soldiers' experiences (Letters from Iwo Jima (2006). Shooting took place in Illinois, including Chicago, California, including Los Angeles, in Texas, Washington, DC, in Iceland and Iwo Jima, Japan for about 60 days from August 2005 - 'early 2006'. The budget was set high at 80 mil. $, but Eastwood wrapped shooting way ahead of time, thus seemingly saving a whopping 25 mil. $. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release The Prestige and holdover hit The Departed, to a weak 10.2 mil. $ in North America, where it spent one more week in the top 5 (#4) an grossed just 33.6 mil. $ (51 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 13.1 mil. $ (19.9 %) and France with 3.9 mil. $ (5.9 %). Spike Lee caused controversy by criticizing Eastwood for not showing more black Marines in the two films, which turned out to be factually based; Eastwood stated that Lee should "shut his face." The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Sound Mixing, lost to Dreamgirls, and Best Sound Editing, lost to Letters from Iwo Jima. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, won a National Board of Review award, several other honors and high placement on countless critics' annual top 10 lists. The film has reportedly made in excess of 45 mil. $ on home video sales in North America alone, which would change its status to just 'flop' if figured into its gross. It has since (in 2016) come to light that John 'Doc' Bradley was not, in fact, one of the Iwo Jima flag-raisers. Eastwood returned with Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) and after that with Changeling (2008). Flags of Our Fathers is certified fresh at 73 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Flags of Our Fathers?

MacGruber (2010) - Taccone and Forte's hilarious spoof might well be the best SNL movie to date

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+ Best Spoof Movie of the Year

 

The three immaculate stars of Jorma Taccone's MacGruber in front of a gigantic explosion, slapped with an appropriately red-glowing title

MacGruber gets pulled out of retirement for a top secret mission: His arch enemy Cunth has stolen a nuclear warhead. - Stop Cunth!

 

Will Forte (Nebraska (2013)), Kristen Wiig (Ghostbusters (2016)), Ryan Phillippe (54 (1998)), Powers Boothe (24 (2008), TV movie) and Val Kilmer (Heat (1995)) as Cunth are all howlingly funny in this cheerful and crazy idiot-comedy about the violent adventures of the worthless, titular clown MacGruber who seems to be mentally trapped in the 1980s. (The character and concept is inspired by MacGyver (1985-92)).)

MacGruber is written by John Solomon (The Last Man on Earth (2015-16)), Forte and co-writer-director Jorma Taccone (Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)), whose feature debut it is. It's a little short, - probably appropriately so for the ridiculous plot, - and funny as hell!

 

Related posts:   

 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 10 mil. $

Box office: 9.3 mil. $

= Huge flop

[MacGruber premiered March 15 (SXSW, Austin, Texas) and runs 99 minutes. Based on the 2007 SNL sketch character, which in turn was based on the 1980s action adventure TV-series MacGyver, and the 2009 MacGruber Pepsi commercials, a jumbled 177 page script was reportedly written in three weeks during normal SNL work as well and later edited down to the film we now have. Filming took place in New Mexico from August - September 2009. Forte praised the producers for allowing creative freedom. The film opened #6 to a 4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it played for just 3 weeks and grossed 8.5 mil. $ (91.4 % of the total gross). The film played in just 3 other countries, Russia, Portugal and Thailand, of which the 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 739k $ (7.9 %) and Portugal with 47k $ (0.5 %). The creator of MacGyver tried to bury the film before its release but eventually dropped litigation. Despite the terrible financial performance of the film, Forte and Taccone seem determined to make a sequel to MacGruber some day (hopefully soon.) MacGruber is rotten at 47 % with a 5.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of MacGruber?

54 (1998) or, Disco, Baby, Yeah!

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+ Best Music Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year

Glamorous poster for Mark Christopher's 54

QUICK REVIEW:

We are at New York's Studio 54 disco, and the 80s are right around the corner: A young dreamer from Jersey arrives and is lucky enough to get a job there; sex, drugs, some fame and lots of disco follow.

