I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)

½ star
Jennifer Kaytin Robinson's I Know What You Did Last Summer was coasting along at a slow but inoffensive pace until its ghastly third act, which infuriated me with its total disrespect not just for the first movie from 1997 but for its contempt for a strong male character who needed to be destroyed in the director's eyes. I liked the callbacks to the original and placing this movie in the same universe in which the Julie James ordeal occurred, but I hated the turn of events that led to the identification of the killer. Jim Gillespie's original wasn't without its faults, but it was a slick and thrilling ride. It was a good complement to Scream (1996), which is not surprising considering that both were written by Kevin Williamson. Robinson's version starts out as plug-and-play in a modern setting, but her twist is short-sighted and serves only to give a momentary shock to legacy fans who don't bother to think about the implications of orchestrating such a heel turn.

Hanging Up (2000)

★★
Nora Ephron's name will most likely forever be linked with chick flicks. It's ironic that her best work has nothing to do with that genre. In 1983 she co-wrote Silkwood, a fine film based on the true story of a nuclear factory employee uncovering corruption at the plant. Another notable film is My Blue Heaven (1990), starring Steve Martin as an oddball gangster hiding away while he awaits his court appearance. Ephron sometimes hits the target and dishes out something worth watching (1996's Michael), but lately I have found her films, whether written and/or directed by her, too cute for my tastes. I was unimpressed with her wildly popular Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and You've Got Mail (1998) was weak too. Now, she and her sister Delia have cowritten Hanging Up, which was directed by Diane Keaton, and again Ephron has created something with a warm and fuzzy exterior but with a shallow interior.