(DISCLAIMER: Potential spoilers ahead!!!)

This week we are focusing our attention on a well-known movie that was recently remade this year. I Know What You Did Last Summer, starring Madeline Cline (previously mentioned in another movie review) and some other familiar faces from the previous movies (like Jennifer Love Hewitt). Now to be completely honest, I did have high hopes for this movie, but was sadly let down.

This story primarily follows Danica's character (Madeline Cline) throughout the whole movie. While this story does highlight a particular group of friends, her story seemed to be included the most. The story starts out with a rehearsal dinner for two soon to be newlyweds, Danica and Teddy. After the party, this group of friends kind of rekindle their high school friendship and decide to go on an "adventure". By adventure, I mean get high in the middle of a road that is on the side of a cliff. Safe, right? Anyway, while they are up there, Teddy decides to stand in the middle of the road just as a car is making its way up the mountain. As predicted, the car swerves to avoid Teddy, and ultimately flies off the cliff. Of course everyone is freaking out and trying to call 911. However, Teddy is adament that his father will cover up their tracks to keep their slates clean. Everyone ends up trusting him and they basically just leave the scene of the crime without saying anything. Some time passes and then next thing you know, you are back at another rehearsal dinner of Danica's, this time with a new man. How charming! Turns out that Teddy and Danica called it quits before they ended up getting married. At this new party, Danica is seen opening gifts from her friends and family until she lands on one gift in particular. It is a card that reads, "I know what you did last summer." Of course she thinks this is some type of sick joke, but that night is when the murders begin. One by one, people are being killed off in the movie, as expected.

So my first problem here is how unrealistic this movie is. The first murder happens when Danica is taking a bath, and her fiancé is brutally murdered downstairs without her knowing. How convenient? I tend to have a problem with movies that have such perfect timing in situations like this, just because that is so unlikely to actually happen. My next problem is the predictability this movie has. As expected, the person that ends up being the one who is killing everybody was one of the friends the rekindled with the rest of the group that first night. Stevie just so happened to be close to the driver of the car that flew off the cliff. Now that wasn't necessarily the issue itself, but the problem is the way that they found out Stevie was behind all of it. They literally saw a picture of her and the driver together and then did some digging. Like could they not have figured that out sooner before the whole friend group was killed off???

Also, the ending was very cheesy as well. When they killed Stevie and her accomplice, both scenes were rather boring and not very enjoyable. Usually in movies like this, I get a sense of satisfaction knowing the killer was brought to justice, but these ones were just hard to watch and not in a good way.

One thing that I felt like this movie did a good job of was bringing back old characters from previous movies. Now I'm not going to lie, I have not seen the original movies, so I do not exactly know the role of the characters in the originals. However, I felt like they played a big enough part in the movie that made me interested in watching the earlier ones.

I also want to note that the acting was not entirely terrible, but it wasn't good either. It was one of those situations that occasionally made you cringe whenever someone screamed or just acted out of stupidity. I do think the acting was better outside of the suspenseful scenes, if that makes sense.

While this movie franchise is highly known, I was not very impressed with the film overall. Between the predictable plot and the very average acting, I would not say that I would recommend this movie to anyone. Sure it works well as a pastime, but if you are looking for something that is actually engaging, this is not it. While I do enjoy my thrillers, this one ranks particularly low in my book. I would have to give this movie like a solid 4/10. I simply was not impressed.

NEXT WEEK: Stay tuned for something a little more light hearted and a little less gory. Don't forget to comment any recommendations you all have for me!