77 - I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

Connection To CAN'T HARDLY WAIT - Jennifer Love Hewitt.

I mentioned in the post Seventy Five Films, about a couple of films I desired to revisit which included Shanghai Knights and this movie - Josie and The Pussycats was the last movie I'd watched before then and decided to go Can't Hardly Wait for 76 which features Jennifer Love Hewitt, you would guess I did this on purpose to get the chain to go that way to get to this film, but no it didn't occur to me at all at first, I was close to putting on Not Another Teen Movie (which spoofs part of Can't Hardly Wait) before my memory came back on JLH in this movie.

I really don't know why I have a desire to revisit this movie, it's maybe because I've watched a few late 90's horrors this month (Halloween H20, The Faculty), and they've both had a Kevin Williamson connection which I guess goes to show the impact Scream and he had on horror of the late 90's, and of course the original I Know What You Did Last Summer was written by Kevin Williamson - which I like to think he'd written years before and put in a draw until the studios came knocking and he just dusted it off but anyway this is Williamson-less and without spoiling the outcome of the first movie as two returnees in Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr.

My memory told me it wasn't a particularly good movie but watching it now, honestly despite it's faults I actually enjoyed watching it and for this purpose of just this write up I'm just going to put a spoiler mention here then talk about it freely from now on.

Yeah, the all getting lured to the Bahamas doesn't really need to happen, since the guy whose revealed to be the son of Ben (the guy who they ran over in the first movie) as already integrated himself well enough into Julie's (Hewitt) life, but I guess it makes a nice change of scenery and an excuse to include a tropical storm in a slasher movie.

We have an whole bunch of hotel staff, to mostly acts as victims though Jeffrey Combs is fun as his usual creepy self and Jennfier Esposito to me is always easy on the eyes, we also have an uncredited Jack Black complete with dreadlocks and fake accent, which I know the first movie had extra kills (2 I can remember) this kills off at least 7 or 8 who had no idea what they really did last summer, speaking of one of the victims, a work colleague of Prinze Jr who initially doesn't go to the Bahamas is John Hawkes, who is enjoyable and gets killed off way too quick - Prinze Jr must have had a different schedule because really his scenes are only with the others at the beginning and end.

I probably have to say that Freddie Prinze Jr. might be one of the least interesting actors in modern cinema, I felt like I've yet to see him light up the screen, maybe somebody reading this as seen something I haven't seen is just bland here, however it's maybe because at the time I most associated her with Moesha (which I didn't like) but Brandy Norwood really grew on my on performance here and cuteness (was never really into her)

the makes knew Hewitt had some assets so she wears tight clothing couple of times,she even strips to her bikini for a sunbed (which the handle gets tied up and she is trapped - marking the second film I've watched for this blog with that happening - the other was Killer Workout)

Overall, better then I remember or I just prefer it more now, though it's often predictable it does it's job well enough as a post-Scream slasher.

76 - Can't Hardly Wait

Connection To JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS - where to start the directors/writers Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan as well as the actors Seth Green, Breckin Meyer and Donald Faison, I'll cheat a little bit and go for Elfont and Kaplan rather then any of the actors.

I'll always have a soft spot for teen comedies even though now it's been 12 years since I last could call myself a teen - though I'm probably close to the ages of some of the actors that tend to be cast for teen, maybe even younger in some cases (wasn't Stockard Channing like 60 when she made Grease - I like Stockard Channing I don't know why I am picking on her), every few years or so comes one that I end up really liking such as Clueless, Mean Girls or Easy-A (these are examples and not the complete list)

This is a preface I perhaps I could have put at the beginning of a teen movie I've already covered, but hey ho, and while I don't believe Can't Hardly Wait is a classic of the genre, the film deserves to better known then it is -

The film mostly takes place over 1 night at a party - a very PG-13 party... literally, scenes and characters where cut to to tone it down the characters include crying drunk girl (Jennifer Elise Cox) and Stoned Girl (Amber Benson), who both still can be glimpsed briefly in the final film.

The film is basically about a high school graduation party and it's various misadventures of the characters who attend it, we have Ethan Embry whose liked Jennifer Love Hewitt for years and plans to pour his heart (in a letter) at the party, her very recent ex-boyfriend Peter Facinelli is also at the party and is trying to convince his friends to dump their girlfriends, we have Lauren Ambrose's snarky friend who gets stuck in the bathroom with gangsta wannabe Seth Green (the two used to be friends) and we have geek Charlie Korsmo vowing to get revenge on Facinelli. These are the principal stories but there are lots and lots of characters seen many of them are familiar faces which I'll get to in a bit.

All these characters are enjoyable to see on the screen and particularly in two of the strands go exactly the way you expect but it's not a bad thing at all, among the other actors who pop include Jaime Pressly, Selma Blair, Jason Segel, Freddy Rodriguez, Erik Palladino, Sara Rue, Clea DuVall, Breckin Meyer, Donald Faison, Jenna Elfman, Jerry O'Connell and Melissa Joan Hart, who I like a lot is stuck with one of the weaker minor-subplots of desperately trying to get her yearbook signed, there's also the other minor-subplot of the girls house who is trying to stop is getting wrecked that is also on the weak side.

It occured to me that with Green, Segel and Benson in the cast - that is all her 3 major TV love interests in one film (Kennedy didn't count), besides that Paige Moss appears who in Buffy was the the lead to Green/Hannigan spiting up (Channon Roe, Nicole Bilderback, Clea DuVall and Eric Balfour all have appeared in Buffy too)

Overall very cool teen movie, I actually prefer it to American Pie, which is the year after and ends with a graduation party so there's a link there and would sooner revisit this, I enjoyed many of the characters even those that make fleeting appearances, so I recommend the film.