# I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

### reviewed by
James Sanford

Jennifer Love Hewitt may be a limited actress, but she does have two sizable assets: a robust scream, and a gift for filling out a clingy white tank-top. Both her talents are put to use in "I Still Know what You Did Last Summer," a pointless sequel to last year's hit about four teens stalked by a fisherman they mistakenly believed they killed during a post-graduation celebration. The original at least offered a couple of suspenseful moments and a genuinely creepy cameo by Anne Heche; "Still" throws all logic out the window, raises the gore quotient and offers more offensive racial stereotypes than any WB or UPN sitcom.

The key addition this time around is R&B singer Brandy (star of the not-bad UPN comedy "Moesha") as Karla, new best friend to troubled Julie James (Hewitt), one of the two survivors of last year's murderous mayhem. While there are a few giggles to be had listening to the squeaky-clean Brandy's attempts to swear, what's not so funny is the movie's depiction of young African-Americans as having nothing more on their minds than sex and violence. One can only hope Mekhi Phifer, as Karla's walking hormone of a boyfriend, was well-paid for portraying a character as one-dimensional and grating as the shuffling, wide-eyed servants black actors used to be relegated to playing back in the pre-Civil Rights era.

Of course, no one goes to a movie like this expecting sharp performances or strong writing, but "Still" is so stupid even the dopiest viewers may give up on it before the film's ridiculous finale. Julie, Karla, Tyrell (Phifer) and Julie's potential new boyfriend Will (Matthew Settle) wing down to a remote island in the Bahamas, hoping for a bit of summer fun. But when Julie's old nemesis the fisherman turns up, partytime is over and the movie becomes one scene after another of scream-run-stalk-slash.

All the tired old tricks are trotted out by director Danny Cannon, including "shocker" dream sequences and the deathless "oh my God, it's just you" scenes, in which someone realizes what they thought was a killer is actually just a friend creeping silently around in the dark for no particular reason. Those looking for a real cinematic scare should check out "The Siege" and take a look at Bruce Willis' toupee -- it's far more frightening than anything Hewitt and company have to offer. James Sanford

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