54 is an excellent guilty pleasure full of lovely young people: Ryan Phillippe (Flags of Our Fathers (2006)) is criminally hot here, and so is Salma Hayek (30 Rock (2009-13)). Neve Campbell (Scream 4 (2011)) does well, and Mike Myers (Wayne's World (1992)) is phenomenal here in his first dramatic movie role as the cynical, superficial impresario of the seemingly never-ending party.
The development of the story is pretty imperceptible, sometimes nearing banality, elegantly avoiding real crises.
54's original 93 min. cut appears as a celebration of Studio 54, disco and good parties. I ate it raw.
However, the film was envisioned quite differently by its writer-director Mark Christopher (Pizza (2005)), who was forced by Miramax to re-shoot and cut out several parts of his original vision, downgrading gay and sex scenes. A 105 min. director's cut, which includes 30 min. of footage that is not in the original cut, has since been released to acclaim. - I really want to see this version as well!
If you want to read more about how a bad test screening and the infamous Weinstein brothers took apart Christopher's original version, you can do so here.

 

Related post:

 

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

Watch the infectious trailer for the film here

Cost: 13 mil. $
Box office: 16.7 mil. $ (US only)
= Big flop, with some uncertainty
[54 made a paltry 99k £ in the UK, which is the only foreign result I've been able to find. - It was a big flop. Had Miramax left it alone, it might have succeeded as a more risqué film, similar to Boogie Nights (1997). - We will never know now.]

What do you think of 54, original and director's cut, depending on what you've seen?

Revenge for Jolly (2012) - An uneven, pitch-black stoner comedy debut

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A blood-splattered, shell-littered poster for Chadd Harbold's Revenge for Jolly!

Revenge for Jolly! is the feature debut of Chadd Harbold (Block (2011), short), a really dark comedy, the first feature written by lead Brian Petsos (Wasted Space: The Mark Rantana Story (2010), short).

Petsos plays a nerdy loner, whose tiny dog gets killed. He seeks revenge and partners up with his also not-too-bright cousin for this quest, which takes them on a violent killing spree.

Jolly! will mostly appeal to younger males of the more cynical kind, or emotionally blunted types, who probably don't really need to acquire role-models who do the kind of things the protagonists of this film do.
The film's humor is extremely dark, even more so because none of the action is totally unbelievable, and the effects are realistic. Many will writhe in their seats or simply switch off the film, because it is immoral, but if you can accept this in the context of it all just being one long, crude joke, then you may like the film or just find it entertaining as I must admit that I did.
Something has gone wrong in the DVD transfer, or perhaps the film was just shot on terrible HD cameras (?). In any case the result on my TV was a technically awful visual experience, as the images linger all over the screen, whenever the characters move fast in any way.
Petso's script is pretty one-sided and flawed and plays like a series of episodic, more or less comedic and grim scenes that all come to a very abrupt end. Rarely has a feature seemed more 'straight-out-of-film-school' than Revenge for Jolly!, which is totally lacking any seriousness or great ideas, apparently solely thrilled with violence, guns and profanity and really dark and nonsensical humor.

Writer-star Brian Petsos and Oscar Isaac in Chadd Harbold's Revenge for Jolly!

The details:

What may make you interested enough to watch it are the stars in it:
Petsos doesn't create an interesting lead, but Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)) is pretty good as his stoner cousin. They both seem to give it their all at least.
The funniest in the remaining cast are Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood (2004-05)) and Kevin Corrigan (The Departed (2006)), both in the wedding scene. The film also features stars Kristen Wiig, Elijah Wood (in yet another pretty obscure post-LOTR appearance) and Ryan Phillippe.
Jolly! may, in fact, be best described as mostly a stoner comedy. - The leads, who are wearing sombreros for a large portion of the film (...) have definitely smoked too much, anyway.
Incredibly, (since this film doesn't seem to have made any business), Harbold followed it up just the year after with another low-budget comedy, How to Be a Man (2013). And soon he will finish his next project, the short George and the Vacuum (2015) with Fred Armisen.

Watch the trailer here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[No information out most likely means that the film hasn't made nearly anything (theatrically, anyway). It was shot in New York and premiered at the city's Tribeca Film Festival.]

What do you think of Revenge for Jolly!?