Year:
1998
Studio:
TriStar/Phoenix Pictures Inc
Movie:
3/5
DVD:
4/5
Teaser
In a small North-Eastern University, death comes in unusual ways.
Natalie Simon (Alicia Witt) is the first to suspect that these killings
are more than the usual psychotic spree, mostly because it seems she
knows everyone who's dying. And even then most of the murders don't
look like murders -- people going missing is not a murder and suicide
is not murder. Even her friends have a hard time believing her. Natalie
has the unenviable task of convincing everyone else that there is a
killer as well as stopping the killer before more people die gruesomely.
Movie
The actual movie has a fairly well-developed plot (and an even better
developed script, as you find out if you listen to the commentary).
It's not just a random killer and the killer doesn't do too many
impossible things. There is not much gore at all, which is good since
you don't need to have heads flying to be scary. "Urban Legend" is very
much in the film genre inspired by "Scream" -- more of a
horror/thriller genre where the victims aren't quite as amazingly
stupid and the killer is not some supernatural and nigh on unstoppable
death-dealing machine.
One of the main hooks of this movie is the urban legends. Popular
stories that are passed around as truth -- someone knows a friend who
knows a friend that this happened to, really -- yet are not. It's not
that I'm particularly hep on urban legends so most of the ones in the
movie were "so what?" The urban legends in the movie were not
especially gruesome deaths, other than the "wake up in a tub of ice
with a kidney missing". Getting decapitated or hanged doesn't have any
special pizzazz to it.
At least the mystery of who is the killer is fairly well done. There
are two or three good suspects and in the end it's someone that you
could have intuited from about midway in the movie. The part about
everyone wearing winter parkas is a bit silly (until you watch the
commentary and find out that the script called for lots of snow).
Coming from sunny California it seemed weird that everyone had this
stupid looking bluish winter parka straight out of a Minnesota thrift
store.
Actors
I love Alicia Witt -- she's brilliant (in a "I have a 180 IQ kind of
way") and pale readheads are kind of cool looking. That alone gives the
movie an extra rating point (hey, 2 out of 5 is a good score from me
for a horror movie). Witt is not especially good or bad in the movie.
She has the straight role to play so that doesn't give her much to act
with. And considering she's the main character it's strange that she
only has 2nd billing in the credits.
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Jared Leto has
top billing, even though it was a smaller role. He did
an ok job, though I think half the performance is the character rather
than the actor. In that I mean that the plot and dialogue is set up so
that Leto's acting looks good. There's not enough to tell if he was
acting really well or not. Rebecca Gayheart on the other hand was
brilliant (and this time I mean it in an acting way). I don't even
remember Gayheart from her Noxema commercials but I remember her from
"Earth 2" where she was only ok.
Michael Rosenbaum was ok and even better in the commentary track.
Loretta Devine I've seen before yet can't recall where. Joshua Jackson
just seems so much older than his 19 years. Tara Reid is an actress
that I keep thinking is over-hyped, then I remember that she's not
hyped much at all so I guess it's an appropriate amount. John Neville,
veteran actor once again puts in a good performance. Julian Richings is
really creepy as the Janitor. Robert Englund I'm thinking they only
included him because of the horror connection. Danielle Harris makes a
good goth chick. Natasha Gregson Wagner gets the high-profile brief
role of first victim.
DVD
It's a good DVD. You have wide-screen and standard-screen versions
(when I watch it on my computer and I'm doing a bunch of other things,
standard screen is nice since it saves screen space). There is also the
theatrical trailer and a 10 minute or so featurette behind the scenes,
which also includes the Michael Rosenbaum/Tara Reid sex scene that was
cut out of the movie.
What really stands out is the excellent commentary track. You have
Director Jamie Blanks, Writer Silvio Horta and actor Michael Rosenbaum
and they keep a good conversational style. Some commentaries can be
very plodding with the director or writer going over the whole story
point by point. Others are just so out there that they add nothing to
the movie itself. This commentary has a good mix of background,
explanations, and anecdotes about the movie and story and filming that
I actually wanted to pay attention. The great commentary track is what
raises the DVD rating from a 3 to a 4.
Recommendations
This is actually a neat DVD to rent and watch if you like going through
all the extras. The movie itself is rather standard so if you're
expecting a movie that tops "Scream" you won't get it here. But neither
is it a movie that you'd think "boy that was a total waste of time"
before the credits are rolling. |