Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)

Director:

John Ottman

Writers (WGA):

Silvio Horta (characters)
Paul Harris Boardman (written by) ...

Release Date:

22 September 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

It was an urban legend that started it all. Now it continues on the Alpine University campus...

Plot:

Urban legend-style killings begin to occur on a movie set, in this non-sequel sequel to "Urban Legend".

Plot Keywords:

Urban Legend | Sequel | Liver | Boxer Shorts | Knife

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Jennifer Morrison	...	Amy Mayfield
Matthew Davis	...	Travis Stark / Trevor Stark
Hart Bochner	...	Professor Solomon
Loretta Devine	...	Reese Wilson
Joseph Lawrence	...	Graham Manning
Anson Mount	...	Toby Belcher
Eva Mendes	...	Vanessa Valdeon
Anthony Anderson	...	Stan Washington
Jessica Cauffiel	...	Sandra Petruzzi
Michael Bacall	...	Dirk Reynolds
Marco Hofschneider	...	Schorm "Simon" Jabuscko
Derek Aasland	...	P.A. Kevin
Jacinda Barrett	...	Lisa
Peter Millard	...	Dr. Richard Fain
Chas Lawther	...	Dean Patterson

Also Known As:

Légendes urbaines 2 (Canada: French title)
Légendes urbaines: La suite (Canada: French title)
Leyendas urbanas: Corte final (USA: Spanish title)
Urban Legend 2 (USA) (working title)
Urban Legend 2: The Final Cut (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence/gore, language and some sexuality.

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Brazil:18 | Iceland:16 | South Korea:18 | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Canada:14A | Chile:14 | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:18 | Ireland:18 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Ontario Place, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Original Film

Trivia:

The sequence in which Reese gives Amy a ride to the library was the last scene shot in the film.

Goofs:

Continuity: Amy is seen walking through a heavy snowstorm, but by the next morning, the several inches of snow have disappeared and the trees are green.

Quotes:

Amy Mayfield: Reese, I must have dropped the tape. Did you see it?
Reese: I looked, but I didn't see no tape, just yo' crazy white ass down in the sewer!

Movie Connections:

References Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Better than it should be

"Urban Legends: Final Cut" is a lot better than expected for being a sequel.

**SPOILERS**

Attempting to finish film school, Amy Mayfield, (Jennifer Morrison) decides to change her film to one about a serial killer killing his victims on urban legends. Getting the proper script completed, she gets fellow members Sandra Petruzzi, (Jessica Cauffiel) Stanley Washington, (Anthony Anderson) Dirk Reynolds, (Michael Bacall) Graham Manning, (Joseph Lawrence) Vanessa Valdeon, (Eva Mendes) and Schorm Jabuscko, (Marco Hofschneider) to help her film her movie and must immediately get through several pretty large production problems. Soon, she starts to realize that there's a serial killer running around loose behind the scenes killing off the crew, and must stop the madman before killing off everyone connecting to the film.

The Good News: This here was a pretty surprising entry. One of the things it does well is that it makes a hard time of determining if what's being seen is real or just being shot for the movie. It plays the movie-within-a-movie trick to nice effect, since both are quite well-done and make it hard to distinguish from the other. It features enough to make it feel enjoyable, and the twists are really nice. There's several great ones to come from this trick, mainly it's wonderful opening sequence where a crazy couple are attacked on a rowdy plane during a severe thunderstorm, and upon coming out of the bathroom as the plane's shaking and wobbling, there's a big scene with a long chase, a rather great discovery-of-the-bodies sequence and a great fun conclusion, all to learn otherwise after the fact it's been faked. There's even more over the course of the film, and all of them are well-handled, and the non-trick ones come out rather nice as well. A sequence where the assembled cast watch the dailies, only for a strange sequence to air where one of the cast is viciously stalked and killed is screened, all but one thinking it to be a sequence shot for the film but the other positive that it's real and not staged. A murder done during the recording of a scream-test loud enough to drown out the victim's own is a great scene, leading to a thrilling chase through the recording studio and out into the surrounding countryside and pool make for some great viewing. The final confrontation in the movie sets graveyard setting is just fun, being creepy, exciting and all-around a blast. The mask worn in here is quite nice, with a simple ski mask worn over a big jacket, looking quite impressive in the few scenes it's used and hoping that more would've been nice. The last big feature here is a really nice and healthy mix amongst the kills in here. There's a decapitation here by shoving broken glass window onto their neck, slashed repeatedly with a razor, stabbing in several different areas with a knife, a gunshot and a beating with a camera lens, amongst others. These here are the film's rather good parts.

The Bad News: This one here only has a few flaws to it. The main one here is that the main explanation for the killing. There's a lot of things that can go wrong for how to interpret it, and it feels just too clumsy and unrealistic to be considered as believable, and becomes laughable at a certain point. This here is really weak, and serves as the main flaw in this one. The fact that the violence is toned down from anything that it should have, since, for all the creativity displayed in the kills, it isn't very bloody and with a couple of kills that could've been in here. These are the same thing that really should've fixed by taking more of those and making them more bloody. It would've taken out a mild flaw in the film rather simply. The last flaw in here is the film's maddening ability to switch between the film shoot and the real world. It's fun at times, but there's also the fact that the film tries to be clever with changing around the two and it gets a little harder to defend the longer they go on. These here are the film's flaws.

The Final Verdict: A lot better than expected, with just a few mild flaws that don't quite make this one as bad as it's been perceived. Give it a chance if you enjoy slashers or the general state of the slashers from that time-period or even just curious and open-minded, while all others should heed caution with it.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and a sex scene