I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)

A bunch of dumb morons cause a highway accident and have to endure the consequences. Just as Scream originally inspired it, it once again inspires this reboot/legacy sequel (or "requel" as the cool kids say). Somehow they roped Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. back into the fray, and the results are predictable. Somehow manages to ruin everything that came before it, if that's even possible. Worse yet, they threaten us with yet another sequel...

1 speargun out of 5

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

The world's most patient killer waits another year before striking again, following their victims halfway across the world to the Bahamas, for some weird reason. Immediately jumping the shark, the survivors from the first film go through the same shit all over again. Any way you slice it, it's a shameless cash-in sequel, from a clever title to an uninspired retread that essentially amounts to cheesy '90s kitsch. You might find some enjoyment if you hold a particular fondness for that era, or just wish to revisit it for old times' sake.

1½ dreadlocks out of 5

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

Four dumb teens hit someone with their car and decide to cover it up rather than report it to the police. The following summer, they're all contacted by a blackmailer threatening to expose them, and the body count piles up.

This film is quintessentially '90s, or at least the way Hollywood tried to depict it back then. Kevin Williamson attempts to recreate some of that magic from the previous summer's hit horror whodunnit Scream, and it mostly succeeds based on a memorable hook and highly quotable title alone. In the years since its release, it's been reappraised as somewhat of a modern slasher classic, although it was mainly mocked mercilessly at the time. Regardless, it remains a simple, solid premise that more or less holds up some 30 (!) years later.

2½ urban legends out of 5

SCOOBY-DOO 2: MONSTERS UNLEASHED [2004]

Raja Gosnell returns to direct Monsters Unleasehd, the sequel to the disastrous 2002 Scooby-Doo film.
It's the usual Scooby-Doo story with those meddling kids yet again, only this time around the film wisely brings back a whole slew of ghoulies fans will remember from the cartoon series.  
James Gunn returns as scriptwriter only now he's aware of what the studio wanted and delivers something that doesn't need to be..ahem...meddled with.  It's silly but humorous, dumb but fun and brainless but caring. Once again it's Matt Lillard's Shaggy that steals the whole show (I'd prefer a movie with just him, Scooby and Velma) but thankfully we're blessed with something a little better than the original.  Still, it's strictly kiddie fare that'll pummel an adult's brain into a pulp for 90 minutes.

2½ Chickensteins out of 5

SCOOBY-DOO [2002]

Director Raja Gosnell directs a live-action big screen adaptation of the popular 1960's animated Hanna Barbara series Scooby-Doo.
Sticking true to the series' plots, the Scooby Gang investigate bizarre occurrences and do a lot of running around.  Scripted by James Gunn the film originally winked at the audience with plenty of adult-oriented jokes poking fun at the original series, Velma's questionable sexuality and marijuana jokes galore.  However Warner Bros. quickly turned it into a family-oriented film in the laziest of fashion.  While it does stick fairly true to the series in conventions, it simply isn't very good at all...but let's face it, kids, the series wasn't all that great to begin with.  Matthew Lillard is left to carry the weight of the entire film as Shaggy and he does an absolutely wonderful job channelling the character's lovableness, expressions and heart.

1½  meddling kids out of 5