DVD/Movie Review: I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

 

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is the 1998 sequel to the 1997 horror/suspense movie I Know What You Did Last Summer. The movie brings back Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Muse Watson to reprise their roles from the first movie and adds Matthew Settle, Brandy (the 90s pop/R&B singer), Mekhi Phifer, Jennifer Esposito, and Jack Black (in a hilariously awful role). The events of this movie are set a year after the events of the first film. In this one, Julie and her college roommate, Karla (Brandy's character), win a trip to the Bahamas via a radio contest. Julie, Karla, Karla's boyfriend Tyrell (Phifer's character), and his friend Will Benton travel to Tower Bay, where Julie starts receiving the same kind of notes that Ben Willis sent in the first movie, and of course, the murders start.

The DVD has a handful of special features, including the music video from Jennifer Love Hewitt's song, How Do I Deal, a making-of featurette, and trailers. The movie is bad. The first one was okay but was probably only as popular as it was because of the movie Scream and because of Sarah Michelle Gellar's popularity because of Buffy (which started the same year). This one is far worse than the first movie and probably only got a sequel because Scream made horror movies cool again. The only difference was that Scream was actually creative and made fun of silly movies like this one. This movie has every horror/slasher movie cliche that Scream made fun of. I am all for having to suspend disbelief when watching one of these movies, but things like the killer being able to move bodies around in a short period of time (which there is a bit of an explanation for) and leave no trace of blood (which there is not) are just stupid. The plot twist in this movie is easy to spot from a mile away, and we are subjected to Jack Black as a dreadlocked stoner.

The two things this one had going for is that the dialog was not as schlocky and stupid as it was in the first one (although it was close), and despite the tease at the end of the movie, they thought better of making any more of these. And, JLH was (and still is) hot as fire and looked great in a tank top. Like the predecessor, I do not think this is a must-see or must-own. If you are looking for a horror movie to watch for an hour and a half, it is not the best and not the worst.  It is definitely not a movie that is worth multiple viewings, however.

DVD/TV Series Review: The Client List: Season 2

 

+++Warning, this contains a minor spoiler from season one, but no major season two giveaways.+++

Season two of The Client List picks up with the police arriving in the middle of Rile and Kyle's argument. Riley, thinking the corrupt officer from season one is coming for her thinks she is going to get arrested, only for Kyle to be the one taken away. As the season plays out we get the obligatory love triangle between Riley, Evan, and Kyle, and Riley taking on more responsibility at The Rub, basically as the manager and quasi-owner. All while trying to avoid the police and competition from the owner of the local strip club. The actual Client List, with the names of all the clients of The Rub, becomes a MacGuffin throughout the season as all sorts of shady characters are trying to track it down.

The DVD release is just a MOD release with the episodes and no extras. You definitely want to check your discs as in my first set, disc two, even though it was labeled correctly had the episodes from disc one.

Overall, the series is good, but not great. It does not have any nudity but does show off Jennifer Love Hewitt's cleavage at every opportunity, and it, of course, has a lot of sexual content. So, it is not family-friendly in the least. It is definitely a cable soap opera and some of the plot lines are eye-roll-inducing. But, it pretty much stays in its lane and does not take itself too seriously. It does end on a cliffhanger that will never be resolved given that the show was canceled after the second season after Jennifer Love Hewitt's pregnancy and a reported dispute over who the father of a fictional child would be in the show. That said, it is not a major cliffhanger and so it is not really a disappointing end to the series even though it was not intended to be the end. It is a guilty pleasure show, and if you liked season one, you will probably like season two.

DVD/TV Series Review: The Client List

 

The TV series on Lifetime, like the movies, can vary in quality quite a bit. This one, adapted from a movie of the same name, is one of the better ones. It stars Jennifer Love Hewitt as a single parent named Riley Parks, whose husband left her and her two children, leaving her in a precarious financial position and in danger of losing her house. Riley is hired at a local massage parlor called "The Rub" as a massage therapist which she discovers, quickly, is a front for a quasi-prostitution ring, in which the staff can make extra money by providing a happy ending for the clients. While Riley is reluctant at first, she decides to partake and ends up making money hand over fist, much to the dismay of those in her personal life, which she fights to keep separate from her day job.

Essentially, the show has two parallel story arcs. One of those is that of Riley's personal life that she is trying to put back together after being abandoned by her husband, which includes developing complicated feelings for her brother-in-law, Evan, played by Colin Egglesfield, who also has feelings for her, and the other being her life at the massage parlor. The show is not as seedy as you would think, given the line of work Riley is in. Yes, JLH is shown in a lot of cleavage-baring outfits and there is a lot of sexual suggestion, but, what is actually shown is pretty tame even when compared to what is shown on some other basic cable shows (and like a Disney movie compared to what you see on shows like Game of Thrones). The show has a strong supporting cast including Cybill Shepherd who plays Riley's mother, Rebecca Field as Lacy, Riley's best friend, Greg Grunberg as Lacy's husband, Loretta Devine as the owner of The Rub, and Alicia Lagano as Selena Ramos, a masseuse at the parlor who recommended the masseuse job to Riley, but becomes jealous of Riley after she starts working at The Rub.

JLH and Cybill Shepard also starred in the Client List TV movie, but the names of their characters were different and the story in the movie was slightly different from the story in the series. The series was an adaptation of the TV movie, which itself was based on a true story, but the series was not a continuation of the TV movie.

The extras on the DVD set are meager. Just some outtakes and deleted scenes. No other behind-the-scenes features or commentary tracks. So, if you are one who only gets physical discs when there are a lot of extras, this does not have a lot to offer. But, I have not seen the show streaming on any of the major services (I am not sure if it is on any of the free streaming services or has been added to the major services lately), so that may play a role in whether you decide to pick this up. Overall, it is a good series that has themes beyond just the sex-work aspect of the show and is worth watching.