# Urban Legend (1998)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    URBAN LEGEND
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  * 1/2

New England's Pendleton College, which according to "U.S. News and World Reports" is the safest college in America, has trouble brewing. It seems there's a serial killer on the loose, who is making all of those urban legends come to life -- or more precisely to death. From the small dog that dies being dried in the microwave to the babysitter who's getting threatening calls from someone upstairs, the killer has turned the campus into a lab for enacting the urban legends taught in Professor Wexler's (Robert Englund) course.

Quite similar to I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, from which it borrows many key plot elements, URBAN LEGEND is a full-fledged member of the teen-horror-flick genre. Somewhere there must be a rulebook for these movies since they all adhere to the same principles. There will be a host of attractive college aged kids, most of whom will wear invisible bulls eyes on their backs. As the show advances - surprise! -- they will start dropping like flies. The killer's face will remain hidden by a heavy coat, but just about everyone will own a coat exactly like the killer's. And most of what makes audiences jump will be good guys who appear without warning into the scene.

(Now, here is the big secret of ALL of these movies. I will reveal it now if you promise never to tell another living soul. If you tell anyone else, a person in a heavy coat will pay you a visit. Ready? The character with the purest background and the one who appears least likely to be the killer is always the murderer. Now, remember that mum's the word.)

URBAN LEGEND is more concerned with amusing the audience than frightening it, which is good since it is rarely frightening but it is sometimes genuinely humorous.

The over-the-top opening is set during a torrential downpour. As the thunder crackles, a lone female driver pulls into a gas station run by a creepy guy (Brad Dourif) with a bad stutter, who's having a bad-hair day. He lures her into the office and locks the door behind him. The scene then gets so ridiculous that it is hilarious. Most of the rest of the movie isn't this funny however.

As the attractive lead, Natalie, Alicia Witt gives the same completely superficial performance as the rest of the cast. Jared Leto, last seen as the lead in PREFONTAINE, plays her boyfriend, Paul, the campus newspaper's investigative reporter. Rebecca Gayheart is Natalie's girlfriend, Brenda. There are other people in the cast, but they are so interchangeable that it hardly seems worth mentioning any more names. To be fair to the actors, the script doesn't call for them to do much. All of the characters suffer from high degrees of stupidity and bad luck.

Although director Jamie Blanks just connects the dots, screenwriter Silvio Horta shows some good comedic flair. "I dropped journalism ethics early in the semester," budding reporter Paul tells Natalie as he burglarizes Professor Wexler's office. "It wasn't helping my GPA." Now, there's an honest student.

URBAN LEGEND at its best revels in its ridiculousness. The campus has only one cop, Reese (Loretta Devine), and she never calls for help, no matter how bad the situation gets. Her gun handling lessons come from her favorite videotape of Pam Grier in her heyday. The pudgy Reese is in no danger of becoming the next Pam Grier, but she doesn't realize it. Too bad URBAN LEGEND didn't have bigger aspirations than being yet another horror movie starring teenagers.

URBAN LEGEND runs 1:41. It is rated R for violence, sex, and profanity and would be fine for most teenagers.

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: www.InternetReviews.com

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews