Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A film school is beset by a series of killings patterned after urban legends. It's up to aspiring filmmaker student Amy Mayfield (an excellent and appealing performance by Jennifer Morrison) to figure out what's going on before it's too late.Director John Ottman relates the absorbing story at a brisk pace, stages the murder set pieces with skill and flair, delivers a satisfying serving of splatter, and generates a good deal of spooky atmosphere. The smart script by Scott Derrickson and Paul Harris Beckman offers several cool red herrings and affectionate homages to various 80's slasher flicks. The capable acting by the sturdy cast keeps this movie buzzing: Matthew Davis as nice guy Travis and his loyal twin brother Trevor, Hart Bochner as the friendly Professor Solomon, Joey Lawrence as the smarmy Graham Manning, Anson Mount as the arrogant and abusive Toby, Eva Mendes as brash lesbian Vanessa Valdeon, Jessica Cauffiel as ditsy actress Sandra, Anthony Anderson as the happy-go-lucky Stan, Michael Bacall as the jocular Dirk, and Marco Hofschneider as charming cinematographer Simon. Loretta Devine makes a welcome return from the original as sassy security guard Reese. Brian Pearson's glossy widescreen cinematography provides a neat polished look. Ottman's spirited shuddery score hits the shivery spot. A fun follow-up.

Released in 2000, "Urban Legends: Final Cut" details the events of a university in the NE USA where a mad killer starts murdering students of the film school. Jennifer Morrison plays the main protagonist who teams up with a student played by Matthew Davis to solve the murders. Loretta Devine returns as Reese, the security guard at the university. Other students are played by Jessica Cauffiel, Eva Mendes, Anthony Anderson, Michael Bacall, Marco Hofschneider, Joey Lawrence and Anson Mount. Hart Bochner is on hand as a professor.While this is the sequel to 1998's "Urban Legend," Reese is the only character that returns (with another surprise re-appearance). Like the first film, this one takes place at a NE university and involves a killer who imitates various urban legends. The big difference is the focus on a group of film school students and their endeavors competing for a coveted film award that would open doors for future Hollywood success. This is the only movie I've seen that deals with film school and I found it interesting and even informative. Whereas this angle is original and the cast is good, the story's only fairly engaging. It's rarely horrifying and sometimes downright cartoony, although thankfully not as bad as the first film in this regard. The slasher's costume this time isn't a hooded parka, but rather a fencer's mask and hooded cloak (rolling my eyes).The cast is highlighted by the attractive Jennifer Morrison, who's just as good as Alicia Witt in the first movie and arguably better. Jessica Cauffiel is another highlight, but her role's too short. Unfortunately, Eva Mendes' obnoxious lesbian character detracts (Eva is fine but her character, as written, is unattractive, although she becomes less obnoxious as the story progresses). Almost the entire film takes place on an isolated university campus, shot at Trent University in Peterborough, Canada, NE of Toronto, which is where some scenes in the first film where shot. The exception is a long carnival sequence in the second act shot at a Toronto amusement park.I've watched "Urban Legends: Final Cut" three times now and my appreciation has increased with each viewing. While the climax is cartoonish and overlong, like the first movie, the picture's worthwhile for the Scooby Doo-ish elements and the film school angle, plus the quality cast, particularly Jennifer Morrison and Marco Hofschneider.The film runs 97 minutes.GRADE: B- (6.5/10)

"Urban Legends: Final Cut" is much similar to the first movie of the franchise, but in here we don't see that lazy plot holes. We can see some clichés of course, but they don't spoil the movie's quality as they did in the first one. The acting is good, the scenes aren't predictable (at least for me) and I doubt anyone knew who was the killer until it was revealed. Moreover, the action wasn't that exhausting never-ending scenes that makes the audience sleep, they were quickly and terminus leaving the spectator satisfied instead of bored. Bottoms up for Eva Mendes for being so sexy and bottoms up for Loretta Devine for being so funny as an incompetent police officer.

Urban Legends: Final Cut, the sequel to slick 90s slasher Urban Legend, starts with a film-within-a-film sequence in which a crazed killer stalks the passengers and crew of an airborne jet, even going so far as to slit the throats of the pilots (now that's what I call deranged!); unbelievably, this 'masterpiece' is supposed to be the work of a talented student attending the country's leading film college, and from this patently ridiculous opening, it is evident that Final Cut is going to be utter nonsense. But the question is, how daft is it all going to get before the end credits roll?Well, the answer is 'extremely daft'—Final Cut runs the gamut from mildly dumb to absolutely ridiculous over the course of 97 minutes; but the good news is that the cast and crew of the film seem to be quite aware how utterly absurd their material is, and play things accordingly.So even though the film dares to feature such clichéd plot elements as an omnipresent masked killer with a preposterous motive (this one opts for a fencing mask for no discernible reason), identical twins (always a winner in a horror film), a feisty black female security guard who saves the day (again!... Loretta Devine reprises her role from the first film), a heroine who is unable to convince others of the danger she is in, and comedy relief in the form of a pair of crazy special effects geeks, at least viewers can rest assured that none of it is meant to be be taken too seriously and revel in its sheer cheesiness.With tongue-in-cheek performances all round, umpteen movie references for film fans to spot, a couple of hokey in-jokes, and even one genuinely inspired moment at the end of the film featuring a Mexican stand off in which no-one is sure if the gun they are holding is real or a prop, time passes fairly painlessly and the film should prove pretty entertaining to fans of slashers (a genre which, let's face it, rarely produces works of genius). My only real gripes are that the gore level could have done with being much higher—the only genuinely gruesome kill being a nifty decapitation near the start of the film—and the absence of a gratuitous shower scene with a buxom babe (or two).