|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Rice Thresher
Phone:
|
Jan Kimmel for the Thresher The last few years have been filled with hyped-up horror movies complete with exciting previews and overused themes. Unfortunately, they haven't delivered the substance the audience expects. Urban Legends: Final Cut is such a movie. It feels like the three writers (Silvio Horta, Paul Harris Boardman and Scott Derrickson, all relative newcomers) wrote the screenplay during their breaks from doing something else. Consequently, the only horror lurking in Urban Legends: Final Cut is how watered-down it is. The story is set at Alpine University, a contemporary film school somewhere up north, where seniors are trying to come up with their own movies that will determine their final grades and possibly win them the prestigious Hitchcock Award. The main character Amy (Jennifer Morrison) gets the brilliant idea to make a movie about urban legends. In the movie, the first student to get killed is the ditzy and not-too-good actress Sandra (Jessica Cauffiel), whose death is filmed by the murderer. The film gets applause from the other students who see it, thinking that the scene is the last take from Amy's movie. However, Amy denies ever filming that scene, and the weird suspense builds from there, though it never reaches a level high enough to actually engage the audience. Urban Legends leaves the audience apathetic about the real killer. Director John Ottman didn't put enough thought into building a case against each character so that anyone could be a suspect. The only things that spice up Urban Legends are some of the intensely gruesome and surreal scenes. Rather than scaring you, they leave you confused, wondering what the hell they had to do with the plot - which is already scant and almost nonexistent. Of course, there is the amusing fact that Joey Lawrence, of "Blossom" fame ("Whoa!"), plays leading man Graham. Nevertheless, due to the decidedly unengaging quality of Urban Legends: Final Cut, it's a top-notch make-out movie; you won't leave feeling like you missed something if you sit in the back row with your date.
- back - |
|
|
Search the Thresher pages:
This document may be distributed electronically, provided that it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted without the express written permission of: The Rice Thresher, Rice University MS-524, PO Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892, USA. The Thresher Online Project -- ethresh@listserv.rice.edu |
