I saw Urban Legends: Final Cut this weekend. Now, I liked the first Urban Legend movie. It didn't push any horror barriers or set any new standards, but it was a decent enough slasher flick on par with the "I Know What You Did ..." movies. The sequel was okay, but nowhere near as satisfying, scary or suspenseful as the first. The whole "movie-within-a-movie" concept, as well as the concept of a killer who copies movie devices, were both done already, and a lot better, in the Scream series. Still, it had some good moments -- most of them more comical than scary. The best part for me was the cameo by the "Noxema girl" killer from the first film. I thought that was the most clever part of the whole movie.

My biggest complaints: The female lead was an idiot. She did everything that I thought modern horror heroines had learned not to do. If there was a place that any person with half a brain would know that it's not a good idea to enter, she entered it, alone and unarmed, even after knowing that someone was out to kill her. Whenever it looked like she might be free and clear of her pursuer, if she would just shut the hell up and be quiet, that is, she would scream for no reason in particular and give her location away. There was even one scene that reminded me of the scene in Evil Dead when Cheryl leaves the cabin and goes out into the night by herself and starts hollering, "Who's there?" at the top of her lungs ... the scene that made me think that anyone that stupid deserves what they get. To paraphrase a line from the movie, she was certainly no Jamie Lee Curtis, and I had a lot of trouble caring whether she lived or died.

The title is a bit misleading. Other than the appearances by the hilarious security guard from the first film, and one brief mention by said guard of the events in the first film, it really didn't have any relation whatsoever to the first film and doesn't serve as much of a sequel. Also, the killer is less inspired by urban legends themselves than by the student film the heroine is making which is about a killer who is inspired by urban legends.

Then there was the scene with the girl who had her kidney stolen. Who was this chick? She didn't seem to fit in with the pattern of the other victims, and nobody ever noticed she was missing. Her scenes didn't do anything to advance the plot other than to plant early (misguiding) suspicion about who the killer might be. They were completely gratuitous, just an opportunity for a cheap gross-out. That said, it was a pretty effective gross-out and, relevant or not, one of the most disturbing scenes in the entire movie.

At any rate, it was okay for a Scream knock-off, which is exactly what it was.

And it was nice to see that Joey Lawrence is still getting work these days.